murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

university when we heard sirens. They got louder and louder and
seemed to be increasing in number. Lots of people ran past the shop,
some of them shouting. Midori went to a room facing the street,
opened the window and looked down. "Wait here a minute," she said
and disappeared; after which I heard feet pounding up stairs.
I sat there drinking coffee alone and trying to remember where
Uruguay was. Let's see, Brazil was over here, and Venezuela there,
and Colombia somewhere over here, but I couldn't recall the location
of Uruguay. A few minutes later Midori came down and urged me to
hurry somewhere with her. I followed her to the end of the hall and
climbed a steep, narrow stairway to a wooden deck with bamboo
laundry poles. The deck was higher than most of the surrounding
rooftops and gave a good view of the neighbourhood. Huge clouds of
black smoke shot up from a place three or four houses away and
flowed with the breeze out towards the high street. A burning smell
filled the air.
"It's Sakamoto's place," said Midori, leaning over the railing. "They
used to make traditional door fittings and stuff. They went out of
business some time ago, though."
I leaned over the railing with her and strained to see what was going
on. A three-storey building blocked our view of the fire, but there
seemed to be three or four fire engines over there working on the
blaze. No more than two of them could squeeze into the narrow lane
where the house was burning, the rest standing by on the high street.
The usual crowd of gawkers filled the area.
"Hey, maybe you should gather your valuables together and get ready
to evacuate this place," I said to Midori. "The wind's blowing the other
way now, but it could change any time, and you've got a petrol station
right there. I'll help you pack."
"What valuables?" said Midori.
"Well, you must have something you'd want to save - bankbooks,
seals, legal papers, stuff like that. Emergency cash." "Forget it. I'm not
89