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On the plane ride down (up?) to Canada, I kept my nose buried in Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I've been reading and not reading this book for a while and really need to finish it both because I have a pile of others waiting and because it's terrific. Anyway, I was so into the book that I didn't notice we were landing and as the plane was touching down -- at the exact moment -- I was reading the part of the story where the words to the song Kafka on the Shore are revealed:

You sit at the edge of the world,
I am in a crater that's no more.
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.

The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard,
Little fish rain down from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.

(Refrain)

Kafka sits in a chair by the shore,
Thinking of the pendulum that moves the world, it seems.
When your heart is closed,
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx,
Becomes a knife that pierces your dreams.

The drowning girl's fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes--
at Kafka on the shore.

On the flight back and also as the plane landed, I read these words:

"The entrance opened up, thanks to you."
"You know something, Gramps? I mean, Mr. Nakata?"
"What is it?"
Faceup, eyes still shut, Hoshino took another long, deep breath and exhaled. "It better have opened up. Otherwise I killed myself for nothing."