murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

more at lunch, but feeling sorry wasn't going to help. I looked in a
cabinet for something to eat, but found only a can of nori, some Vicks
cough drops and soy sauce. The paper bag was still there with the
cucumbers and grapefruit.
"I'm going to eat some cucumbers if you don't mind," I said to
Midori's father. He didn't answer. I washed three cucumbers in the
sink and dribbled a little soy sauce into a dish. Then I wrapped a
cucumber in nori, dipped it in soy sauce and gobbled it down.
"Mmm, great!" I said to Midori's father. "Fresh, simple, smells like
life. Really good cucumbers. A far more sensible food than kiwi
fruit."
I polished off one cucumber and attacked the next. The sickroom
echoed with the sound of me munching cucumbers. Only after I had
finished the second whole cucumber was I ready to take a break. I
boiled some water on the gas burner in the hall and made tea.
"Would you like something to drink? Water? Juice?" I asked Midori's
father.
he said.
"Great," I said with a smile. "With nori?"
He gave a little nod. I cranked the bed up again. Then I cut a bitesized
piece of cucumber, wrapped it with a strip of nori, stabbed the
combination with a toothpick, dipped it in soy sauce, and delivered it
to the patient's waiting mouth. With almost no change of expression,
Midori's father crunched down on the piece again and again and
finally swallowed it.
"How was that? Good, huh?"
he said.
"It's good when food tastes good," I said. "It's kind of like proof you're
alive."
He ended up eating the entire cucumber. When he had finished it, he
wanted water, so I gave him a drink from the bottle. A few minutes
later, he said he needed to pee, so I took the urine jar from under the
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