Unfinished Message (short story)

Seemingly autobiographical story by Toshio Mori about his mother and brother. The story begins in 1945 in Topaz , where the author's mother can't sleep one night because of anxiety about her son, who is serving in Europe. She later finds out that he was wounded in battle that night. Later, they arrange for his transfer to a hospital in the U.S, deciding on one near the family home in California. When they leave camp and return home, she is able to visit him at the hospital. However, she later dies in her sleep before her son is released. After her death, the author and his brother hear tapping on the window of the room in which she died, which they interpret as her message to them. Written by Mori in 1947, the story was first published in his 1979 short story collection, The Chauvinist and Other Stories and reprinted in the 2000 Mori anthology Unfinished Message: Selected Works of Toshio Mori .

Might also like " Topaz Mosaic " by Toshio Mori; "Iwao-chan!" by Yachiyo Uehara; The Legend of Miss Sasagawara by Hisaye Yamamoto