After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Maybe I should really do it
, the thought flashed through 
her mind. The ice pick was in her bag, wrapped in cloth. The needle that she had 
spent so much time sharpening was covered by a specially softened cork. It would 
have been so easy, just a quick shove of her right palm against the wooden handle. 
He’d be dead before he knew what hit him. No pain. It would be ruled a natural death. 
But of course she stopped herself. There was no reason to expunge this man from 
society, aside from the fact that he no longer served any purpose for Aomame. She 
shook her head and swept the dangerous thought from her mind. 
This man is not an especially bad person
, she told herself. He was pretty good in 
bed, too. He had enough control not to ejaculate until he had made her come. The 
shape of his head and the degree of his baldness were just the way she liked them. 
The size of his penis was exactly right. He was courteous, had good taste in clothes, 
and was in no way overbearing. True, he was tremendously boring, which really got 
on her nerves, but that was not a crime deserving death. Probably. 
“Mind if I turn on the television?” she asked. 
“Fine,” he said, still on his stomach. 
Naked in bed, she watched the eleven o’clock news to the end. In the Middle East, 
Iran and Iraq were still embroiled in their bloody war. It was a quagmire, with no sign 
of a settlement. In Iraq, young draft dodgers had been strung up on telephone poles as 
an example to others. The Iranian government was accusing Saddam Hussein of 
having used nerve gas and biological weapons. In America, Walter Mondale and Gary 
Hart were battling to become the Democratic candidate for president. Neither looked 
like the brightest person in the world. Smart presidents usually became the target of 
assassins, so people with higher-than-average intelligence probably did their best to 
avoid being elected. 
On the moon, the construction of a permanent observation post was making 
progress. The United States and the Soviet Union were cooperating on this project, for 
a change, as they had done with the Antarctic observation post. 
An observation post 
on the moon?
Aomame cocked her head. 
I haven’t heard anything about that. What is 
wrong with me?
But she decided not to think too deeply about it. There were more 
pressing problems to consider. A large number of people had died in a mine fire in 
Kyushu, and the government was looking into the cause. What most surprised 
Aomame was the fact that people continued to dig coal out of the earth in an age 
when bases were being built on the moon. America was pushing Japan to open its 
financial markets. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch were lighting fires under the 
government in search of new sources of profit. Next there was a feature that 
introduced a clever cat from Shimane Prefecture that could open a window and let 
itself out. Once out, it would close the window. The owner had trained the cat to do 
this. Aomame watched with admiration as the slim black cat turned around, stretched 
a paw out, and, with a knowing look in its eye, slid the window closed. 
There was a great variety of news stories, but no report on the discovery of a body 
in a Shibuya hotel. After the news, Aomame turned the TV off with the remote 
control. The room was hushed, the only sound the soft, rhythmic breathing of the man 
sleeping beside her. 

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64
That other man, the one in the hotel room, is probably still slumped over his desk, 
looking sound asleep, like this one. Without the breathing. That rat can never wake 
and rise again
. Aomame stared at the ceiling, imagining the look of the corpse. She 
gave her head a slight shake and indulged in a lonely frown. Then she slipped out of 
bed and gathered her clothing from the floor, piece by piece. 

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