murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

"What should I do, then? Give me an example."
"First you decide that you want to help and that you need to be helped
by the other person. Then you are totally honest. You will not lie, you
will not gloss over anything, you will not cover up anything that might
prove embarrassing to you. That's all there is to it."
"I'll try," I said. "But tell me, Reiko, why have you been in here for
seven years? Talking with you like this, I can't believe there's anything
wrong with you."
"Not while the sun's up," she said with a sombre look. "But when
night comes, I start drooling and rolling on the floor." "Really?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm kidding," she said, shaking her head with a
look of disgust. "I'm completely well - for now, at least. I stay here
because I enjoy helping other people get well, teaching music,
growing vegetables. I like it here. We're all more or less friends.
Compared to that, what have I got in the outside world? I'm 38, going
on 40. I'm not like Naoko. There's nobody waiting for me to get out,
no family to take me back. I don't have any work to speak of, and
almost no friends. And after seven years, I don't know what's going on
out there. Oh, I'll read a paper in the library every once in a while, but
I haven't set foot outside this property all that time. I wouldn't know
what to do if I left."
"But maybe a new world would open up for you," I said. "It's worth a
try, don't you think?"
"Hmm, you may be right," she said, turning her cigarette lighter over
and over in her hand. "But I've got my own set of problems. I can tell
you all about them sometime if you like."
I nodded in response. "And Naoko," I said, "is she any better?"
"Hmm, we think so. She was pretty confused at first and we had our
doubts for a while, but she's calmed down now and improved to the
point where she's able to express herself verbally. She's definitely
heading in the right direction. But she should have received treatment
a lot earlier. Her symptoms were already apparent from the time that
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