Bad Things and UFO in Kushiro

Why do we read stories in which bad things happen?
Here are some ideas:
- To find sympathy for the bad things we've endured
- In order to understand why bad things happen so that we can prevent bad things from happening in our lives. In other words, to learn.
- Because we're sick and we like to see others suffer.
- To witness someone overcome bad things.
     I think about stories without conflict pretty often. The way the story Body and Soul was described in class got me really thinking. Why wouldn't we want to see someone do well, get the benefit of the doubt, succeed absolutely. Right now I'm thinking that it's because we would rather experience good fortune ourselves, in "real life", than to read about it.

Right from the start in "UFO in Kushiro" the reader is in the dark. Why the hell is Komura's wife zombied out in front of the TV? We never find out. And this mystery drives Komura's actions until the very end of the story when the unknown regarding his wife's strange condition passes the baton to another unknown, the small box. Suddenly we stop caring about his wife, and our attention falls on the box. For me, this was the part when Shimao said jokingly(?) to Komura that his essence was in the box. Then it just ends, with the crystallization of a new mystery.