How Did You Know My Name? by Saki
“Hi boy! You are Eric, aren’t you?” she says with an urbane and nice voice. This is my first time to hear her voice because I have never met her before. I don’t know her so I wonder why she knows my name. Also I don’t understand why she is talking to me. The girl who is talking to me is much taller than me. I think she is a grade9 student. We are in the passage in front of grade7’s class room which is my class room. Everyone is watching us because usually, if grade9 students come to grade7’s class room, it means they get angry or mad. I hope I did nothing bad but I can’t remember what I did. She is smiling at me but I feel very scared.
“H, how did you know my name?” My voice is hoarse because of the unexpected happening. I have never introduced myself to student in grade9. I don’t know her and I have never talked to her.
"Of course I know your name. Maybe what I know is not only your name. I know everything about you,” she answers.
“You know everything about me!? Why!? How did you...” I can’t keep talking. She made me very surprise.
“Haha. I am just joking. In fact, I used this to guess your name. Don’t be scared and don’t be surprised, please.” She starts revealing the trick with a perfectly straight face. She takes a notebook out from her back. I make a sour face just as I see the notebook because it reminded me a certain occurrence that happened yesterday.
Yesterday, I was very sad because two sad things happened together. First, I got very low mark on my science test. I didn’t pass. That’s why my science teacher called me to talk about the test after our class finished and this made me sad. The teacher talked for more than five minutes so I was late for my next class with very scary teacher. After the science teacher liberated me, I ran away to not to be late. But then, I lost my science notebook on the way to go back to class
room from science room. This is a second thing that made me sad. I need to study science hard to pass next test but I lost my notebook. How can I study from now one? At lunch time, I passed the way from my class room to science room to find my notebook but I couldn’t find it. Things that were written on the notebook are just about science. I wrote my email address on the back page just in case but I didn’t write my name and grade on the notebook. My email address is o[email protected]. However, this is not enough information for someone who finds my notebook instead of me. I gave up finding it. Then, today a
girl who I don’t know brought me the notebook that I lost.
“S, so you guessed my name by looking my email address, didn’t you?”
“Not only your name! I know your birthday too. I will explain how I solved it to you. Usually, people put their name and birthday into their email address. In this
case, I think “N” in front of numbers means name so “B” means birthday, right? And it says “octsqulegs.” First I guessed “oct” means octopus and “squ”means
squid. After that, there is the word “legs” so an octopus has eight legs and a squid has ten legs so I think your birthday is August 10th. Then I needed to know your name. I thought “51893” is a cipher. There are 26 alphabets so maybe the numbers can be alphabets. If A is 1 and Z is 26, 5 is E, 18 is R, 9 is I, and 3 is C. I put the letters in order, and I found your name“Eric.” Are both birthday and name correct?”
“Y, yes they are. Y, you are genius,” I answer with a trembling voice because I am scared. I think my face is drawn with tension.
“I found your name and birthday from your email but it wasn’t enough to find out an owner so I tried to find other information. I read your notebook and I noticed that I learned this in grade7 so I understood this notebook’s owner is a grade7.”
I listen her with my mouth wide open. Even she finishes explaining, I keep standing for few seconds and say a word.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead,” her voice is still kind.
“Um…Who are you?”
“Oh! I am sorry. You don’t know my name yet. My name is Sofia and I am a student in grade9,” she says softly.
“Okay. Now I know who you are. Thank you for inding and bringing my notebook.”
“It’s okay. It was very fun for me to guess this notebook’s owner. As I said, I guessed your name and birthday but I have some more information about you. Can I say?”
“Yes please.” I feel kind of scared but also happy. I want to know what she guessed from a notebook.
“I think you are left-handed, aren’t you?”
"Yes! I am left-handed. How did you find that out?”
“I had a look at your notebook and saw your writing. All circles that were written on the notebook are clockwise. Usually, right-handed people write a circle from left to right so it’s whirling counterclockwise. I wasn’t sure about your dominant hand but today I found one another evidence. You wear a wristwatch in your right wrist. Most people who are right- handed wear wristwatches in their left wrist. That’s why I thought you are left-handed.”
“Wonderful! You are very smart! That’s true. I am left-handed. Your guesses are all correct and they are amazing.” My voice is very high and face is red. She is amazing and her brain is great!
