I sometimes think about my mother and ask myself, “Who is this person?” I know all too well what she looks like, but as far as who she is inside, I haven’t the foggiest idea. Sometimes I look at my significant other and ask myself, “Does this person really exist?” I can touch and talk to this soulmate of mine, but for all I know this person so special to me is actually a ghost. Which reminds me of something that happened last year when I was riding in my soulmate’s car on the expressway. We’d been arguing since the day before and were engaged in a fierce battle of words. Being yelled at in such a loud voice, I got really annoyed and turned to look at the car in the lane next to ours. I saw myself in the driver’s seat. More than thinking I was going crazy, I told myself, “Well, such things can happen.” I felt like opening the window and saying something, but I stopped. The fact that another me exists maybe shows that I wasn’t wrong in harboring doubts about my mother or significant other. I felt like showing off how smart I was and smiled a self-satisfied smile—and then my soulmate yelled at me again.

Taisuke Nakano