Story 57
The Curse of the Unborn Child
This is a story about my older sister.
When she was in high school, she got pregnant.
But at that time, she decided to have an abortion.
Now, she’s over thirty, married, and really wants to have a child.
But even when she does get pregnant, she always miscarries. It’s already happened three times.
She’s worried it might be some kind of illness, so she’s had all sorts of tests done—
but nothing abnormal was ever found.
On top of that, it’s been hard for her to even get pregnant in the first place.
She’s been struggling deeply with this whole issue of having children.
Recently, she went to see a fortune-teller—
one of those slightly suspicious ones with a little shop near the train station.
Of course, she wanted to ask about her problems with having children.
Apparently, the moment she sat down, the fortune-teller looked at her and said:
“Is this about your mizuko?”
(Mizuko means “unborn child” or “aborted child.”)
My sister was shocked.
She had always feared, somewhere deep down, that the spirit of the baby she aborted in high school might still be lingering with her.
So, she told the fortune-teller everything—about her past abortion, and about all the miscarriages she’s suffered since.
The fortune-teller then told her something terrifying.
She said that without a doubt, the mizuko’s spirit was cursing her—
that it was the one killing her unborn children.
According to her, the spirit of that first, unborn baby was wrapping its hands around the necks of the new babies inside her womb and strangling them.
My sister asked what she could do—
how she could make amends or perform a memorial service for the spirit.
But the fortune-teller told her that the mizuko’s grudge had grown too strong—
and that there was nothing that could be done.
A curse from a child who was never born.
A child strangling other children in the womb…
Just hearing it sent a chill down my spine.
