Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"Ikuo wants me to answer questions from the Fireflies, but first I hope you'll indulge me by letting me ask some questions of my own," Patron said, still seated, returning Gii's gaze. "How did you come to make the Fireflies?

You might very well want to ask us why we came here to make a church, but first I'd like you to answer me."

Gii's face showed a boyish bashfulness and a bit of pluck, for what both he and his companions wanted was straight talk, not beating around the bush.

"It might be a little unexpected to start off answering this way, but the basic reason we made the Fireflies and the reason you have this building are the same-the declining birthrate in Maki Town.

"The Church of the Flaming Green Tree built this chapel, and right afterward the church was dissolved and the building was supposed to be donated to the junior high. The town council decided that the land where the monastery is now was to be made into new classrooms. But foreseeing that the number of children going on to junior high would decrease, the council abandoned the plan. Your church expressed an interest, and it was a conve- nient out.

"Since long ago in this region, second and third sons went off to the cit- ies to find work. Because the birthrate is now low, most of us are only chil- dren and have ended up living at home. That being the case, we decided to find a positive reason for staying here. Every one of us agrees with that. And that's how the Fireflies began. Could we ask some questions now?"

Patron nodded silently.

"While we were out training this morning, we discussed what we should ask you. Most of the requests were along the lines of having you tell us in simple terms what it means to believe in God. We hope you won't yell at us and just say that's a childish question-something you can't explain in simple terms-but we'd still like to hear what you have to say."

Dancer, mouth characteristically ajar, turned her gaze to the space above the Fireflies. The overlapping new green leaves in the oblong window on the forest side of the concrete wall were, until a moment ago, clearly visible, but now they were darkly shaded, meaning that the treetops were gleaming brightly. A faint smile came to her lips. Kizu wondered whether she found Gii's innocence amusing but decided that wasn't the case. As one might ex- pect of Patron, he neither made light of Gii's question nor did he try to side- step it.

"As you all know," Patron said, "I'm a person who's done a Somersault.

I'm not the kind of person, then, who can very well use God and belief in the same sentence. However, based on long experience I can say that even if God is completely out of the picture, one can still speak of belief. This gets a little tricky, but belief involves viewing oneself vertically, not just thinking along a horizontal axis.

"You've seen satellites being launched on TV, right? Just as the rocket goes whoosh! up into the sky, your thoughts rise to be the central axis around which you live. Climbing straight down a deep root is another way of look- ing at it. They're both the same thing."

Patron was silent and bent forward slowly, as if pondering his own remarks.

In contrast to the ruddy faces of the young men, the skin around Patron's eyes flushed in his otherwise round white face, a sign that he was excitedly concentrating, as well as irritated that he wasn't able to explain things as simply as they wanted. Kizu was fascinated by Patron's words, something he shared with the Quiet Women, at least the ones in his field of vision.

"Before the Somersault they say you often went into deep trances," Gii said, "and that you'd have these terrible visions. But that once you woke up and tried to tell what you saw, you couldn't do it alone."

"That's correct. As I'm sure Ikuo has told you, that's exactly right,"

Patron replied.

"We understand that your helper was Guide."

"Yes. It was like two people running a three-legged race. But now he's dead."

"So do you plan to train a new interpreter?"

"If only I could, that would be wonderful," Patron said with a frank sadness, his tone appealing, but different from before. "Problem is, since the Somersault I haven't had any deep trances."

"They say that by doing the Somersault you made a fool out of God."

Patron knit his brows together in a rather feminine way at this and took a deep breath. Kizu could feel the tension, not only in the Quiet Women but in the Technicians as well.

"That's right. My Somersault made a fool of the God I'd been connected to through my trances. It's quite okay to say that. Afterward Guide and I fell into the pit of hell, and that's where Guide died. It's not entirely clear to me whether I've managed to rise up out of there myself."

"So you mean this is hell?" Gii asked. The Fireflies let go with a burst of laughter to release the tension.

Kizu listened to Gii's typical adolescent laugh. Patron, a blank look on his face, gazed around at the laughing young men, for all the world like some plump dull pigeon.

"Patron's been very honest in what he's been saying," Dancer said, tak- ing it on herself to break the silence that followed the laughter. This was directed less at Patron than at the others, her voice loud enough for the Quiet Women and all the Technicians to hear. "But maybe this is something hard for young people to understand."

"Patron has been saying what the Fireflies wanted to hear," Ikuo an- swered back.

"What we don't understand right now, we'll review when we go home.

Just like they always taught us at school," Gii said, in a frank yet reserved way, and his friends burst out laughing again.

"Hard to tell which are the adults here," Dr. Koga whispered to Ikuo, in an amused tone.

"I'd like to continue with our questions, since we didn't come here to study how to enter Patron's church," Gii went on. "Our plan is to take over what He Who Destroys-in other words, the first Gii-began in these woods so long ago. The Base Movement aimed at following his ideas in improving production in the village and in improving young people's attitudes toward their own lives, while the Church of the Flaming Green Tree concentrated on prayer.

"In one sense this man was a kind of god, so people tried to do what they did out of a belief in him. I think both movements did only half of what they should have done. Our plan's to carry out both aspects. What you've said here about prayer is very helpful. Assuming, of course, that I under- stood it… "So now you've come to this sort of place and are going to make your church here. Right now the Fireflies are just a group of people. Once we establish our own headquarters, we might very well have to fight you, but at present if we can join together to do something to shake up the old folks in this region, that'd make us pretty happy. Well, those are our ideas."

As Gii finished speaking and plunked himself down, there was applause.

Kizu looked up and saw that it wasn't just the Fireflies who were clapping but some of the Technicians, too.

The next day Ikuo, who'd gone to ask Patron what he thought of the meeting, reported to Kizu that Patron had found these "new men" quite intriguing.

Everyone agreed that, apart from Dr. Koga's activities in his clinic, Ikuo was the one who'd been working the hardest since the move to the Hollow.

The meeting he'd arranged between the Fireflies and Patron and the other church members was not an isolated event but part and parcel of his overall activities. During the meeting it never came up that the leader of the Fireflies was the son of the owner of the Church of the Flaming Green Tree Farm. However, Ikuo was enthusiastic about restoring the farm operations, especially by getting meat production back to its previous level. Several of the Technicians were interested in this and, with Ikuo as their leader, were on the verge of mastering the necessary skills. The office agreed to the plan and to having most of the Technicians spend their time at the farm.