Two moons or none?

The taxi’s radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janáček’s Sinfonietta -- probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic. The middle-aged driver didn’t seem to be listening very closely, either. With his mouth clamped shut, he stared straight ahead at the endless line of cars stretching out on the elevated expressway, like a veteran fisherman standing in the bow of his boat, reading the ominous confluence of two currents. I settled into the broad back seat, closed my eyes, and listened to the music.

How many people could recognize Janáček’s Sinfonietta after hearing just the first few bars? Probably somewhere between "very few" and "almost none." But for some reason, I am one of the few who can

Frustrating period of time elapses where I try to relax with the music.
I looked ahead through the windows at the traffic. It wasn't moving! But I did see a small maintenance access ladder. I looked and I made a decision.

I pulled out my Ray-Ban sunglasses part way out of my shoulder bad and I took three thousand-yen bills from my wallet. Handing the bills to the driver, I said "I'll get out here. I really can't be late for this appointment."

The driver nodded and took the money. "Would you like a receipt?"

"No need. And keep the change."

"Thanks very much," he said. "Be careful, it looks windy out there. Don't slip."

"I'll be careful." I answered

"And also," the driver said, facing the mirror, "please remember: things are not what they seem." 

Things are not what they seem. I repeated mentally. "What do you mean by that?" I asked with knitted brows.

The driver chose his words carefully: "It's just that you are about to do something out of the ordinary. Am I right? People do not ordinarily climb down the emergency stairs of the Metropolitan expressway in the middle of the day - especially women."

"I suppose you are right."

"Right. And after you do something like that the everyday look of things might seem to change a little. Things may look different to you than they did before. I've had that experience myself. But don't let appearances fool you. There's always only one reality."

Well it wasn't me really it was a girl called Aomame (Ay-oh-mah-mee) and she is the heroine in the book 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors. After Aomame climbs down the stairway and has a strange experience coming down, she makes her way to a hotel in Shibuya, where she'll pose as a hotel attendant in order to kill a hotel guest. She performs the murder with a tool that leaves almost no trace on its victim, leading investigators to conclude that he died a natural death from a heart failure. So leads the story of why she kills him and then we (but not she) meet the character of Tengo, whose editor and mentor Komatsu asks him to rewrite an awkwardly-written but otherwise promising manuscript that had been entered in a literary contest. Komatsu wants to submit the novel to a prestigious literary agency and promote its author as a new literary prodigy. Tengo has reservations about rewriting another author's work, especially that of a high school student. He agrees to do so only if he can meet with the original writer, who goes by the strange pen name "Fuka-Eri," and ask for her permission. Fuka-Eri, however, tells Tengo to do as he likes with the manuscript.

Soon it becomes clear that Fuka-Eri, who is dyslexic, neither wrote the manuscript on her own, nor submitted it to the contest herself. Tengo's discomfort with the project deepens upon finding out other people must be involved.

They will both surmise that they are in an alternate version of Earth or some parallel world with lots of little differences along they way and the most noticeable one is that there are two moon's in the sky.

1Q84--that's what I'll call this new world, I decided.
Q is for "question mark."
A world that bears a question!
I nodded to myself as I walked along.

Like it or not, I'm here now, in the year 1Q84. The 1984 that I knew no longer exists. It's 1Q84 now. The air has changed, the scene has changed. I have to adapt to this world-with-a-question-mark as soon as I can. Like an animal released into a new forest. In order to protect myself and survive, I have to learn the rules of this place and adapt myself to them.

Sometimes I feel I see two moon's up there too. Either I'm funny or the world is funny. I don't know which. The bottle and the lid don't fit. It could be the bottle's fault or the lid's fault. In either case, there's no denying that the fit is bad.
Today, May 21 is set for no moon or moons as we prepare for a solar eclipse and it should be 88% totality here in Tokyo.

* The grey text is from the book 1Q84, chapter one - with the very slight alteration of inserting myself in the first person singular over Aoname's parts.