How is the theme of escape depicted within Habara's receipt of Scheherazade's stories?

After describing the skill with which Scheherazade delivers her intriguing and titillating stories, the narrator states, "Enthralled, Habara was able to forget the reality that surrounded him, if only for a moment" (115). Murakami then adds a simile to further enhance the escape theme, writing that when Habara listened to the stories, he "became like a blackboard wiped with a damp cloth...erased of worries, of unpleasant memories"