Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"I'm afraid I don't have the strength to make it over to the south shore,"

Kizu said.

"Then let's have Patron come over here. When I pressed Dancer about when Patron would be posing for you again, she said it all depended on your condition."

"Have you been able to meet with Patron directly?" Kizu asked.

"I'm sure people will think I'm a hopelessly pushy woman, but I asked permission through Dancer and was allowed to videotape Patron's Sacred Wound. It was my first job since I came here. On the tape, Patron is naked from the waist up and Morio is wiping the wound with gauze that has a peni- cillin ointment on it. The outlines of the Sacred Wound are quite distinct, kind of a kitschy color, and the whole thing's quite wonderful. As I filmed I was able to talk with Patron and learned something surprising. I thought he'd already started the new church, but he said he hasn't yet."

"Since we moved to the Hollow, Patron's said quite a lot about the new church, though," Kizu said. "The Technicians are busy with their own work, the Quiet Women are getting deeper into the sort of prayer meetings that have Asa-san worried, and I must admit I interpreted all this activity in the same way as you-that the new church had already been established."

"Patron seems to want to use the summer conference as the venue for officially launching the new church," Ms. Asuka said. "The office has the same idea, and Ikuo has talked with me about recording the whole conference on video. Though we'd have to budget for people to handle the sound and the lights."

"There aren't many days left, but maybe Patron's planning something really remarkable for the summer conference," Kizu said. "Maybe all the ex- citement that's swirled up since people found out about the Sacred Wound has had an influence on him. I guess I'd better hurry up and finish my triptych."

"I'll go talk with the office staff, then, about having him come over to your studio to model. This Sacred Wound fever even seems to be getting to me, doesn't it?"

If tomorrow there's a breaks in the rainy season and it's warm and sunny, I'll come to your studio to model for you. Patron had entrusted this message to Ms. Asuka, on her way home after lunch the next day, much to Kizu's surprise. The weather was fine the next day, and though the surface of the lake, bloated by the rains, was a dirty brown, it clearly reflected the cylindri- cal chapel and the long walls of the monastery.

Early that morning a large ruddy-faced man with cropped white hair showed up on the north shore and with steady strides made a circuit of the grounds around the house. He seemed to be appraising the trees, washed to a brilliant green by the rains that had only ended two days before, and when his gaze met that of Kizu, who was reading in bed, they nodded a greeting to each other. The man was Asa-san's husband, the former principal of the jun- ior high school, who'd come to trim around the house. He looked a little chilly in his long-sleeved high-collared shirt, but once he started working he had to wipe the sweat away with the towel draped around his neck.

He started by pruning the trees visible from the window that faced the lake. As he trimmed, the rich white flowers of the camellia and the pome- granate, the latter a faded light purple due to lack of sunshine, emerged from the overgrown clump of greenery. Next year, Kizu thought, I won't be around to see these flowers. He turned his gaze outside from time to time, to find the petals of the camellias, wrapped in pods and now exposed to the sun, trimmed in a neat horizontal line that was attractive enough, but lacking its previous otherworldly feeling.

In the afternoon Ms. Asuka threw open the window facing the lake to see how warm it had gotten, and the room was filled with the volatile fra- grance of newly cut branches. For the first time since his most recent illness, Kizu had on the jeans and loose cotton shirt he favored when doing some serious drawing.

Patron arrived at Kizu's house at two-twenty. It had taken exactly twenty minutes for him to go from the south shore along the weir and up the slope on the north shore. Patron had been less concerned, it appeared, about his own physical condition than that of Morio, whose legs were slightly impaired.

Patron was in the best shape he'd been in in quite some time, and emo- tionally upbeat as well. Kizu had always thought of himself and Patron as virtual contemporaries, but now he had to admit that he was no match for Patron when it came to vitality. Patron had changed into summer clothing, which also added to this impression. Below the stiff collar a deep U-shaped depression was visible, and his maroon shirt stood out under his ice blue jacket.

Morio wore an identical set of clothes.

"I've really been looking forward to modeling for you," Patron said, by way of greeting. "Now that I see you I realize you're fit enough to go back to painting. Shall I sit down here? The sun was so warm I'll be glad to get out of this jacket and shirt. You don't want me completely nude, do you?"

Morio smiled happily as if he'd just heard an amusing joke. Ms. Asuka took Patron's jacket to the bedroom and then adjusted the chair and footstool for him. As he checked the reflected light off the lake, Kizu adjusted the cush- ion at Patron's back, while Ms. Asuka brought in another chair for Morio.

Preparations went smoothly, but when they reached the point where Patron was about to remove his shirt and tank top, Kizu couldn't help but tense up. Patron, though, cheerfully stripped down, removed the palm-sized gauze covering his wound, wrapped it up in fluttering strips of surgical tape, and tossed it on Morio's lap. Morio took out a plastic bag from his pocket and stuffed the gauze inside.

"This is the first time I've been able to get a good look all the way to the bottom of the wound," Patron remarked. "The antibiotic Dr. Koga gave me seems to be working. Before, I just had this vague notion of the hole being a certain size, wider than it is deep, but now I can see it's heading straight for the heart. I asked Dr. Koga about this and he said it's only to be expected- seeing as how it's a sacred wound.

"Well, how would you like me to pose? I understand I'm supposed to supplement Ikuo's Jonah."

"Just sit facing me is fine," Kizu replied, and began sketching. Ms. Asuka stood behind Kizu, videotaping the proceedings. The video camera was com- pletely silent and didn't bother Kizu. After some twenty minutes Patron spoke up.

"Modeling's hard if you don't talk. The last time you sketched me I was only half conscious. Is it all right to talk?"

"That'd be fine," Kizu said. "Though I'll mostly listen, if you don't mind."

"Seeing you after such a long time reminded me of something I'd wanted to tell you," Patron said. "It's delightful to have such a diligent listener."

Patron spoke smoothly and cheerily, though his topic was quite serious.

Kizu had somehow sensed that it would be.

"At the memorial service for Guide, I announced I was starting a new church. You'll recall how I also said that I'm one of the countless antichrists who will appear at the end of the world and vowed to oversee this new church as one of these antichrists. I didn't just blurt this out. It's something I've been pondering for the past decade. It's not surprising that I restart my church as an antichrist, but I was pretty worked up when I said it, and it's placed me in quite a predicament. It would be a lot easier if I'd kept this idea of being an antichrist to myself.

"So I had to think and think about the best way to rebuild the church.

The process of moving here alter the memorial service, getting everything ready, is very likely the final obstacle in my ten years of being in hell. Guide isn't with me, yet things are moving forward. I felt driven into a corner."