From "Dance Dance Dance" by Hiruki Murakami

I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel.

In these dreams, Im there, implicated in some kind of ongoing cicumstance. All indication are that I BELONG to this dream continuity.

The Dolphin Hotel is distorted, much too narrow. It seems more like a long, covered bridge. A bridge stretching endlessly through time. And there I am, in the middle of it. Someone else is there too, crying.

The hotel envelops me. I can feel its pulse, its heat. In dreams, I am part of the hotel.

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I wake up, but where? I dont just think this, I actually voice the question to myself: "Where am I?" As if I didnt know: I'm here. In my life. A feature of the world that is my existence. Not that I particularly recall ever having approved these matters, this conidtion, this state of affairs in which I feature. There might be a woman sleeping next to me. More often, I'm alone. Just me and the expressway that runs right next to my apartment and, bedside, a glass (five milimeters of whiskey still in it) and the malicious -- no, make that indifferent -- dusty morning light. Sometimes its raining. If it is, I'll just stay in bed. And if there's whiskey still left in the glass, I'll drink it. And I'll look at the raindrops dripping from the eaves, and I'll think about the Dolphin Hotel. Maybe I'll stretch, nice and slow. Enough to be sure I'm myself and not part of something else. Yet I'll remember the feel of the dream. So much that I swear I can reach out and touch it, and the whole of that SOMETHING that includes me will move. If I strain my ears, I can hear the slow, cautious sequence of play take place, like droplets in an intricate water puzzle falling, step upon step, one after the other. I listen carefully. That's when I hear someone softly, almost imperceptibly, weeping. A sobbing from somewhere in the darkness. Someone is crying for me.

-- Haruki Murakami



I just started reading this book. This is the beginning and all that I have read so far. And so I suppose there will be more on this to come. The beginning is striking.

--DJ Railsplitter