Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

But we couldn't be happier, could we, if, as these souls lift their faces from the dark abyss, the light reflected in their eyes is the light of our church?"

Patron stood up and bid the kneeling Ikuo to stand up as well. Ogi watched with a softened heart as Patron grew calm and gentle as he turned to Dancer. As everyone else rose, the woman named Satchan, widow of the founder of the church that had arisen here only to disappear, addressed Patron.

"I feel I understand what you mean when you keep saying you've been in hell for the last decade," she said. "I think about how wonderful it would be if my husband, who created the Church of the Flaming Green Tree, could have returned once more-as you have done. Ever since our church broke up, a handful of friends and I have kept running the Farm, and since most of the land and equipment has been dormant it would make me very happy if you could find a use for it."

Patron didn't respond aloud, but he bowed his head respectfully to her.

Morio, though, who had been sitting beside Ms. Tachibana and paying close attention to the conversation, walked over to stand between Patron and Satchan and began applauding, as enthusiastically as if applauding a violin soloist and her piano accompanist on an outstanding performance. That sound, with its gentle feeling of oneness, washed over everyone and rever- berated throughout the chapel.

After the meeting, Kizu was still worried about how the people of Maki Town would receive the church members. When he went to the teachers' office of the junior high school to consult with them about the art school he wanted to open, he couldn't help but raise these concerns after the prelimi- nary pleasantries were over.

"It's strange for me to try to speak objectively about this, since I'm one of those who moved here with the new church, but I'm quite surprised at how readily the townspeople have accepted the idea of our followers-including the former so-called radical faction-coming here. I would have anticipated a stubborn conservative opposition, but everyone seems quite flexible."

The junior high art teacher was cautiously silent, but Asa-san, who'd accompanied Kizu, spoke up confidently.

"The people here don't have the generosity to debate with those who oppose them in order to arrive at a compromise. But don't you find the same thing happening in cities? The reason the town authorities and the group op- posing you have basically consented is because Ogi was so efficient in passing around a list of names and explaining about the people who'll be coming here.

If I'm correct, there'll be one men's group and one women's group. The men's group is the one you speak of. There are twenty-five people altogether, and though it's true they're members of the former radical faction, its core will be a level-headed group led by Dr. Koga. Dancer said that after Guide's death the more proactive group washed its hands of the church and wouldn't respond even if Patron invited them to join. The other group coming is a woman's group called the Quiet Women, as I recall. Why would anybody oppose them?

"Even so, after our meeting in the chapel the head of the town council told me that once this initial move is complete he wants to hold on-the-spot inspections. I told him in no uncertain terms that inspections would violate human rights. Just yesterday in the Old Town, the antichurch faction pasted up new handbills and announced excitedly how they'd won a victory by ex- cluding the more extreme elements in the church from moving in, but that they mustn't let down their guard."

Kizu questioned Ikuo once more about this and was told that with Patron's lenient policy they expected a variety of people to join them. But when they sent out inquiries, many people turned them down.

"Maybe this is a good-sized group to start out with," Kizu said, encour- aging the depressed Ikuo. "Even if it stays small, it's important to have the more moderate people involved."

"The local authorities say they want to keep a watch over any radical elements in the church," Ikuo said, "but I'm more worried about the oppo- site-that now we've finally started to get things rolling the church will turn into an old ladies' club."

Ikuo's sarcastic remarks may have been a bit exaggerated, but they weren't unfounded. Though they might be hiding some militant attitudes, the first former radical members that were coming were, it was fair to say, a group that was completely into repentance at the end of the world. Rather than theoretical researchers, they were made up of the older experimental scientists who, even at the Izu Research Institute, had dubbed themselves the Technicians.

As for the old ladies' club, as Ikuo called them, actually he wasn't too far off the mark. It was made up of about half of the women Kizu had visited in their commune along the Odakyu Line, and though they had lived together with their children there, only the women would be moving to this new loca- tion. When he heard that the women would be occupying the monastery that surrounded the inner garden, Kizu had naively assumed that this was a tem- porary arrangement until the children joined them. But that wasn't the case.

Kizu had a chance to talk directly with the women in the church's new office, set up in the annex to the chapel, built outside the cylindrical building itself but separate from the monastery. That afternoon, after he'd finished having an early lunch in the cafeteria-which they'd constructed by tearing down the walls between three smaller rooms-Kizu popped his head into the office, expecting to find Ikuo but finding Ogi and Dancer instead, welcom- ing some women Kizu remembered seeing before.

Among them was Mrs. Shigeno, the widow of the hospital director and donor of the property, who greeted Kizu very pleasantly. "How was your lunch in the cafeteria? I'm sure it wasn't anything like the faculty dining room in your U. S. university, though I daresay it compared favorably to student cafeterias over there."

"It was very nice," Kizu said. "There isn't much difference between the faculty dining room and the student cafeteria in America."

"I'm happy to hear you liked it. We'll be the ones in charge of the church's cafeteria from now on."

As he talked with her, memories came back to Kizu of the greenhouse where they had been packing lilies into boxes and of the memorial service in his apartment's basement. A vivid memory came to him of Mrs. Shigeno speaking at the service, and he clearly remembered the other two women with her from the greenhouse. One of them was Ms. Takada, the young woman with the skin covering one of her eyes; the other was one of the leaders dur- ing the prayer time at the greenhouse, a Ms. Oyama.

Vaguely aware that Kizu might already know them, Dancer still went ahead and introduced each woman in turn. She explained that Kizu had been a longtime art educator in the United States, despite the fact that when he had visited their commune he'd given them his business card, and Mrs. Shigeno, in the way she had addressed him now, was obviously aware of his background.

"I'm really happy to hear that you'll be in charge of the cafeteria," Kizu said. "I've been fixing my own meals for far too long."

Mrs. Shigeno, explaining what they'd been discussing with Dancer, said, "It seems, however, that some people have raised objections about our faith.

Though they're happy we'll be running the cafeteria, they wonder why we emphasize our own sort of exclusive group prayer."

"To the point that they've even dubbed us the Quiet Women," Ms. Oyama added in a bemused way; a small woman, her build and expression suggested she was stalwart and dependable. "In political and religious movements alike, these factional nicknames usually start as a kind of insult, which then get fixed permanently. Like the names Anarchists and Quakers. The name Quiet Women, too, is somewhat negative, suggesting women who maintain a weird silence and aren't entirely to be trusted."