Remembering a story about a dream... When I was an elementary school student, my father was working away from home, and when my mother fell ill and was hospitalized, I was left in the care of my uncle's family for about a month.
An old man whom everyone called "Uncle" used to visit that house often. He was a man in his sixties living alone in the neighborhood, and he would bring sake, beer, and a few prepared side dishes to share evening drinks with my uncle.
One day, "Uncle" drank too much and fell asleep. When I tried to wake him up, he was sleeping with an expression of immense joy on his face. As I hesitated to wake him, his eyes snapped open. Looking at my face, he let out a deep sigh and said, "Oh? Oh... It's just you..."
Then, smiling broadly with a flushed face while still drunk, he said, "You know what, Uncle was having such a wonderful dream just now. It was the happiest moment of my entire life."
When I asked him what kind of dream it was, he replied, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you. I'll tell you when you're a bit older." The face he made as he said this looked genuinely happy. After that, he staggered home.
A few days later, when my uncle visited his house, he had passed away alone and grown cold. Aside from the neighbors, apparently no relatives attended his funeral. It breaks my heart to think that, over the course of his sixty-odd years of life, a brief nap lasting just over ten minutes offered him a dream far happier than any reality he had known.
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