The Phantom Doctor by Ranpo Edogawa

Author:Ranpo Edogawa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781005909543
Publisher: Peaks Island Press
Published: 2022-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Little Lost Child

The answer came one evening several days later. Nobuo Koizumi, a member of the Boy Detectives Club in the sixth grade, was passing through a small park in Shibuya on his way home from school.

Nobuo played on the school’s baseball team. He’d been at practice all afternoon and was returning later than usual.

It was just around dinnertime, dark enough that it was difficult to make out the face of anyone passing by. The small park had a forlorn feeling about it. There was nobody else around. The little kids usually running around, playing on the slides and in the sandboxes, were absent as well.

Nobuo cut through the park as a shortcut every day, though it’d never been as empty as this. He was struck by the strange thought that the throngs of children had all gone into hiding somewhere.

But when he got to the middle of the park, standing in front of the swing set was a girl of five or so with bobbed hair. She was holding her hands to her eyes and was bawling up a storm. She must have been forgotten and left behind in this gloomy and empty park. Seeing her crying there all alone, Nobuo couldn’t help feeling terribly sorry for her.

He hurried over to the child. He placed his hand on her shoulder and peered down at her cherubic face. “What’s the matter?” he said. “What are you crying about?”

The girl pulled her hands away from her face. She looked up at Nobuo with her clear, doll-like eyes. Still snuffling, she said in a soft voice, “I don’t know how to get home.”

“Ah, so you’re lost. Did you come here by yourself? Or did somebody bring you?”

“I can’t find my uncle. I can’t see him anywhere.”

“Oh, you came with your uncle, did you? And you got separated at some point. That does present us with a problem. Where is your house from here? Is it far away?”

The still whimpering girl had difficulty getting her words out clearly. “It’s way over that way. I’m not sure where.”

No matter how often a child this young was asked, she wasn’t going to come up with the specific address for her house, which left Nobuo in a bit of a fix. Then it occurred to him that she might have a missing child tag on her clothing, just in case. He looked her over. As luck would have it, he discovered a small silver medallion pinned to the hem of her apron. On it was inscribed her name and address.

Aiko Nozawa

Setagaya Ikejiri 220

“If we’re talking about Ikejiri, that’s no problem at all. It’s less than ten minutes away by train. I’ll take you there myself. I bet everybody at your house is getting worried about now.”

Reassuring himself as much as the girl, Nobuo took hold of her hand. They hurried out of the park and to the nearest station.

Here was the spirit of the Boy Detectives Club on display. They did not only battle the criminal element.

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