Yuki No Asa No Yakusoku

[Machine Translation] 'I'm counting on you, I promise.' I looked him in the eye and nodded. With kind eyes, my father nodded twice as if to say, 'Good. A year later, around the time of the anniversary of his death, my life had returned to the way it had been when he was alive. But every once in a while, I would suddenly remember. What did my father ask me to do at that time, what did I promise him? I wonder if it was a promise of some special importance, different from what the adults had told me on the day of the funeral. This is a story of fifty-seven years until I, as a young child, fulfilled the promise I made to my late father. This work won the Grand Prize in the long story category of the "3rd Life of Ten People of Ten Colors Grand Prize" of Bungeisha and Mainichi Shimbun (General Business Division).

「頼んだぞ、約束だ」目を見て頷いた。優しい目で父は、よしよしというように二度頷いた。一年経った祥月命日の頃には、私の生活は父が生きていた頃とほとんど変わらない毎日に戻っていた。しかし、時々はふっと思い出す。あの時、父は私に何を頼んだのだろうか、父と何を約束したのだろうか。葬儀の日に大人たちが私に言ったこととは違う、何か特別の大事な約束だったのではないかと。幼かった私が亡き父との約束を果たすまでの五十七年間の物語。文芸社×毎日新聞(営業総本部)「第3回人生十人十色大賞」長編部門最優秀賞作品。