I had the great pleasure of having a short story published in Cutleaf Journal’s Vol. 6 Issue 21.

Called “Akiya” (which means “abandoned house” in Japanese), you can read the story here if you’d like!

I first started thinking about this story while watching a guy on Youtube fix up an abandoned house he had bought in the countryside of Japan. With the population here falling, more and more abandoned houses are cropping up all over the place, leading to a few people out there deciding to take on the project of renovating one, and that made me curious about writing a story centered on such a house.

This idea was combined with the pure terror I experience every time I’m riding in a car that hugs along impossibly narrow roads alongside rice fields. For some reason, instead of it becoming a dedicated bike path, these slivers of land are considered to be two-way roads, meaning lots of carefully checking the round mirrors put up at each corner and praying any approaching car will slow down so you both can do the dance of who is going to let the other one pass. I have seen a couple of trucks using these roads, though not anything as big as a semitruck, but it’s still harrowing.

And it made me think: What would happen if two people were killed in a crash on such a narrow road? What if that’s the impetus for their relationship to change?

I think a lot of people might hold onto a belief that death means being frozen at the moment you die, with nothing changing it, but in this story, the relationship the main character and his wife share is forever changed because of their deaths.

Hopefully I managed to convey the sorrow that I think would come with having one’s life cut short, and so abruptly, and feeling envy toward those still alive.

If you’re in the mood for wistful reading as we head into the darker days of winter, then I hope you’ll consider reading the story!