When I was ten, I played hide-and-seek with the other kids in my village.
I hid in a water vat for a long time, but nobody came to find me.
It was eerily quiet outside.
As I hid there, I started to get sleepy. Just as I was drifting off, I heard a voice faintly say, “Let’s see where the last little rabbit is hiding.”
“Not in the tree... not behind the rocks. What about in the water vat?”
The footsteps drew closer and closer, then stopped beside the vat.
When I came to, I heard the village watchman singing a deranged little song:
“The big rabbit hides, the second rabbit ducks away.”
“The third rabbit is exposed, the fourth comes to help.”
“The fifth rabbit falls asleep, the sixth goes mad.”
“The seventh rabbit’s fur flies everywhere, the eighth cries, ‘The wolf is here!’”
I climbed out of the vat. There were no rabbits. Instead, I saw my friend Nana’s body, torn to pieces...
