The Woman With A Red Umbrella

One day, Kobayashi was driving through the mountains, listening to the radio.
The drive was long and boring, but it couldnt be helped. If only there was
someone here to talk with he thought. Just at that moment, he saw a woman
carrying a red umbrella, walking all alone. Has my wish come true? he
wondered. Kobayashi immediately halted the car and asked her, Madam, can I
drop you somewhere?

Woman: Its very kind of you to ask. Could you please take me to the town at
the foot of the mountains? So saying, she got into the rear seat of the car.

Kobayashi: Do you have some work to do in the town?

Woman: Well, today is Obon, the Festival of the Dead, and I am going to visit
my parents who live there.

Kobayashi: Do you often go there to meet them?

Woman: Not really, just once a year at Obon

Kobayashi: And where does your family stay?

Woman: I have just one daughter, and she stays with my parents.

Kobayashi: So it means that you are able to meet your daughter only once a
year, isnt it?

The woman began weeping softly when asked this question.

Kobayashi: I am deeply sorry that I asked you such a personal question. Ah,
here is the town. Where do you want me to stop the car?

Kobayashi looked into the rear-view mirror. But the woman who should have
been in the rear seat was nowhere to be seen. Thats quite strange. How could
she have got off midway? he wondered. He put on the radio once again. The
announcer was saying This year too, we have received a phone call from a
person who says that he saw the famous Apparition. He says that he gave her a
lift from the Mikuni mountain pass to Yamaguchi town, and just when he was
about to drop her off at Yamaguchi, the woman had vanished.

Based on the information provided by various people, it seems that she was a
woman called Kyouko Omachi, who died in a road accident three years ago
while walking in the Mikuni Pass area. She was carrying a red umbrella at the
time. Omachi was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state, and she was
repeatedly calling out the names of her parents and her daughter in an
incoherent manner. She may not have wished to die leaving behind her parents
and her daughter. It is possible that as the festival of Bon festival approaches,
the spirit of Omachi returns to Yamaguchi town. You are advised to exercise
caution if you happen to see a woman carrying a red umbrella.

On hearing this, Kobayashi was paralysed with fear. He had given that woman a
lift in his car from Mikuni Pass to Yamaguchi town, hadnt he?