I played with a girl for years. her house was abandoned the whole time.

I wasn't going to post this but I've been thinking about it for decades now and I still can't explain it.

This happened when I was really little, like kindergarten age. My memory is patchy in places so bear with me.

There was a girl who lived nearby. We played together all the time. Normal kid stuff. But my parents never once met her. Not once. Which is weird right? Like if a kid lives in your neighborhood you'd bump into them eventually. Never happened. Not a single time.

She always made excuses when I asked her to come play at my house. And sometimes we'd be right in the middle of playing and she'd just go, "I have to go now." Out of nowhere. And then literally a few minutes later my parents would show up to get me. Every single time.

I did go to her house though. It was this small wooden house, kind of old-looking. Worn down. Her parents were never there. Like, ever. I figured they both worked or something.

Then at the end of summer she got this sad look on her face and said "I'm sorry. I don't think I can play with you anymore."

I asked if she was moving. She kept giving me these vague non-answers. I kept pushing and finally she said "I have to go back now" and just. ran. I couldn't even grab her.

I thought she was mad at me for pestering her. I went home upset and my mom came to get me.

Next day I went to her house to apologize.

The house was a ruin.

Like, completely. The front door glass was shattered, the windows were all broken, the little garden out front was just weeds everywhere. The laundry pole was rusted through. And inside, through the broken windows, I could see dust-covered tatami mats. Nothing else.

This was a house nobody had lived in for YEARS. You could tell just by looking at it.

But that couldn't be right. That was definitely her house. I had been there the day before.

I was so little I didn't fully process what I was seeing. I just kept wandering around the outside. Then I went in.

"Excuse me," I said. In this tiny voice. To an empty abandoned house.

Two rooms and a small kitchen. The wood was literally rotting. But the layout was exactly how I remembered it from when we played there. Same pillars, same positions. All the furniture was gone but the bones of the house were the same.

And on one of those pillars, written in permanent marker.

Height marks. Little horizontal lines going up the wood. And next to them, in hiragana, her name.

This was definitely her house.

I just started crying. Standing in this rotting abandoned room. I didn't even fully understand why, I was too young to put it into words, but something in me just KNEW I was never going to see her again.

I couldn't tell my parents what happened. Not for days. Eventually I just told them my best friend moved far away. A lie. I don't know why that's what came out.

My mom just kind of tilted her head and said "oh, that's too bad."

It's been decades now. Her face is just a blur at this point. I can barely picture her.

But I remember playing with her. I remember being happy. And I remember that goodbye that made no sense at all.