Hardboiled & Hard Luck

by Banana Yoshimoto

There are, without a doubt, places in this world where something has settled, and it’s best for us little humans not to get involved.

Her life was like a pale shadow of life, given form by innumerable layers of anguish.

And it struck me that if anything was a miracle, it was this: the lovely moments we experienced during the small, almost imperceptible periods of relief. The instant the unbearable pain and the tears faded away, and I saw with my own eyes how vast the workings of the universe were, I would feel my sister’s soul.