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“I haven’t set the meter,” the driver said. “I’ll just charge you for the distance after
we get off the expressway.”
“Why were you on the expressway with no passenger?” Tengo asked him.
“It’s sort of a long story,” the driver said, his voice etched with fatigue. “Would
you like to hear it?”
“I would,” Aomame said. Long and boring was fine by her. She wanted to hear
people’s stories in this new world. There
might be new secrets there, new hints.
“I picked up a fare, a middle-aged man, near Kinuta Park, and he asked me to take
him near Aoyama Gakuin University. He wanted me to take the expressway since
there would be too much traffic around Shibuya. At this point, there wasn’t any
bulletin about a traffic jam on the expressway. Traffic was supposed to be moving
along just fine. So I did what he asked and got on the expressway at Yoga. But then
there was an accident around Tani, apparently, and you can see the result. Once we
were stuck, we couldn’t even get to the Ikejiri exit to get off. Meanwhile, the
passenger spied a friend of his. Around Komazawa, when we weren’t moving an inch,
there was a silver Mercedes coupe next to us that just happened
to be driven by a
woman who was a friend of his. They rolled down the windows and chatted and she
wound up inviting him to ride with her. The man apologized and asked if he could
pay up and go over to her car. Letting a passenger out in the middle of a highway is
unheard of, but since we actually weren’t moving, I couldn’t say no. So the man got
into the Mercedes. He felt bad about it, so he added a little extra to what he paid to
sweeten the deal. But still it was annoying. I mean, I couldn’t move at all. Anyway,
bit by bit I made my way here, nearly to the Ikejiri exit. And then I saw you raising
your hand. Pretty hard to believe, don’t you think?”
“I can believe it,” Aomame said concisely.
That night the two of them stayed in a high-rise hotel in Akasaka. They turned the
lights out, undressed, got
into bed, and held each other. There was a lot they needed to
talk about, but that could wait till morning. They had other priorities. Without a word
passing between them, they leisurely explored each other’s bodies in the dark. With
their fingers and palms, one by one, they checked where everything was, what they
were shaped like. They felt excited, like little children on a treasure hunt in a secret
room. Once they found each part, they kissed it with a seal of approval.
After they had leisurely finished this process, Aomame held Tengo’s hard penis in
her hand—just like years before, when she had held his hand in the classroom after
school. It felt harder than anything she had ever known, miraculously hard. Aomame
spread her legs, moved close, and slowly inserted him inside of her.
Straight in, deep
inside. She closed her eyes in the darkness and gulped a deep and dark intake of
breath. Then, ever so slowly, she exhaled. Tengo felt her hot breath on his chest.
“I’ve always imagined being held by you like this,” Aomame said, whispering in
his ear as she stopped moving.
“Having sex with me?”
“Yes.”
“Since you were ten you’ve been imagining this?” Tengo asked.
Aomame laughed. “No, that came when I was a little older.”
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“I’ve been imagining the same thing.”
“Being inside me?”
“That’s right,” Tengo said.
“Is it like you imagined?”
“I still can’t believe it’s real,” Tengo admitted. “I feel like I’m imagining things.”
“But this is real.”
“It feels too good to be real.”
In the darkness Aomame smiled. And she kissed him. They explored each other’s
tongues.
“My breasts are kind of small, don’t you think?” Aomame said.
“They’re just right,” Tengo said, cupping them.
“You really think so?”
“Of course,” he said. “If they were any bigger then it wouldn’t be you.”
“Thank you,” Aomame said. “They’re not just small,” she added, “but the right
and left are also different sizes.”
“They’re fine the way they are,” Tengo said. “The right one’s the right one, the left
one’s the left. No need to change a thing.”
Aomame pressed an ear against his chest. “I’ve been lonely for so long. And I’ve
been hurt so deeply. If only I could have met you again a long time ago, then I
wouldn’t have had to take all these detours to get here.”
Tengo shook his head. “I don’t think so. This way is just fine. This is exactly the
right time. For both of us.”
Aomame started to cry. The tears she had been holding
back spilled down her
cheeks and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Large teardrops fell audibly
onto the sheets like rain. With Tengo buried deep inside her, she trembled slightly as
she went on crying. Tengo put his arms around her and held her. He would be holding
her close from now on, a thought that made him happier than he could imagine.
“We needed that much time,” Tengo said, “to understand how lonely we really
were.”
“Start moving,” Aomame breathed in his ear. “Take your time, and do it slowly.”
Tengo did as he was told. He began pumping slowly. Breathing quietly, listening
to his heartbeat. Aomame clung to him like she was drowning. She gave up crying,
gave up thinking, distanced herself from the past, from the future, and became one
with his movements.
Near dawn they slipped on hotel bathrobes,
stood next to the large window, and
sipped the red wine they had ordered from room service. Aomame took just a token
sip. They didn’t need to sleep yet. From their room on the seventeenth floor they
could enjoy watching the moon to their hearts’ content. The clouds had drifted away,
and nothing impeded their view. The dawn moon had moved quite a distance, though
it still hovered just above the city skyline. The moon was an ashy white, and looked
about ready to fall to earth, its job complete.
At the front desk Aomame had asked for a room high up with a view of the moon,
even if it cost more. “That’s the most important thing—having a nice view of the
moon,” she said.
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The clerk was kind to this young couple who had shown up without a reservation.
It also helped that the hotel wasn’t busy. She felt kindly toward the couple from the
moment she set eyes on them. She had the bellboy go up to look at the room to make
sure it had the view they wanted, and only then handed Aomame the
key to the junior
suite. She gave them a special discount, too.
“Is it a full moon or something tonight?” the woman clerk asked Aomame, her
interest aroused. Over the years she had heard every kind of demand, hope, and desire
from guests you could imagine. But this was a first, having guests who were looking
for a room with a good view of the moon.
“No,” Aomame replied. “The moon’s past full. It’s about two-thirds full. But that
doesn’t matter. As long as we can see it.”
“You enjoy watching the moon, then?”
“It’s important to us,” Aomame smiled. “More important than you can know.”
Even as dawn approached, the number of moons didn’t increase. It was just the same
old familiar moon. The one and only satellite that has faithfully circled the earth, at
the same speed, from before human memory.
As she stared at the moon, Aomame
softly touched her abdomen, checking one more time that the
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