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Don’t put it in the box 箱にいれないで

少し離れた国の王女は蜘蛛がまぶたに足先をかけた瞬間に目を覚ました。身体に痛むところがないので自分は死んだのだと思い歩き出した。

夏の森は涼しくちょうど天国のようだったのだ。白く塗られた二階建ての家を見つけた。切長の目をした若い女が王女を笑顔で招き入れた。ヒースのお茶と餡子を包んだ蒸団子を振る舞われ、王女は全ての重責から逃れ湯の湧く音もはっきりと聞いていた。

切長の目の女はしばらくすると小さな箱にりすの赤ちゃんを見せてきた。王女は生き物を飼うことを許されていなかったので初めて手のひらに温かな重みを感じて嬉しくなった。そして自分はまだ生きていると思い直した途端こんなところにいてはいけないという視線を感じ席を立った。切長の目の女は悲しそうであったが、そのまま栗鼠の赤ちゃんを受け取り箱にしまった。

王女の瞳は左右違ったものだった。砂漠の夜と夕焼けで照らされた岩の影といった微かな違いだが、自分の顔を見るたびに揺らぐ黒にいつも先を越されていた。王女は瞳の意思に沿って生きていたのだ。多くの人は自分の目は自分自身だと思うだろうが、ある種の人にとっては瞳が自分よりも歳を重ねていて、知恵を持っていることがあったのだ。

王女は才女という言葉を使う人を疑った。王女というものは才能のないものがいない環境にいつもいて、「才女」と取り立てていうからには何か切り分けて売り出されるケーキのような感じがしたからだ。

王女は資本主義的発想には敏感だった。それは昔話だとはいえ女性の歴史を知っていたからだ。

自分の脚がしっかりと地面を掴んだ今、少し離れた国の王女は白く塗られた二階建ての家を再び尋ねた。2杯目のお茶は遠慮したが栗鼠を見せて欲しいと切長の目の女に言った。

返事もそこそこに箱を王女に差し出し、そのふたを開けた。

王女の瞳の色は入れ替わり時間を遡りそして真っ直ぐに小さな命をとらえた。王女は「違う」とだけ言った。ほんの数時間でりすの赤ちゃんは息耐え、切長の目の女は代わりのりすを見つけて箱に入れていた。

少し離れた国の王女は初めて自分が殺した魔女たちの声を聞いたのだった。

A princess in a country a short distance away woke up the moment a spider ran its toes over her eyelids. There was no pain in her body, so she thought she was dead and started walking as a ghost.

The summer forest was cool and just like heaven. She found a two-story house painted white. A young woman with slit eyes invited the princess in with a smile. The princess was served heather tea and steamed dumplings wrapped in red bean paste, and she was able to hear the sound of hot water bubbling clearly, having escaped all her responsibilities.

After a while, the slit-eyed woman showed her a small box with a baby squirrel. The princess, who had never been allowed to keep a living creature, was glad to feel its warm weight in her palm for the first time. As soon as she reminded herself that she was still alive, she felt a look that told her she shouldn't be here. The sharp-eyed woman looked sad, but she took the baby squirrel and put it in a box.

The Princess’s eyes were different from left to right. The difference was as faint as the desert night onyx and the shadows on a rock lit up in predawn there but

she’d always let her eyes  beaten  her to it whenever she looked at her own face. The princess lived according to the will of her eyes. Most people would consider their eyes to be their own, but for some people, their eyes were older and wiser than they were.

The princess was suspicious of anyone who used the word "gifted”. The princess had always been in where there was no one who was not gifted, and the term "gifted" seemed to her like a  decorated cake that needed to be sliced and sold in the showcase to differentiate it.

The princess was sensitive about capitalist ideas because she knew the history of women, even if this is in an old fairly tale.

Now that her legs had a firm grip on the ground, the princess in the country a short distance away asked again about the cube whitewashed two-story house, refraining from a second cup of tea, but asking the sharp-eyed woman to show her the squirrel.

Without replying, she presented the box to the princess and opened its lid.

The color of the princess's eyes switched, and she looked back in time and straight at the little life. “No" was all the princess said. In just a few hours, the baby squirrel was breathing its last, and the slit-eyed woman had found a replacement and put it in the box.

A little further away, the princess heard for the first time the voices of the witches she had killed.

By the medium necks

Thank you so much  for looking through this.

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