After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Part of his mind was still in the grade school classroom. The touch of the girl’s 
fingers remained as a vivid impression in his left hand. He could not lift the hand to 
look at it, but the palm of that hand probably still had red fingernail marks in it. His 
heartbeat retained traces of his arousal. The dense cloud had faded from his chest, but 
its imaginary space near his heart still cried out with its pleasant dull ache. 
Aomame
, Tengo thought. 
I have to see Aomame
, Tengo thought. 
I have to find her. Why has it taken me so 
long to realize something so obvious? She handed me that precious package. Why did 
I toss it aside and leave it unopened all this time?
He thought of shaking his head, but 
that was something he could not yet do. His body had still not recovered from its 
paralysis. 
Fuka-Eri came back to the bedroom a short time later. Wrapped in a bath towel, she 
sat on the edge of the bed for a while. 
“The Little People are not stirring anymore,” she said, like a cool, capable scout 
reporting on conditions at the front. Then she used her fingertip to draw a little circle 
in the air—a perfect, beautiful circle such as an Italian Renaissance painter might 
draw on a church wall: no beginning, no end. The circle hung in the air for a while. 
“All done.” 
Having said this, the girl stood and undid her bath towel. Completely naked, she 
stayed there for a while, as if allowing her damp body to dry naturally in the still air. 
It was a lovely sight: the smooth breasts, the lower abdomen free of pubic hair. 
She bent over and picked up the pajamas where they had fallen on the floor, 
putting them on directly next to her skin without underwear, buttoning the top and 
tying the bottom’s cord. Tengo watched all this in the darkened room, as if studying 
an insect undergoing metamorphosis. Tengo’s pajamas were too big for her, but she 
looked comfortable in them. Fuka-Eri slipped into bed, found her narrow space, and 
rested her head on Tengo’s shoulder. He could feel the shape of her little ear against 
his naked shoulder and her warm breath against the base of his neck. All the while, 
his paralysis began to fade, just as the tide ebbs when the time comes. 
The air was still damp but no longer unpleasantly sticky. Outside, the insects were 
beginning to chirp. By now Tengo’s erection had subsided and his penis was 
beginning to sink into the peaceful mud again. Things seemed to have run their 

---

424
course, bringing the cycle to an end. A perfect circle had been drawn in the air. The 
animals had left the ark and scattered across the earth they craved, all the pairs 
returning to the places where they belonged. 
“You’d better sleep,” she said. “Very deeply” 
Sleep very deeply
, Tengo thought. 
Sleep, and then wake up. What kind of world 
will be there tomorrow?
“No one knows the answer to that,” Fuka-Eri said, reading his mind. 

---

425