After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

CHAPTER 30 
Tengo 
IF I’M NOT MISTAKEN 
After they left the park, they walked out onto the main street and hailed a cab. 
Aomame told the driver to take them to Sangenjaya, via Route 246. 
For the first time, Tengo noticed what Aomame was wearing. She had on a light-
colored spring coat, too thin for this cold time of year. The coat was belted in front. 
Underneath was a nicely tailored green suit. The skirt was short and tight. She had on 
stockings and lustrous high heels, and carried a black leather shoulder bag. The bag 
was bulging and looked heavy. She wasn’t wearing any gloves or a muffler, no rings 
or necklace or earrings, no hint of perfume. To Tengo, what she had on, and what she 
had omitted, looked entirely natural. He could think of nothing that needed to be 
added or removed. 
The taxi sped down Ring Road 7 toward Route 246. Traffic was flowing along 
unusually smoothly. For a long time after they got in the taxi, the two of them didn’t 
speak. The radio in the taxi was off, and the young driver was very quiet. All the two 
of them heard was the ceaseless, monotonous hum of tires. Aomame leaned against 
Tengo, still clutching his large hand. If she let go she might never find him again. 
Around them the night city flowed by like a phosphorescent tide. 
“There are several things I need to say to you,” Aomame said, after a while. “I don’t 
think I can explain everything before we arrive 
there
. We don’t have that much time. 
But maybe if we had all the time in the world I still couldn’t explain it.” 
Tengo shook his head slightly. There was no need to explain everything now. They 
could fill in all the gaps later, as they went—if there were indeed gaps that needed to 
be filled. Tengo felt that as long as it was something the two of them could share—
even a gap they had to abandon or a riddle they never could solve—he could discover 
a joy there, something akin to love. 
“What do I need to know about you at this point?” Tengo asked. 
“What do you know about me?” Aomame asked in return. 
“Almost nothing,” Tengo said. “You’re an instructor at a sports club. You’re 
single. You’ve been living in Koenji.” 
“I know almost nothing about you, too,” Aomame said, “though I do know a few 
small things. You teach math at a cram school in Yoyogi. You live alone. And you’re 
the one who really wrote 
Air Chrysalis
.” 

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791
Tengo looked at her face, his lips parted in surprise. There were very few people 
who knew this about him. Did she have some connection with the cult? 
“Don’t worry. We’re on the same side,” she said. “If I told you how I came to 
know this, it would take too long. But I do know that you wrote 
Air Chrysalis
together with Eriko Fukada. And that you and I both entered a world where there are 
two moons in the sky. And there’s one more thing. I’m carrying a child. I believe it’s 
yours. For now, these are the important things you ought to know.” 
“You’re 
carrying my child
?” The driver might be listening, but Tengo wasn’t 
worrying about it at this point. 
“We haven’t seen each other in twenty years,” Aomame said, “but yes, I’m 
carrying your child. I’m going to give birth to your child. I know it sounds totally 
crazy.” 
Tengo was silent, waiting for her to continue. 
“Do you remember that terrible thunderstorm in the beginning of September?” 
“I remember it well,” Tengo said. “The weather was nice all day, then after sunset 
it turned stormy, with wild lightning. Water flowed down into the Akasaka-Mitsuke 
Station and they had to shut down the subway for a while.” 
The Little People are