This is a story I heard from an acquaintance named A.

A runs a coffee shop. It does reasonably well, with various regulars visiting from morning to evening. Some quietly enjoy their food and drinks, while others enjoy chatting with A, the owner, or with other regulars.

One of those regulars was Mr. F. He was quite advanced in age and lived nearby with his son and daughter-in-law. Mr. F would drop by occasionally to chat with A. He hadn't always lived in this town; he was originally born and raised in a mountain village in a neighboring prefecture.

Supposedly, after his village was abandoned, he moved in with his son's family in this town. Fortunately, living with them was trouble-free, but having moved at his age, he didn't have many acquaintances around. He was deeply grateful to be able to make friendly conversation with A and the other regulars at the coffee shop.

Then, at a certain point, Mr. F started saying to A, "I had that same dream again."

It was the mountain village where he was born and raised. Mr. F would just be looking out over the village. Every so often, he himself would sway back and forth, and the view of the village would sway along with him. He just kept looking at his nostalgic old village like that, endlessly.

"I guess I must really miss my hometown. I didn't think I consciously wanted to go back, though," Mr. F would say. But before A knew it, Mr. F hadn't come to the shop in a while. Just as A was beginning to find his absence strange, word reached him that Mr. F had gone missing.

He vanished one day, and although his family filed a missing persons report with the police, he still hasn't been found. It remains unknown whether he's alive or dead, or whether his disappearance was voluntary or due to an accident. The police even came to A's shop to ask if he knew anything about Mr. F, but unfortunately, A didn't know anything helpful, so...

...he couldn't tell them anything of real use. Leaving out the details of the dream mentioned earlier, A did say, "He mentioned having dreams about his hometown a lot. Could he have gone back to his village?" But the police response was lukewarm.

Much later, A learned that Mr. F's hometown hadn't just been abandoned—it had been submerged due to dam construction. Even if Mr. F wanted to return, his home, along with the entire village...

...was sunken at the bottom of a dam lake. There was no way he could have returned.

But ever since learning the truth about the village, A says he can't stop thinking about Mr. F's words: "I'm looking out over the village. Swaying back and forth." He can't help wondering if Mr. F is looking out over the village just like in his dream—from the bottom of that dam lake. But thinking it's too late to give the police the details of a dream now, A plans to keep quiet.