How? Like this

[zellerzone]

Hey,down there! Mr. Wind-Up Bird! shouted May Kasahara. In a shallow sleep at the time, I thought i was hearing the voice in a dream. But it was not a dream. When I looked up, there was May Kasahara's face, small and far away. "I know you're down there! C'mon, Mr Wind-Up Bird! Answer me!

"I'm here," I said.

"What on earth for? What are you doing down there?"

"Thinking," I said.

"I don't get it. Why do you have to go to the bottom of a well to think? It must be such a pain in the butt!"

"That way, you can really concentrate. It's dark and cool and quiet."

"Do you do this a lot?"

"No, not a lot. I've never done this before in my life--going into a well like this."

"Is it working? Is it helping you to think?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still experimenting."

She cleared her throat. The sound reverberated loudly to the bottom of the well.

"Anyway, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, did you notice the ladder's gone?'

"Sure did," I said. "A little while ago."

"Did you know it was me who pulled it up?"

..."Hey, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, you know what? You might die down there, depending on my mood. I'm the only one who knows you're in there, and I'm the one who hid the rope ladder. Do you realize that? If I just walked away from here, you'd end up dead. You could yell, but no one would hear you...You don't really believe me, do you, Mr. Wind-Up Bird? You don't think I could do anything so cruel."

"I don't really know," I said. "It's not that I believe you could do it. or that I believe you couldn't do it. Anything could happen. The possibility is there. That's what I think."

"I'm not talking about possibility," she said in the coldest tone imaginable. "Hey, I've got an Idea. It just occurred to me. You went to all the trouble of climbing down there so you could think. Why don't I fix it so you can concentrate on your thoughts even better?"

How can you do that?" I asked.

"How? Like this, she said, closing the open half of the well cover. Now the darkness was total.

-Haruki Murakami