私が中学生の時。
I was in middle school at the time.
馴染みの友人2人と家に集まって、オールの勢いで他愛のない会話をしていました。
Two of my close friends came over and we stayed up all night talking about some stupid stuff.
その際に誰からともなく地元で話題の「出る」という公衆電話の話になったのです。
Then, out of nowhere we began talking about a local payphone that was quite the hot topic of our town.
友人宅から歩いて30分かかるかどうかの距離で、住宅街から少し外れた場所にポツンとあり、遠目から見ると何の変哲もない公衆電話。
This payphone was about a half-hour walk from my friend's house, just outside of our residential area and from a distance it seemed like any ordinary payphone.
これに何故か突然「出る」という噂が広まっていました。
There was this rumor going around that if you called the payphone someone..or something would answer.
「本当に出るのか見に行こうぜ。」
“Let’s go check it out!” I said.
話題に飢えていた私達でしたから、勢いで突撃してみる事にしたのです。
We really wanted to know more about this rumor, so we decided to just go and check it out.
時刻は深夜2時くらいだったでしょうか。
The time was probably around 2 am.
こんな時間ですから、公衆電話までの道のりは誰にも会う事なく到着です。
Being as late as it was we didn’t encounter anyone on the way to the phone.
暗闇に浮かび上がる公衆電話はそれだけでも不気味で、本当に何かが出そうな雰囲気はありましたが…特に異変はありません。
The payphone was an eerie sight just floating there in the darkness, and it really did feel like someone was going to answer it. But besides that there really wasn’t anything unusual about it.
そこで中も調べてみようと近づいた時でした。
I went to search inside when I heard my friend shout,
「おぉぉ！て！て！」
“Woah!! A hand!! A hand!!!”
友人の1人が大きな声を上げて私達の腕を引っ張り、来た道を猛ダッシュで戻ろうとしたのです。
One of our friends yelled, yanked my arm and we darted back the way we came.
何が起きたのか分からないまま、私達は駆け出して最寄りのコンビニへ雪崩込みます。
Not knowing what was going on, we ran into the closest convenience store.
一体何があったのか、急に大声を上げた友人に話を訊きました。
I asked my friend who had screamed earlier what the hell happened back there.
「お前達見えなかった？！公衆電話の受話器に手だけくっついてたよ！」そう言われても、見たのはその友人だけ。
“You guys didn’t see it?! There was a hand on the phone!” he exclaimed. However, the only one who saw it was him.
本当に見たと震えあがる友人を横目に、私ともう1人はすっかり興覚めです。
While he was shaking with fear at what he had seen, my friend and I just weren’t having it.
「そんな演出とかいらないって。」
“Drop the act!” we demanded.
「いや手だけあったんだって！マジで！」
“No! There really was a hand! I swear!”
そんな押し問答をしていると、手を見たという友人の電話が一瞬鳴りました。
As we continued arguing my friend who had seen the hand's phone suddenly rang.
取り出して画面を見たその友人は、青い顔をして画面を私達の方へ向けてきます。
He pulled out his phone to look at the screen and all the color dropped from his face, turning the screen towards us.
え？と思って見ると、そこには不在着信 公衆電話と表示されていました。
What? I thought as I checked it out. There, on the screen it read, “Missed call. Payphone.”
更に信じられない事に、私達の携帯にも公衆電話からの着信が来たのです。
To our surprise we also received calls from the payphone on our cellphones as well.
所謂ワンギリというもので、すぐ切れるので通話は出来ません。
Since it only rang once before they hung up, we weren’t able to answer it.
それが数分くらいのタイミングで、何度も私達の携帯へかかってきます。
It would call our cell phones repeatedly every few minutes.
これはマズいと感じた私達3人は携帯電話の電源を落とし、友人の家へ戻ってゲームや馬鹿な話で場を繋ぎ、そのまま朝を迎えました。
We all knew this was definitely not good so we turned off our phones and returned to my friend’s house to play games and talked about some stupid stuff in order to pass the time until morning.
日が昇って恐る恐る携帯電話の電源を立ち上げましたが、その後は一度も公衆電話からの着信はありません。
Eventually the sun came up and I nervously turned on my phone but there hadn’t been any calls from the payphone after that night.
この話をしても誰も信じてくれず、公衆電話の出るという噂もしばらくして聞かなくなりました。
No one believed me whenever I told this story and eventually I stopped hearing about the payphone all together.
手を見たという友人の話は本当なのか分かりませんが、公衆電話からワンギリがかかってきた恐怖は今でも忘れられません。
I don’t know if my friend’s story about the hand was true, but I will never forget the fear I felt that night when we got those missed calls from the payphone.
そもそも何の前触れも無く、なぜ突然その公衆電話に出るという噂が流れたのでしょうか…。
How did this rumor even get started in the first place?
