murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

great couple."
"Yeah, right!" I said.
"Just kidding," said Nagasawa. "Anyway, be happy. I get the feeling a
lot of shit is going to come your way, but you're a stubborn bastard,
I'm sure you'll handle it. Mind if I give you one piece of advice?"
"Go ahead."
"Don't feel sorry for yourself," he said. "Only arseholes do that."
"I'll keep it in mind," I said. We shook hands and went our separate
ways, he to his new world, and I back to my swamp.
Three days after my move, I wrote to Naoko. I described my new
house and said how relieved I was to be away from the idiots in the
dorm and all their stupid brainstorms. Now I could start my new life
with a new frame of mind.
My window looks out on a big garden, which is used as a meeting
place by all the neighbourhood cats. I like to stretch out on the
veranda and watch them. I'm not sure how many of them get together,
but this is one big gang of cats. They sunbathe in groups. I don't think
they're too pleased to see me living here, but once when I put out an
old chunk of cheese a few of them crept over and nibbled it. They'll
probably be friends of mine before too long. There's one striped tom
cat in the bunch with half-eaten ears. It's amazing how much he looks
like my old dorm Head. I expect him to start raising the flag any day
now.
I'm kind of far from university here, but once I start my third year I
won't have too many morning lectures, so it shouldn't be too bad. It
may even be better with the time to read on the train. Now all I have
to do is find some easy work out here that I can do three or four days a
week. Then I can get back to my springwinding life.
I don't want to rush, but April is a good time of year to start new
things, and I can't help feeling that the best thing for us would be to
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