After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

CHAPTER 11 
Aomame 
A SERIOUS SHORTAGE 
OF BOTH LOGIC AND KINDNESS
On Tuesday morning Aomame wrote a memo to Tamaru explaining how the man 
calling himself an NHK fee collector had come again—how he had banged on the 
door and yelled, insulting Aomame (or a person named Takai who lived there), 
berating her. The whole thing was too much, too bizarre. She needed to remain 
vigilant. 
Aomame placed the memo in an envelope, sealed it, and put it on the kitchen table. 
She wrote the initial 
T
on the envelope. The men who delivered supplies would make 
sure it got to Tamaru. 
Just before one p.m. she went into her bedroom, locked the door, lay down in bed, 
and continued where she had left off with Proust. At one o’clock on the dot the 
doorbell rang once. After a pause the door was unlocked and the supply team came 
inside. As always, they briskly resupplied the fridge, got the garbage together, and 
checked the supplies on the shelves. In fifteen minutes they had finished their 
appointed tasks, left the apartment, shut the door, and locked it from the outside. Then 
the doorbell rang once again as a signal—the same procedure as usual. 
Just to be on the safe side, Aomame waited until the clock showed 1:30 before she 
came out of her bedroom and went to the kitchen. The memo to Tamaru was gone, 
replaced by a paper bag on the table with the name of a pharmacy printed on it. There 
was also a thick book Tamaru had gotten for her, 
The Women’s Anatomical 
Encyclopedia
. Inside the paper bag there were three different home pregnancy tests. 
She opened the boxes one by one and read over the instructions, comparing them. 
They were all the same. You could use the tests if your period was a week or more 
late. The tests were 95 percent accurate, but if they were positive, the instructions 
said—in other words, if they did show you were pregnant—then you should be 
examined by a medical specialist as soon as possible. You should not jump to 
conclusions. The tests indicated merely the 
possibility
that one was pregnant. 
The test itself was simple. Just urinate into a clean container and then dip the 
indicator stick into it. Or, alternately, urinate directly onto the stick. Then wait a few 
minutes. If the color changes to blue you’re pregnant, if it doesn’t change color, 
you’re not. In one version, if two vertical lines appear in the little window, you’re 
pregnant. One line, and you’re not. The details might vary but the principle was the 
same. The presence or absence of human chorionic gonadotropin in urine indicated 
whether or not you were pregnant. 

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Human chorionic gonadotropin?
Aomame frowned. She had been a female for 
thirty years and had never once heard that term. 
All this time, some crazy substance 
was stimulating her sex glands?
Aomame opened up 
The Women’s Anatomical Encyclopedia
. 
Human chorionic gonadotropin is secreted during the early stages of pregnancy
, 
the book said, 
and helps maintain the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum secretes 
progestogens and estrogen to preserve the inner lining of the womb and prevent 
menstruation. In this way the placenta gradually takes form. In seven to nine weeks, 
once the placenta is complete, there is no more need for the corpus luteum and the 
role of the human chorionic gonadotropin is over
. 
In other words, this hormone was secreted from the time of implantation for seven 
to nine weeks. The timing was a little tricky in her case. One thing she could say was 
that if the test came back positive, she was without a doubt pregnant. If it was 
negative, then the conclusion wouldn’t be so clear-cut. It was possible that she had 
passed the time when she was secreting the hormone. 
She didn’t feel the need to urinate. She went to the fridge, took out a bottle of 
mineral water, and had two glasses. But she still didn’t feel the need to go.