“Anyway, I enjoyed guessing and you could find your notebook. It’s time to go,” She leaves the word “Bye~” and goes back to her class room. She is still smiling. I watch her from behind intently until she goes into her class room. I carry my science notebook under my arm very carefully.
The End
“H, how did you know my name?” My voice is hoarse because of the unexpected happening. I have never introduced myself to student in grade9. I don’t know her and I have never talked to her.
"Of course I know your name. Maybe what I know is not only your name. I know everything about you,” she answers.
“You know everything about me!? Why!? How did you...” I can’t keep talking. She made me very surprise.
“Haha. I am just joking. In fact, I used this to guess your name. Don’t be scared and don’t be surprised, please.” She starts revealing the trick with a perfectly straight face. She takes a notebook out from her back. I make a sour face just as I see the notebook because it reminded me a certain occurrence that happened yesterday.
Yesterday, I was very sad because two sad things happened together. First, I got very low mark on my science test. I didn’t pass. That’s why my science teacher called me to talk about the test after our class finished and this made me sad. The teacher talked for more than five minutes so I was late for my next class with very scary teacher. After the science teacher liberated me, I ran away to not to be late. But then, I lost my science notebook on the way to go back to class
room from science room. This is a second thing that made me sad. I need to study science hard to pass next test but I lost my notebook. How can I study from now one? At lunch time, I passed the way from my class room to science room to find my notebook but I couldn’t find it. Things that were written on the notebook are just about science. I wrote my email address on the back page just in case but I didn’t write my name and grade on the notebook. My email address is o[email protected]. However, this is not enough information for someone who finds my notebook instead of me. I gave up finding it. Then, today a
girl who I don’t know brought me the notebook that I lost.
“S, so you guessed my name by looking my email address, didn’t you?”
“Not only your name! I know your birthday too. I will explain how I solved it to you. Usually, people put their name and birthday into their email address. In this
case, I think “N” in front of numbers means name so “B” means birthday, right? And it says “octsqulegs.” First I guessed “oct” means octopus and “squ”means
squid. After that, there is the word “legs” so an octopus has eight legs and a squid has ten legs so I think your birthday is August 10th. Then I needed to know your name. I thought “51893” is a cipher. There are 26 alphabets so maybe the numbers can be alphabets. If A is 1 and Z is 26, 5 is E, 18 is R, 9 is I, and 3 is C. I put the letters in order, and I found your name“Eric.” Are both birthday and name correct?”
“Y, yes they are. Y, you are genius,” I answer with a trembling voice because I am scared. I think my face is drawn with tension.
“I found your name and birthday from your email but it wasn’t enough to find out an owner so I tried to find other information. I read your notebook and I noticed that I learned this in grade7 so I understood this notebook’s owner is a grade7.”
I listen her with my mouth wide open. Even she finishes explaining, I keep standing for few seconds and say a word.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead,” her voice is still kind.
“Um…Who are you?”
“Oh! I am sorry. You don’t know my name yet. My name is Sofia and I am a student in grade9,” she says softly.
“Okay. Now I know who you are. Thank you for inding and bringing my notebook.”
“It’s okay. It was very fun for me to guess this notebook’s owner. As I said, I guessed your name and birthday but I have some more information about you. Can I say?”
“Yes please.” I feel kind of scared but also happy. I want to know what she guessed from a notebook.
“I think you are left-handed, aren’t you?”
"Yes! I am left-handed. How did you find that out?”
“I had a look at your notebook and saw your writing. All circles that were written on the notebook are clockwise. Usually, right-handed people write a circle from left to right so it’s whirling counterclockwise. I wasn’t sure about your dominant hand but today I found one another evidence. You wear a wristwatch in your right wrist. Most people who are right- handed wear wristwatches in their left wrist. That’s why I thought you are left-handed.”
“Wonderful! You are very smart! That’s true. I am left-handed. Your guesses are all correct and they are amazing.” My voice is very high and face is red. She is amazing and her brain is great!
“Anyway, I enjoyed guessing and you could find your notebook. It’s time to go,” She leaves the word “Bye~” and goes back to her class room. She is still smiling. I watch her from behind intently until she goes into her class room. I carry my science notebook under my arm very carefully.
The End