After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

CHAPTER 14 
Aomame 
THIS LITTLE ONE OF MINE 
For the most part, Aomame’s life had become filled with confusion. She felt as 
though she were blindly groping around in the dark. Ordinary logic and reason didn’t 
function in this 1Q84 world, and she couldn’t predict what was going to happen to her 
next. She felt sure, though, that she would survive the next few months and give birth 
to the baby. This was nothing more than a hunch, though a strong one. Everything 
was proceeding on the premise that she would give birth to this child. She could just 
sense it. 
She remembered the last words that Leader had spoken. “You are fated to pass 
through great hardships and trials,” he had said. “Once you have done that, you 
should be able to see things as they are supposed to be.” 
He 
knew
something. Something vital. 
And he had tried—in vague and ambiguous 
terms—to give me this message
, Aomame thought. 
The hardship he spoke of may 
have been when I took myself to the brink of death, when I took the pistol to that spot 
in front of the Esso sign, meaning to kill myself. But I came back, without dying, and 
discovered I was pregnant. This, too, might have been preordained
. 
As they entered December, the winds grew fierce for a few days. The fallen 
zelkova leaves whipped against the plastic screen on the balcony with a dry, biting 
sound. The cold wind let out a warning as it whistled between the bare branches of the 
trees. The caws of the crows grew sharper, keener. Winter had arrived. 
Every day, she became even more convinced that the baby growing in her womb was 
Tengo’s child, until this theory became an established fact. It wasn’t logical enough to 
convince a third party, but it made sense to her. It was obvious. 
If I’m pregnant without having had sex, who could the man possibly be other