A Very Strange, Enchanted Boy

Michie is the mother of a strange little boy who seems to question everything society has to offer. At the beginning of the story he is stuck on the term infinity, which is something that tends to have a grey area. He first discovered it with mirrors when two are located on either side and the person seems to go on forever. He explains infinity to his mother with "infinity is where numbers end, but it also means going on forever so it is not the end. You just cannot get any higher." This boy in only six years old when he tries to figure out the meaning of the word infinity and explain it to his mother. The boy continues to question life and the afterlife. He became obsessed with monsters and ghost; making his mom read him books causing her to be an expert as well. If Michie would ask him to eat quickly or get a bath he would replay I am going to die soon anyway. After a few days of this response, she broke out into tears and demanded him to stop because she would never let him die. He obeyed his mother and stopped at that very moment. School and day-care were impossible for the boy to grasp. He still could not write and was cruel to the other students. Textbooks, notebooks, class time, and play time were all the same to him. He was obsessed with outer space and learned about gai. His mother had explained to him oku, cho, and kei, but not gai which was higher up. Michie had given up on her son in school, and eventually let him do what he wanted and followed along because it made him happy. She met up with the father of her child, who is married with a family of his own now. They meet once a year to go somewhere the strange boy may like; this year is a haunted house. The father and mother chitchat about his eccentric behavior. He scolds her for thinking their son is not normal, but he does not truly understand the extent of this child. She had a dream baby, one that would grow up being normal, like to play with other children, and live out her expectations. The father would give her a large sum of money, without her asking, and she would not hear back from here for another year or so. At the end the boy states he now knows three infinities: numbers, space, and mirrors.


I'm obviously not a parent, but I could see why Michie was very anxious about her son. He is certainly a hand full but I think she is doing her best. I'm actually quite impressed with his intelligence and his ability to question infinity and unknowns. Mothers in Tokyo have it pretty rough because having a baby without a father is really frowned upon. He may not be the dream baby, but I think he is pretty cool.