murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

stroked her hair. "Don't worry,' I said, "everything is going to be all
right. A beautiful, young girl like you has got to have a man to hold
her and make her happy.' Naoko was drenched in sweat and tears. I
got a bath towel and dried her face and body. Even her panties were
soaked, so I helped her out of
them - now wait a minute, don't get any strange ideas, there was
nothing funny going on. We always used to bathe together. She was
like my little sister."
"I know, I know," I said.
"Well, anyway, Naoko said she wanted me to hold her. I said it was
far too hot for holding, but she said it was the last time we'd be seeing
each other, so I held her. Just for a while. With a bath towel between
us so our sweaty bodies wouldn't stick to each other. And when she
calmed down, I dried her off again, got her nightdress on her and put
her to bed. She fell sound asleep straight away. Or maybe she was just
pretending to sleep. Whatever, she looked so sweet and lovely that
night, she had the face of a girl of 13 or 14 who's never had a bit of
harm done to her since the day she was born. I saw that look on her
face, and I knew I could let myself fall asleep with an easy heart.
When I woke at six in the morning, she was gone. Her nightdress was
there, where she had dropped it, but her clothes and trainers and the
torch I always keep by my pillow were missing. I knew immediately
that something was wrong. I mean, the very fact that she had taken the
torch meant she had left in the dark. I checked her desk just in case,
and
there was the note: Please give all my clothes to Reiko. I woke
up everybody straight away, and we took different paths to look for
her. We searched every inch of the place, from the insides of the
dorms to the surrounding woods. It took us five hours to find her.
She'd even brought her own rope."
Reiko sighed and patted the cat.
"Want some tea?" I asked.
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