==== //app/sfdc/java/src/org/apache/lucene/index/SegmentReader.java#9 - c:\dev\sfdc\java\src\org\apache\lucene\index\SegmentReader.java ====
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@
   // Compound File Reader when based on a compound file segment
   CompoundFileReader cfsReader = null;
 
+  /** If true, it will always loads the norms into memory, if false, it will load them from disk
+      Unless the indexes are short lived, this should be true. */
+  private final static boolean LOAD_NORMS_INTO_MEM = true;
+
   private class Norm extends NormFactors {
     public Norm(IndexInput in, int number)
     {
@@ -83,7 +87,10 @@
     }
 
-    public byte getByte(int doc) {
-        return bytes[doc];
+    public byte getByte(int doc) throws IOException {
+        if (bytes != null) return bytes[doc];
+        // OK, we don't have bytes, so we need to seek the input stream (i.e. READ_NORMS_FROM_DISK).
+        in.seek(doc);
+        return in.readByte();
     }
   }
 
@@ -515,11 +522,12 @@
       Norm norm = norms.get(field);
       if (norm == null) return NormFactors.getEmptyInstance();  // not indexed, or norms not stored
 
-      if (norm.bytes == null) {                     // value not yet read
+      if (LOAD_NORMS_INTO_MEM && norm.bytes == null) {                     // value not yet read
         byte[] bytes = new byte[maxDoc()];
         norms(field, bytes, 0);
         norm.bytes = bytes;                         // cache it
       }
+
       return norm;
   }