Story 32
A Stranger in Our Photos
About fifteen years ago, my family of five went on a trip to the neighboring prefecture.
We’d just bought a new digital camera for the trip — it was a four-day, three-night vacation.
We took tons of photos and videos.
When we got home, we immediately put the SD card into the computer and watched everything together as a family.
We’ve always been close, so there were plenty of silly shots, goofy poses — we were all laughing, reliving the fun memories of our trip.
Then, while scrolling through the photos we took on the second day — at a famous waterfall — we noticed something strange.
Amid all the family pictures… there was a photo of people we didn’t know.
It looked like it had been taken at the same waterfall we visited, but the people in the picture were complete strangers — a woman who seemed to be the mother, holding a girl around three years old, and a man who looked like the father, carrying a boy of about six. To the man’s left was a dog that looked like a Shiba Inu.
At first, I wondered if maybe I had taken the photo for them — like they’d asked me to. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that couldn’t be right. Even if I had taken their picture, there’s no way I would’ve done it using my camera.
And I was the only one holding the camera the whole time we were at the waterfall. I even confirmed it with everyone afterward — no one else had touched the camera, and nobody remembered taking or seeing those people.
Besides, I don’t even recall seeing that family there at all. My family didn’t either.
There weren’t any families with small children, and definitely no one walking a dog. My mom loves dogs — if she’d seen one, she absolutely would have gone over to talk to them.
And then there’s the date. The photo’s timestamp said it was taken a full year before our trip.
But we’d only bought the camera about two weeks before leaving — we bought it for that vacation.
It’s creepy enough that a photo of strangers appeared among our own pictures, but the wrong date on top of that…
What could that possibly mean?
Was it some kind of haunting?
