Read Paprika for Free Online Page B

not popular, if that’s what you mean. He’s isolated, a loner. I can’t decide whether the problem is his scientific aloofness or his artistic temperament. He’s stubborn and won’t listen to others. He understands nothing of strategy and even argues with me sometimes.”
    “But you feel protective toward him.”
    “Frankly, it’s getting to be a bit of a pain. Though yes, he is a valuable person.” Noda noticed how terribly tired Paprika looked. “Well, it’s getting rather late, isn’t it. Should we leave it there?”
    “Thank you. And sorry. It’s just that I’ve got an early start tomorrow, and there are still things I need to do.”
    “All right then, that’s it for now,” said Noda, getting up quickly. “I look forward to the next session.”
    “Right. I’ll be in touch.”
    “By the way … Paprika?” Noda said as he made to leave. “That second part of the dream? Does it mean I should protect Namba more than ever, because he has so many enemies?”
    Paprika opened her eyes wide and laughed. “That’s maybe how Jung would have seen it! But I think something else caused your neurosis. Something to do with your school days, I’d say.”

6
    It was already past one in the afternoon when Atsuko finally arrived at her laboratory. She’d been up all night studying a memo of questions from the newspaper companies.
    A press conference had been called for two o’clock. The memo contained a schedule of the questions to be asked; the newspaper companies always provided them in advance. Atsuko usually needed to prepare the answers beforehand, partly because Kosaku Tokita was such a blubberingly inept speaker. And since there were always bound to be some questions that weren’t on the memo, Atsuko had to prepare answers for the hypothetical ones as well.
    Atsuko ordered Nobue Kakimoto to make two copies of the answers and to take one each to Shima and Tokita. Then she made some coffee. She loathed press conferences. There would always be some jumped-up new science or academic correspondent who really thought he knew his stuff, but just asked the same old questions as everyone else. No matter that Atsuko had answered that very question ad nauseam in the past; they still expected her to provide a neat, easy answer every time. On this occasion, as it happened, the news that Tokita and Chiba were leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine had started to circulate. There were bound to be a few social affairs correspondents who were itching to ask banal questions about that; it was Atsuko’s job to protect her naive colleague from them.
    Torataro Shima had always insisted that it was important to inform society of the Institute’s achievements and enlighten the public as to the value of its research. But to Atsuko, attending a press conference simply meant being exposed to public view in a way that was barely welcome. In her view, the journalists weren’t interested in noting some form of higher intelligence in the young, beautiful woman called Atsuko Chiba. They hated the idea that she was their intellectual superior, and merely seemed bent on finding something in her that would reinforce their preconceived image of Japanese femininity.
    At five to two, an employee from the Secretariat came to call Atsuko. The Meeting Room reserved for the press conference was already humming with the chitter-chatter of more than two hundred journalists and photographers. The room was like a pressure cooker ready to blow.
    The seating arrangement had been decided long ago by Torataro Shima. As always, Atsuko sat in the center with Tokita to her right and Shima to her left. Behind them in the corner sat the Secretary-General Katsuragi, who acted as moderator. Once Atsuko had taken her seat, the party was complete. Some social affairs correspondents who were attending for the first time let out involuntary gasps of astonishment at her ravishing beauty, which even exceeded its reputation. Atsuko wore