Free Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

stop by here again sometime, so if you spot Goma in the meantime, please let me know. I'd like to give you something for your help."
    "No need—I enjoyed talking with you. Feel free to drop by again. On sunny days this is where you'll mostly find me. When it rains I'm generally in that shrine over there where the steps go down."
    "Well, thank you very much. Nakata was very happy, too, to be able to talk with you, Mr. Otsuka. I can't always speak so easily to every cat I meet. Sometimes when I try the cat is on his guard and runs away without saying a word. When all I ever said was hello."
    "I can well imagine. There're all sorts of cats—just like there're all sorts of people."
    "That's exactly right. Nakata feels the same way. There are all kinds of people in the world, and all kinds of cats."
    Otsuka stretched and looked up at the sky. Golden sunlight filled the vacant lot but the air held a hint of rain, something Otsuka was able to sense. "Didn't you say that when you were little you had an accident, and that's why you're not so smart?"
    "Yes, that's right. That's exactly what Nakata said. I had an accident when I was nine years old."
    "What sort of accident?"
    "Nakata can't really remember. They don't know why, but I had a high fever for about three weeks. I was unconscious the whole time. I was asleep in a bed in a hospital, they told me, with an intra venus in me. And when I finally woke up, I couldn't remember a thing. I'd forgotten my father's face, my mother's face, how to read, how to add, what my house looked like inside. Even my own name. My head was completely empty, like a bathtub after you pull the plug. They tell me before the accident Nakata always got good grades. But once I collapsed and woke up I was dumb. My mother died a long time ago, but she used to cry about this a lot. Because I got stupid. My father never cried, but he was always angry."
    "Instead of being smart, though, you found yourself able to talk with cats."
    "That's correct."
    "Interesting...."
    "Besides that, I'm always healthy and haven't been sick once. I don't have any cavities, and don't have to wear glasses."
    "As far as I can tell, you seem fairly intelligent."
    "Is that so?" Nakata said, inclining his head. "Nakata's well past sixty now, Mr.
    Otsuka. Once I got past sixty I was quite used to being dumb, and people not having anything to do with me. You can survive without riding trains. Father's dead, so nobody hits me anymore. Mother's dead too, so she doesn't cry. So actually, if you say I'm pretty smart, it's a bit upsetting. You see, if I'm not dumb then the Governor won't give me a sub city anymore, and no more special bus pass. If the Governor says, You're not dumb after all, then Nakata doesn't know what to say. So this is fine, being dumb."
    "What I'm trying to say is your problem isn't that you're dumb," Otsuka said, an earnest look on his face.
    "Really?"
    "Your problem is that your shadow is a bit—how should I put it? Faint. I thought this the first time I laid eyes on you, that the shadow you cast on the ground is only half as dark as that of ordinary people."
    "I see...."
    "I ran across another person like that once."
    Mouth slightly ajar, Nakata stared at Otsuka. "You mean you saw somebody like Nakata?"
    "Yes, I did. That's why I wasn't so surprised that you could talk to cats."
    "When was that?"
    "A long time ago, when I was still a youngster. But I can't remember the details—the person's face or name or where and when we met. As I said before, cats don't have that sort of memory."
    "I see."
    "That person's shadow, too, looked like half of it had gotten separated from him. It was as faint as yours."
    "I see."
    "What I think is this: You should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow."
    Nakata tugged a few times at the bill of his hat in his hands. "To tell the truth, Nakata's had that feeling before. That my shadow is weak. Other people might not notice, but I