murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

"Really? I can hardly wait. Let's go to a real S&M one, with whips
and, like, they make the girl pee in front of everyone.
That's my favourite."
"We'll do it."
"You know what I like best about porn cinemas?" "I couldn't begin to
guess."
"Whenever a sex scene starts, you can hear this "Gulp!' sound when
everybody swallows all at once," said Midori. "I love that "Gulp!' It's
so sweet!"
Back in the hospital room, Midori aimed a stream of talk at her father
again, and he would either grunt in response or say nothing. Around
eleven the wife of the man in the other bed came to change her
husband's pyjamas and peel fruit for him and so on. She had a round
face and seemed like a nice person, and she and Midori shared a lot of
small talk. A nurse showed up with a new intravenous drip and talked
a little while with Midori and the wife before she left. I let my eyes
wander around the room and out the window to the power lines.
Sparrows would turn up every now and then and perch on them.
Midori talked to her father and wiped the sweat from his brow and
helped him spit phlegm into a tissue and chatted with the
neighbouring patient's wife and the nurse and sent an occasional
remark my way and checked the intravenous contraption.
The doctor did his rounds at 11.30, so Midori and I stepped outside to
wait in the corridor. When he came out, Midori asked him how her
father was doing.
"Well, he's just come out of surgery, and we've got him on painkillers
so, well, he's pretty drained," said the doctor. "I'll need another two or
three days to evaluate the results of the operation. If it went well, he'll
be OK, and if it didn't, we'll have to make some decisions at that
point."
"You're not going to open his head up again, are you?"
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