Teacher Ai's Record of the Strange

There was once someone who had known another person for many years. He remembered his face, his voice, and the creases at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. He remembered them all perfectly.

Then one day, that person’s face changed. His voice changed. His temperament changed. Only his name remained.

He said, “That isn’t him.”

No one believed him. Everyone else remembered the person standing before them. The one he remembered had vanished without a trace. There was no body, no belongings, and no one felt that anyone was missing. After all, this was the person they had always known.

He stood where he was, even wondering if he had gone mad. But he remembered that face, that voice, and every crease with perfect clarity.

He dug out old photographs. They showed the face of the person standing before him. He dug out old letters. They were written in that person’s handwriting. He asked everyone, and they all laughed and said, “You must be remembering it wrong. He’s always been like this.”

Then one day, he realized that he was changing too. When he looked in the mirror, his face seemed a little unfamiliar. When he spoke, his voice sounded a little lower. He began to grow afraid. He feared that he, too, would become someone else, and no one would notice, because everyone would say, “He’s always been like this.”

So he fell silent. Sometimes, when he looked at the person who had taken his friend’s place, a pang of sadness still rose in his heart. But he stopped speaking up. Like everyone else, he smiled, raised his glass, and called that person by his friend’s name.

Only when he woke in the night would he touch his own face. He wanted to know whether he was still himself.