What is Merry-san’s phone call?
Merry-san’s phone call is an urban legend about phone calls from a discarded doll. A girl throws away an old foreign-made doll named Merry when her family moves. One night the phone rings: “I am Merry. I’m at the garbage dump now.” The calls keep coming, “I’m at the station now,” “I’m in front of your house now,” as Merry comes closer and closer. And the last call: “I am Merry. I’m right behind you.”
A classic school ghost story
The story spread among children from around the late Showa era and came to be told throughout Japan as a school ghost story. Short, with fear closing in step by step, it is a very easy scary story to tell, and it has also been enjoyed as a game in which the teller shouts “I’m behind you!” at the end to startle the listeners.
What happened next?
The story has no ending; what happens when you turn around is never told. Many sequels and parodies have been made, and modern versions use cell phones and social media messages. As a tale of a discarded doll’s resentment, it also echoes the tsukumogami, objects that gain spirits.
