murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

and had taken lessons from a number of people but things had not
gone well for one reason or another and now she had no teacher.
"I turned her down. I had had that blank of several years, and while it
might have made sense for me to take on an absolute beginner, it
would have been impossible for me to pick up with someone who had
had lessons for a number of years. Besides, I was too busy taking care
of my own child and, though I didn't say this to the woman, nobody
can deal with the kind of child who changes teachers constantly. So
then the woman asked me to at least do her daughter the favour of
meeting her once. She was a fairly pushy lady and I could see she was
not going to let me off the hook that easily, so I agreed to meet the girl
- but just meet her. Three days later the girl came to the house by
herself. She was an absolute angel, with a kind of pure, sweet,
transparent beauty. I had never - and have never - seen such a
beautiful little girl. She had long, shiny hair as black as freshly ground
Indian ink, slim, graceful arms and legs, bright eyes, and a soft little
mouth that looked as if someone had just made it. I couldn't speak
when I first saw her, she was so beautiful. Sitting on my sofa, she
turned my living room into a gorgeous parlour. It hurt to look directly
at her: I had to squint. So, anyway, that's what she was like. I can still
picture her clearly."
Reiko narrowed her eyes as if she were actually picturing the girl.
"Over coffee we talked for a whole hour - talked about all kinds of
things: music, her school, just everything. I could see straight away
she was a smart one. She knew how to hold a conversation: she had
clear, shrewd opinions and a natural gift for drawing out the other
person. It was almost frightening. Exactly what it was that made her
frightening, I couldn't tell at the time. It just struck me how
frighteningly intelligent she was. But in her presence I lost any normal
powers of judgement I might have had. She was so young and
beautiful, I felt overwhelmed to the point where I saw myself as an
inferior specimen, a clumsy excuse for a human being who could only
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