murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

normal. It was hard to believe he was a human being.
"Weird," said Storm Trooper. "I've never run a fever in my life." It
was almost as if he were blaming me.
This made me mad. "But you did have a fever," I insisted, showing
him the two wasted tickets.
"Good thing they were free," he said. I wanted to grab his radio and
throw it out of the window, but instead I went back to bed with a
headache.
It snowed several times in February.
Near the end of the month I got into a stupid fight with one of the
third-years on my floor and punched him. He hit his head against the
concrete wall, but he wasn't badly injured, and Nagasawa straightened
things out for me. Still, I was called into the dorm Head's office and
given a warning, after which I grew increasingly uncomfortable living
in the dormitory.
The academic year ended in March, but I came up a few credits short.
My exam results were mediocre - mostly "C"s and "D"s with a few
"B"s. Naoko had all the grades she needed to begin the spring term of
her second year. We had completed one full cycle of the seasons.
Halfway through April Naoko turned 20. She was seven months older
than I was, my own birthday being in November. There was
something strange about her becoming 20. I. felt as if the only thing
that made sense, whether for Naoko or for me, was to keep going back
and forth between 18 and 19. After 18 would come 19, and after 19,
18, of course. But she turned 20. And in the autumn, I would do the
same. Only the dead stay 17 for ever.
It rained on her birthday. After lectures I bought a cake nearby and
took the tram to her flat. "We ought to have a celebration," I said. I
probably would have wanted the same thing if our positions had been
reversed. It must be hard to pass your twentieth birthday alone. The
tram had been packed and had pitched so wildly that by the time I
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