Story 55
Henonomonomono
It was about four years ago when my son began saying strange things.
I think it started when he had just turned three and began going to preschool.
“Henonomonomono!!”
He would point up at the air and say that.
At first, I wondered what henonomonomono was supposed to mean. But since he had just started preschool, I thought it must have been something he learned there. Maybe he had just misremembered henohenomoheji — that simple face kids draw using hiragana characters.
As he got older and his speech improved, he started saying things like:
“I made a wish to Henonomonomono!”
Whenever he said that, I would ask, “What did you wish for?”
But he would just reply, “It’s a secret.”
My husband and even the preschool teachers began to get curious about this “Henonomonomono.”
They’d ask him, “What’s Henonomonomono?”
But he would always answer, with an oddly serious expression for a child, “It’s a secret.”
Well, he was just a kid. We figured that eventually he’d learn the correct words, or else he’d simply forget all about Henonomonomono.
But even now—four years later—he’s in elementary school and still points to the sky, saying things like,
“It’s Henonomonomono!”
“Henonomonomono came!”
It’s as if he can see something that no one else can…
There was a time when we took him to several hospitals, just to be sure. But they all said there was nothing wrong with him.
“The imagination of a child,” they told us, and didn’t bother with any serious tests.
Even so, I can’t help but feel uneasy.
No matter how much I ask him about Henonomonomono, he never explains. So I’ve just resigned myself to not knowing.
Lately—especially this past month—he seems to be seeing Henonomonomono a lot.
And then, yesterday, he suddenly said:
“Henonomonomono and I are going to be together!”
…Be together?
That sent chills down my spine.
I can’t shake this dreadful feeling.
What will happen when my son “becomes one” with Henonomonomono?
Does anyone… know what Henonomonomono is?
