Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"I thought it was going to work out, having the former junior high principal's wife pulling for you," Dancer said, a note of dissatisfaction in her voice, though Kizu was already resigned to it.

After dinner, Ogi and Dancer still had work left to do, so Ikuo and Kizu left them at the office, leaving behind a few cans of beer. When they'd left their house on the north shore of the Hollow the wind had made them shiver, and now while they'd eaten dinner the wind whipping down the north slope had gotten even colder and was accompanied by a thick fog, unseasonable even for these woods. The only light was set up where the path through the court- yard ran downhill, so the rest of the time they walked in darkness.

Kizu called out to Ikuo, who was shining his flashlight on the fog- shrouded dam as they walked along.

"They say the dam was made to collect water from the river and from natural springs, but it's really an amazing amount of water-even in the dark you can sense that. One older person who used to act as electrician at the former Izu Institute proposes to redo the lighting around the chapel and the monastery. He says he'll also put a light that will burn all night at the corner where we turn to go up to our house. Can't have anyone falling in the lake, now, can we."

"The Technicians who've moved here have really been working hard.

I imagine they think that if they do, this place can become a good foothold for them. Things have gotten pretty lively at the farm since they started work- ing there, that's for sure."

Very considerately Ikuo moved behind Kizu so as to light up the path ahead for him. With this young man so immersed in his work, though, Kizu felt more and more left behind.

The next Sunday, Ikuo left near dawn to join the Young Fireflies in their training as they made one complete circuit of the forest. Despite his physical condition, Kizu didn't find it hard to get up early, so he joined Ikuo for break- fast before he set off. Afterward, afraid of the dull pain that sometimes hit him right after he awoke, Kizu wrapped himself in his blanket, opened the window on the lake, and sat looking at the swirl of thin fog outside. The birds weren't yet chirping, and bees buzzed halfheartedly around the leaves of the oak trees, dripping with the fog.

Before long-from the woods that ran behind the monastery on the heights of the opposite shore, where the fog was lifting-he could sense a line of people cutting through across the woods. He could hear the sound of trees being struck and lush branches snapping-all to the accompaniment of the sound of soft-soled sneakers, so this wasn't some herd of animals. Was it re- ally natural for people used to walking through the woods to make so much noise? Perhaps, Kizu considered, Gii was deliberately having his boys cause a commotion to advertise their presence.

Two hours later Ikuo was back, redolent of fresh foliage and grasses, and he asked Kizu if he'd noticed them passing by in the woods. Racing through the forest with a group of young men seemed much better able to revive him than spending time shut up indoors with an older man. Kizu just listened as Ikuo enthusiastically talked about what he'd found out about Gii.

"He seems to be about fourteen, though his mother has never disclosed his birth date, so even on his family record it's not clear how old he is. This is why Gii says there are people here who insist he's adopted or even stolen. Did you know that until she graduated from high school, Satchan lived as a man?

"Anyhow, Gii's only about fourteen, but he lives with a woman, if you can believe it, an old friend of Satchan's who came back here awhile back; she does dyeing. Gii helped her collect the tree branches she needed for her plant dyes and that's how they became friends. Gii says he finds it amusing how, no matter what he says, the older woman always replies, 'No way!'"

That afternoon, Kizu and Ikuo happened to run across that same woman at the crossroads at the main bridge. At first Kizu thought she was bald. The head on top of her well-balanced muscular body had sparse red- dish hair wrapped around it.

Just as it had upgraded to having vending machines, the general store at the crossroads had begun to accept parcel post deliveries, and Kizu wanted to check on the art materials donated to him by the store in Tokyo. Accord- ing to the owner of this local shop, a thin, gloomy man who never looked you straight in the eye, several boxes had indeed been delivered, but this was before anyone from the church had moved into the Hollow, so he'd returned them to the main office in Matsuyama, where they were in storage.

After some tiresome haggling with the owner, they agreed that he would go pick them up, provided Kizu paid for it, the owner finally coming out from the entrance of the old wooden building to accept their documents. A woman who had been in the back of the dirt-floored entrance preparing a long box for shipping ran after him.

"Hello, Professor! It is Professor Kizu, isn't it? I'm Mayumi, the one you helped arrange an exhibit of Japanese dyed cloth in New Jersey. I'd heard from Gii that you were here."

Kizu searched his memory as he gazed at the woman, clad in a white – and indigo-dyed dress, her face with its taut tanned leathery skin smiling at him.

"I must look very different to you, I'm sure. I used to have quite luxu- riant hair, but this spring I developed a rash from the dyes, and look what's happened. I'm sorry if I startled you."

Kizu's memory was still a little hazy, but Mayumi was sure he remem- bered her and continued, bashful at her own recollections.

"Would you mind talking for a while? There's no coffee shop along the river, but there is a nice little place just right for having a talk."

Kizu and Ikuo agreed, and Mayumi led them on, a basket woven from arrowroot swinging at her side.

"Just up the river from the main bridge there's an old bridge at the next curve in the road. No one drives on it anymore, and it's perfect to sit there and have a chat or to cool off. In fact that's how the local people have been using it."

The bridge had a weathered railing made of coarse granite, with a line of logs set up to keep cars out and thick knobby stumps and short logs ar- ranged for people to sit on, making the bridge into a small park. Mayumi led them to the center.

On the opposite shore a grove of zelkovas formed a screen with their still, soft, light-green leaves. Seeing Kizu observing the trees so closely, Mayumi explained about the zelkovas and the broad-leafed woods on both sides of them.

When she moved into the small house next to the farm, construction on the cross-Shikoku highway bypass was in full swing, and the cypress and cedar woods had all been mercilessly leveled. Cracks and holes appeared all through the broad-leafed woods that ran down to the riverside. But in the years since, the forest had recovered, and looking from below, at least, greenery covered the remaining wall of the bypass that ran though it-so much so that if a major economic downturn came and the bypass were to close, trees and vines would soon cover the slope completely, returning it to the state it was in before human beings inhabited the valley.

"It's past the season for it, but when the new leaves are sprouting and the flowers are in bloom it's a remarkable sight. Over there are beeches and oaks. And just up the river a little way when the kpjii flowers are in full bloom, a shiny golden light-green, they're absolutely magnificent. Behind the chapel it's all one line of dark green, right? Those are Chinese hawthorns, and the place where they come together with the kpjii is beautiful. The temperature's cooler than by the river, and it's in the shade for a long time, so the flowers were in full bloom until a short while ago."