Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

After dinner, in the interval before the meeting, Ogi stopped by Patron's residence. According to Ms. Tachibana, the antibiotics hadn't started work- ing yet, but Dr. Koga had been able to alleviate the pain so Patron was able to sleep. Fortunately, Morio's eyes and ears were unaffected. Dr. Koga had told her that when she found her brother by Patron's bedside, his eyes unable to see, his inert form was a sort of empathetic response to the feverish Patron.

When Ogi entered the chapel he found the piano pushed toward the front and the barber chair set in front of the rows of chairs, with Mrs. Shigeno and Ms. Takada and several of the other Quiet Women surrounding a young girl with short dark hair cut in straight bangs, deep in conversation. In the half circle of chairs sat some of the other Quiet Women and, behind them, ten or so middle-aged Technicians.

Ogi sat down in a vacant aisle chair. From there he could see the bowl- cut girl was holding a large frame that hid nearly half of her. It was Kizu's pencil sketch of Patron he'd done that afternoon, the wound colored in with pastels.

The time for the meeting to begin came, and the young girl, at Mrs.

Shigeno's direction, went to sit in the high barber chair, setting the picture frame on her lap. The drawing was more visible than the girl, for only the shiny top half of her head showed above the frame.

Mrs. Shigeno went to stand by the chair, rested a hand against the high armrest, and turned to face the audience. Ogi opened his red-covered note- book. Mrs. Shigeno, aware of the fine acoustics, spoke in a subdued tone.

"We have maintained our life of faith through Patron," she said, "who connects us with the Almighty. Still, we knew nothing about the Sacred Wound. Now, though, all of us are aware of what has been happening to him physically. According to the details Ms. Tachibana and Dancer have given us, Patron has had this unhealed wound for a long while. His condition wors- ened recently, leading to a terrible fever. Today Patron is not yet fully con- scious, so we'd like to hold this prayer vigil to pray for his speedy recovery.

"First of all I'd like all of us to consider deeply the drawing Professor Kizu did of Patron in his sickbed. We've asked Mai-chan, who's come with her mother, Mrs. Tagawa, as a new member of our church, to hold the paint- ing in the chair her mother uses in her work."

Having taken care of the mother and daughter's official change of resi- dence forms and the girl's school transfer papers, Ogi had heard the girl's name before. It had struck him as urban and contemporary, and Asa-san, who'd helped with the paperwork, had said, somewhat contemptuously, that nowa- days in Japan the most popular names for children were Daiki for boys and Mai for girls.

"As I said at the outset, it is through Patron that we've been able to lead our lives of faith, both when we were in the church and afterward, and now in his new church. Still, until these recent events, the only ones who knew about the Sacred Wound were those who took care of Patron after he and Guide did their Somersault.

"Having this ever-open wound in one's side must be very unpleasant, especially for a man. Right now bloody pus is oozing out, which led to the fever.

Patron's temperature this evening is just over 101 degrees Fahrenheit. When he was found with Morio, unconscious in bed, I'm sure it was much higher.

One item on our prayer list, then, should be a prayer for his fever to go away.

"When Ms. Tachibana discovered the two of them, Morio's eyes and ears were covered with the matter coming out of Patron's wound; his head seemed to be made of yellow clay. Apparently Morio was trying to respond to Patron's suffering. Let us also pray that Morio stays well.

"As we pray, we'll be hearing some music Morio composed depicting a sister and brother being led to heaven by Patron." (This evening, instead of Ikuo playing, one of the Quiet Women sat very seriously at the piano and played the piece over and over for about ten minutes.) "Since Patron hasn't said anything about when he first had the Sacred Wound, Dancer doesn't know anything definite, but according to Dr. Koga, when he gave Patron a physical before the Somersault it was not present.

"This means the wound came about during the ten-year interval be- tween the Somersault and the restarting of the church. Undoubtedly Patron has had it during the entire period in which he fell into hell. We recognize this hole in his side as a sign of a holy person, as a Sacred Wound, and we recognize his suffering with great joy.

"We joined this church hoping to be led to heaven by Patron. Instead, we had to go through the trials and tribulations of the Somersault. But our faith in what awaits us in heaven has never wavered. We knew in our hearts that someday Patron would appear again on the path to lead us.

"With a sense of nostalgia, and also sadness, we wonder what sort of painful place Patron is wandering in now. When we met him again and he told us about the hell he and Guide had fallen into, we could visualize this hell right before us. We have learned further that this descent into hell carved the Sacred Wound into his side. For what he has revealed to us, we are all grateful to God in heaven. Hallelujah! The wound is a sacred sign that links the Patron before the Somersault with the Patron afterward. God made him shoulder this painful wound so he might survive the hell into which he'd de- scended.

"Guide, who fell into hell along with Patron, did not have a Sacred Wound. If he had, the police would have made it public after his death, an- nouncing it as resulting from the rough treatment he received. Instead of suffering from a wound, Guide's fate was-at this final stage of the descent into hell-to die. All this was God's will, just as Saint Peter was crucified upside down and the disciple John lived to a ripe old age "Through the darkness Patron passed through, and through this wound that was a part of his suffering, Patron shouldered a mission, one we need to reflect on deeply. The day is near when Patron will fulfill this in his church of light. Isn't that exactly the message we should get from the suffering he's going through?

"Last week at our early morning prayer service, Asa-san told us about Former Brother Gii, who lived here, researching Dante, and how he was killed after starting a reform movement. After she spoke we had breakfast together, and she asked how the names Patron and Guide came about. We weren't able to give a complete answer. Asa-san told us what she'd picked up from Former Brother Gii concerning Dante's Divine Comedy. In Dante, Virgil is the one who appears soon after Dante falls into hell, who accompanies him to the highest point of purgatory, where he says goodbye to his disciples who are continuing on to heaven, only to remain behind himself. As Dante called him the first time he met him, Virgil is both a poet who is a patron, a teacher for all mankind, and a guide for people who are ascending from hell. Weren't the roles that Virgil undertook alone the ones your leaders undertook as a team? she asked.

"What Asa-san said made me think very deeply. After the martyrdom of Patron's indispensable colleague, like Virgil he undertook both roles-that of Patron and of Guide-when he returned to be in our midst. Did he do this to lead us to the highest point of purgatory and then say farewell and return alone once more to hell?"

Mrs. Shigeno stopped at this point and turned around to see what the audience was gazing at; the drawing of the recumbent Patron with the wound on his side on top of the barber's chair shook ever so slightly, startling her. Mai, a sensitive girl, was weeping. As if to soothe the poor young girl, Mrs. Shigeno signaled to Ms. Tagawa, today dressed quite fashionably, her hair in a mannish Takarazuka dance-troupe cut, and ended her sermon.