murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

The wife of the other patient came back a few minutes later and asked
if everything was OK. I assured her it was. Her husband, too, was
sound asleep, breathing deeply.
Midori came back after three.
"I was in the park, spacing out," she said. "I did what you told me,
didn't talk to anybody, just let my head go empty."
"How was it?"
"Thanks, I feel much better. I still have that draggy, tired feeling, but
my body feels much lighter than before. I guess I was more tired than
I realized."
With her father sound asleep, there was nothing for us to do, so we
bought coffee from a vending machine and drank it in the TV room. I
reported to Midori on what had happened in her absence - that her
father had had a good sleep, then woke up and ate some of what was
left of his lunch, then saw me eating a cucumber and asked for one
himself, ate the whole thing and peed.
"Watanabe, you're amazing," said Midori. "We're all going crazy
trying to get him to eat anything, and you got him to eat a whole
cucumber! Incredible!"
"I don't know, I think he just saw me enjoying my own cucumber."
"Or maybe you just have this knack for relaxing people." "No way," I
said with a laugh. "A lot of people will tell you just the opposite about
me."
"What do you think about my father?"
"I like him. Not that we had all that much to say to each
other. But, I don't know, he seems nice." "Was he quiet?"
"Very."
"You should have seen him a week ago. He was awful," Midori said,
shaking her head. "Kind of lost his marbles and went wild. Threw a
glass at me and yelled terrible stuff - 'I hope you die, you stupid bitch!'
This sickness can do that to people. They don't know why, but it can
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