After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

Climb back up that emergency stairway?
Like rewinding a cassette tape, Aomame retraced her thoughts. 
Why haven’t I 
thought of that before? I tried to go down that emergency stairway again but couldn’t 
find the entrance. The stairway, which should have been across from the Esso 
billboard, had vanished. But maybe if I took it from the opposite direction it would 
work out—not climb
down 
the stairway but go
up. 
Slip into that storage area under 
the expressway and go the opposite direction, back up to the Metropolitan 
Expressway No. 3. Go back up the passage. Maybe that’s the answer
. 
Aomame wanted to race out that very minute to Sangenjaya and see if it was 
possible. 
It might actually work out. Or maybe it wouldn’t. But it was worth trying. 
Wear the same suit, the same high heels, and climb back up that spiderweb-infested 
stairway
. 
But she suppressed the impulse. 
No, it won’t work. I can’t do that. It was because I came to the 1Q84 world that I 
was able to see Tengo again, and to be pregnant with what is most likely his child. I 
have to see him one more time in this new world. I have to meet him again. Face-to-
face. I can’t leave this world until that happens
. 
Tamaru called her the following afternoon. 
“First, about the NHK fee collector,” Tamaru began. “I called the NHK business 
office and checked into it. The fee collector who covers the Koenji District said he 
had no memory of knocking on the door of apartment 303. He said he checked 
beforehand that there was a sticker on the door indicating that the fee was paid 
automatically from the account. Plus he said there was a doorbell, so he wouldn’t 
have knocked. He said that would only make his hand hurt. And on the day the fee 
collector was at your place, this man was making the rounds in another district. I 
don’t think he’s lying. He’s a fifteen-year veteran, and he has a reputation as a very 
patient, courteous person.” 
“Which means—” Aomame said. 
“Which means that there’s a strong possibility that the fee collector who came to 
your place was a fake—someone pretending to be from NHK. The person I talked to 
on the phone was concerned about this too. The last thing they want are phony NHK 
collectors popping up. The person in charge asked to see me and get more details. As 

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you can imagine, I turned him down. There was no actual harm done, and I don’t 
want it to get all blown out of proportion.” 
“Maybe he was a mental patient? Or someone who’s after me?” 
“I don’t think anyone pursuing you would act like that. It wouldn’t do any good, 
and would actually put you on your guard.” 
“If the man was crazy, I wonder why he would choose this particular door. There 
are lots of other doors around. I’m always careful to make sure no light leaks out, and 
I’m very quiet. I always keep the curtains closed and never hang laundry outside to 
dry. But still that guy picked this door to bang on. He knows I’m hiding inside here—
or at least he insists he knows that—and he tries whatever he can to get me to open 
up.” 
“Do you think he’s going to come back?” 
“I don’t know. But if he’s really serious about getting me to open up, I’m betting 
he’ll keep coming back until I do.” 
“And that unsettles you.” 
“I wouldn’t say it unsettles me, exactly,” Aomame replied. “I just don’t like it.” 
“I don’t like it either, not one little bit. But even if that phony collector comes back 
again, we can’t call NHK or the police. And if you call me and I race over, he will 
probably have vanished by the time I get there.” 
“I think I can handle it myself,” Aomame said. “He can be as intimidating as he 
wants, but all I have to do is keep the door shut.” 
“I’m sure he will use whatever means he can to intimidate you.” 
“No doubt,” Aomame said. 
Tamaru cleared his throat for a moment and changed the subject. 
“Did you get the test kits all right?” 
“It was positive,” Aomame said straight out. 
“A hit, in other words.” 
“Exactly. I tried two tests and the results were identical.” 
There was silence. Like a lithograph with no words carved on it yet. 
“No room for doubt?” Tamaru asked. 
“I knew it from the start. The tests merely confirmed it.” 
Tamaru silently rubbed the lithograph for a time with the pads of his fingers. 
“I have to ask a pretty forward question,” he said. “Do you plan to have the baby? 
Or are you going to deal with it?” 
“I’m not going to