The Premonition

by Banana Yoshimoto

“When people see too many of something, it just makes them feel sad. No one knows why.”

It was hard to even fathom how long she had been throwing things away there. All manner of things she had haphazardly tossed onto the pile so she could avoid having to look at or think about them ever again—even old stuffed animals, and an entire child’s study desk and shelving unit, however she’d managed to get it out here.

It’s kind of tragic, I thought, how we can never completely escape our childhoods.