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have a very unusual life. I bet all kind of things will happen. But you mustn’t blame yourself. You have to live a hard-boiled life, OK? No matter what happens, keep going around with your nose in the air.”
    “What? Do I go around with my nose in the air?”
    “Not really.” Chizuru chuckled.
    Her voice rang out quietly, like a bell.
    “Well, see you around.”
    “Yeah, see you around.”
    I felt a surge of relief as I put down the phone. There might not be any future for us as a couple, but I began to hope we might come together in some other way. And I was able to fall asleep—for the first time since we said goodbye on that mountain road, I fell into a deep, deep sleep.
    I had a strange dream then, too.
    I’m driving back up the mountain, no longer angry, but in a very gentle mood. In the twilight, the colors of the foliage fade into each other. I come to the place where Chizuru and I said goodbye. Chizuru is there, crouching like a kitten. As I drive toward her, she smiles happily. She opens the door and gets in, the expression on her face more vibrant than any I’ve ever seen. We hold hands. It’s hard driving in the mountains with only one hand, but I don’t want to let go. Chizuru’s cold palm. Her fingers are cold, too, as always. She looks smaller than usual. No matter how dirty her building is, even though the roof leaks when it rains and the walls are so thin you can hear everything, even though there is nothing in the landscape out the window that saves the place, I’m going to go back there with her, and we’ll stay together all our lives...
    That’s when I woke up.
    I couldn’t begin to describe how I felt.
    All day, I kept thinking about that dream. Toward evening, it occurred to me that I hadn’t told anyone but Chizuru my new address, so I gave one of my friends a call. He was a mutual acquaintance of Chizuru and mine.
    “You’re alive!” he shouted. “Talk about the devil’s luck!”
    “What are you talking about?” I said.
    His words resonated strangely with what Chizuru had said earlier.
    “You mean you haven’t heard?... I’m so sorry. The day before yesterday, there was a fire in the building where Chizuru lived. Chizuru died.”
    “What?” I said, stunned. “But I talked to her on the phone yesterday!”
    “That’s... you know. You know Chizuru. It could happen.”
    “But how...”
    “Everyone thought you were still living with her, and we were so worried, we were searching for your body, trying to figure out where you might have gone,” said our friend. “We had no way of contacting you or anything—we didn’t know what to do. God, I’m so glad you’re all right. At least there’s something good in this tragedy. I’ll tell everyone you’re OK.”
    He wasn’t being all that delicate, but I could sense his sadness. I gripped the phone tightly in my hand, overwhelmed.
    “Thanks for telling me. Is there going to be a funeral?”
    “Some relative came to the hospital—judging from what I saw, he must have been a pretty distant relative—and went off almost immediately with her body. He said he hadn’t seen her in a decade. I guess Chizuru was involved in all kinds of stuff way back when, so her family wouldn’t have anything to do with her. I asked the guy to let me know about the funeral and stuff, but he never got in touch.”
    “Oh. Did you get his number or anything?”
    “Yeah, I did. I’ll give it to you next time we talk. It would be nice to visit her grave, at least, huh? It’s so hard to believe... all of a sudden she’s just not there, vanished without a trace.”
    “I know what you mean.”
    There was one other thing I wanted to ask.
    “Did the fire start in Chizuru’s apartment?”
    “No, it didn’t,” my friend answered angrily. “It started in the apartment next door, the one where the alcoholic guy lived. Apparently he got completely trashed and left the kettle on the stove. The bastard got out unscathed.”
    “Oh... I