Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

As if waiting for this opportunity, one of the Technicians who had been sitting behind Ogi-a scientist who, it was said, was an expert in astrodynamics and who'd done orbital calculations for NASA satellite launches-signaled that he wanted to speak. Mrs. Shigeno nodded to him, and he made the sort of comment one might expect from a rocket scientist.

"I'm sure many of you have seen, when a rocket launched toward the moon reaches a certain altitude, that the propulsion device separates and in- scribes a track like-a burning leaf. I can picture Patron/Guide as a rocket in- scribing a huge arc as it strays away."

Mrs. Shigeno picked up where she left off, tying her sermon together with what had just been said.

"I think that's exactly right," she said. "I believe Patron is resolved to help us to the very end to reach our apogee, even if it means he'll descend to hell once again, burning up as he reenters. Doesn't this explain what he meant when, after the Somersault and losing Guide, he returned to be with us and announced he's an antichrist?

"After the Somersault, the Quiet Women resisted a host of tempta- tions that befell them. We maintained our faith in heaven, with Patron as our mediator. And now we know, more than ever before, that this was the right thing to do! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!"

Answering Mrs. Shigeno's almost pleading cry, the Quiet Women took up the same prayer, and then all at once switched to silent worship. Mrs.

Shigeno turned toward the drawing of Patron and bowed her head.

Desperately emotional again, Mai seemed about to drop the drawing on the footstool. She grasped the upper edge of the frame as hard as she could in her little red hands and, unable to cover her face, sobbed. The Quiet Women gathered around her, heads bowed, and continued to pray.

Ogi and the Technicians around him were overwhelmed.

Ogi had lunch the next day in the office, during which he had a good talk with Dancer. Having been out of the office for a day, he had a lot of e-mails, faxes, and phone messages to take care of. The idea to have a meet- ing that summer in Shikoku to commemorate the founding of the new church was in full swing. Believers from before the Somersault who had clung to Mr.

Soda's Kansai headquarters were urging Patron on now, and one of Ogi's tasks was to gather together all these communications and deliver them to Patron.

There was something else that he urgently needed to talk with Dancer about, but she didn't show up at the office until just before noon. As soon as she could, she told him that the concentration of antibiotics had reached the optimum level and Patron's fever had broken. The wound wasn't as inflamed as before. And Dancer had reported to Patron that all the believers who'd moved to the Hollow were now aware of the Sacred Wound.

"Patron didn't seem concerned about how his followers were taking the news. He did remember, though, that Kizu sat next to him and sketched him when he was half conscious, and he wanted to see the drawing. After the Quiet Women's prayer meeting, the drawing was taken over to the farm and the Technicians apparently held their own meeting in front of it. I imagine Ikuo saw it there too," Ogi concluded. "I wonder what he said about the wound being kept secret all this time."

"I haven't seen him since this uproar began," Dancer said worriedly. "I'd appreciate it if you'd sound him out about it. They're going to bring the paint- ing back from the farm to the studio this afternoon, and of course Ikuo will accompany it. Would you stop by then? I don't think Ikuo needs to know every last detail concerning Patron, but I'm sure he will have his own take on things."

Ogi was surprised that Dancer could be so nervous when it came to Ikuo.

As for himself, except for that comical and pathetic incident in the bathroom, Dancer probably would never have mentioned the wound to him, either.

"I attended the Quiet Women's meeting, and they have a pretty set way of thinking about the Sacred Wound," Ogi commented.

"Ms. Tachibana told me all about it," Dancer said. "She also talked with Patron, and said he seemed depressed. She wondered if he was feeling that his efforts all these years were wasted."

"Meaning…?"

Showing her tongue, as lusterless as her skin, she returned Ogi's gaze.

"Since I only starting working for them after the Somersault, I don't have the right to say anything about that, and I don't want to either," said Dancer. "But I did read the articles in the weekly magazines about the Som- ersault, and they bothered me, so I asked Guide about it. The media had a field day reporting the Somersault: How Patron sat down in front of the cam- eras and announced that their religious activities weren't for real and it was all an elaborate joke. When I asked Guide why he did that kind of perfor- manee, he said Patron wanted to avoid having the kind of situation you have in America with fundamentalists, when overwrought followers protest the pressure brought to bear on their leader or grow too pessimistic because they were hung out to dry. Seeing Patron play the fool before all of Japan, anyone could see it was pointless to take it seriously.

"But doesn't it put Patron in an awkward position to have people who empathize with him so much thrust aside and then, as he's rebuilding his church, to find them still offering their pathetic prayers to him?"

"The Technicians at the meeting seemed to be deeply sympathetic to the Quiet Women's position," Ogi said, "but I wonder how they'd react to what you just said."

"What I'd rather do is have you sound out Ikuo about the Technicians' ideas," Dancer said. "What concerns me most is how he's taking the fact that the Sacred Wound was hidden all this time."

When Ogi went up the road to the north shore of the Hollow and arrived at the studio, Kizu and Ikuo were looking at the sketch that Ikuo had just brought back from the farm. Ogi stood next to them, concerned about Ikuo's reaction, but Ikuo soon cleared away his anxiety.

"When we looked at the drawing of the Sacred Wound," Ikuo said, his use of the term already revealing his reaction, "we spoke of how terrible it must have been for Patron to have had it all this time. For Dancer, too, it must have been tough. It was bound to come out-it was just a question of timing.

All in all, I think this was the right moment."

The three of them turned their gaze to the framed drawing on the floor.

There was the reddish-black hole that Ogi had inadvertently seen in the bath.

He remembered the contrast between this hole and Dancer's protruding pudenda.

"I talked with Professor Kizu about this recently," Ogi said. "I think I'd like you to go ahead with Ikuo's plan to have Patron pose for you. There's no reason to hide this anymore, what with the Quiet Women en masse claim- ing it's a Sacred Wound. If this sketch helps you complete the triptych, this little affair will have done some good by having helped boot up our new church in the Hollow."

Kizu raised his eyebrows in surprise at the computer term boot up. "When you and Ikuo reach my age, you'll discover that not everything has to be meaningful," Kizu said, pondering the triptych anew.

"I understand Ikuo as the model for Jonah, but what theme would Patron express, with the wound showing in his side?" Ogi asked.

Ikuo was silent.

"The Sacred Wound fits in nicely with the person who acts as mediator between us and God," Kizu said. "But instead of having this wounded mediator trying to persuade Jonah, I'm beginning to see him more on Jonah's side, protesting with him, refusing to surrender to God."

"I like the ambiguity involved-having Patron model for a figure that can be interpreted in more than one way," Ikuo said. "The followers praying in the chapel can read it any way they want."