Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"Since I moved here I've been living communally with Patron-the Founder, as you call him. I'd met him-and Guide-about a year before in Toyko, and we'd had a number of chances to talk. After we moved here our relationship has gotten closer and Patron modeled for my painting. Still, I never felt he was intentionally treating me. I remember once he told me he'd take responsibility for my physical condition, but he never did anything that made me feel he was consciously working on it, and I can't say that Patron is prepared to treat anyone, either those in the church or those outside. Even so, to answer your question, I feel I did have a recurrence of cancer, which is now cured. And I've found myself believing that moving here and becoming closer to Patron had an effect on what has happened to me."

Kizu stopped speaking, and though he thought nothing he'd said was very well put, the man who'd asked the questions and those around him un- expectedly broke into applause. And then, from beside them, standing because there weren't enough seats, an elderly man, slightly built, but whose chest under a dark blue shirt was unusually muscular, spoke out loudly without waiting to be called on.

"I don't have one of those tickets you need to ask a question, but I'm a blacksmith and farmer from the outskirts, and I think people from out- side might not fully understand what Professor Kizu's saying unless I add something!"

Ogi went over quickly to have a few words with this man who, although it wasn't yet noon, was obviously a bit tipsy. He didn't make him leave but made it quite clear that certain guidelines had to be followed.

"Okay, I get it!" the man said. "I'll cut to the chase. My son Kaji died of lung cancer and a brain tumor. At one point, though, Brother Gii, who built the chapel in the Hollow, used his touch to heal my son's liver cancer. The doctor at the Red Cross Hospital said the cancer had shrunk an incredible amount.

"I believe there's a power in the Hollow that raises people up who have a healing touch and draws them in from elsewhere. Wasn't it this power of the land that brought out the Founder's healing power? In this new church, too, you should make this healing power available to all those suffering from cancer! From his grave I'm sure Kaji would want this."

The man who asked the first questions, not paying any heed to this sec- ond man, interrupted. "We're really counting on the sermon tomorrow. But if at all possible, either before or after the party today, can we meet with Patron? We've all come a long way, hoping we could." And he bowed his head, as did the tipsy blacksmith-cum-farmer whose pronouncements had been cut short.

That was the end of the press conference, and in the stir as the report- ers, TV crews, and participants all stood up, the American reporter, Fred Parks, who was accompanied by Mrs. Tsugane, came over to the long table where Kizu was still seated.

"I think it's very wise the way you've allowed the interested parties to debate the internal issues of the church in front of foreign reporters," Parks said. "I've attended Aum press conferences, and they never let any problems they might be having among themselves see the light of day."

"That's right, Fred," Kizu replied. "Our church is different from both Aum Shinrikyo and from your country's insistence on sticking to principles no matter what."

"Those cancer patients are so sad," Fred said. "It struck me that maybe you never had cancer to begin with. If that's the case, you're one sly fellow- sitting there with a straight face like one big billboard for the church."

While the two of them were talking in English, Mrs. Tsugane tilted her newly permed head toward Ogi and whispered something. Kizu had wanted to ask Ikuo if there was anything he could do to help out between the after- noon program and the evening party at the Farm, but Ikuo had disappeared while Kizu was talking with Fred.

After Mrs. Tsugane left the dining hall with Fred, Kizu went over to where Ogi was standing with Dancer-who'd come in near the end of the press conference-facing the window on the lake side, deep in conversation.

Despite their intense tête-à-tête, Ogi saw Kizu, turned around to him, and said, "Would you talk with Dr. Koga for us? He has a problem the office can't deal with."

Ogi was so tense as he said this it made Kizu turn to look around him.

With a worried look, Dancer glanced up at Kizu but didn't say anything and looked away. As Kizu walked over to where Dr. Koga stood, surrounded by cancer patients, and others who were no doubt family members. Dr. Koga cut off his talk with them and made his way out of the crowd toward him.

Kizu had never seen such a serious expression before on Dr. Koga's well- formed features.

Ogi went out ahead of them. In the courtyard between the two build- ings of the monastery there were enormous mobs of people, not just those leaving the press conference but other participants, talking in groups, stroll- ing the grounds. Kizu and the others headed toward the chapel. The necks and arms of everyone they passed were sweating profusely. Dr. Koga, too, walking just in front of Kizu, kept wiping his neck with a soiled handker- chief. The sunlight was dazzling, and the clamor of cicadas poured down on them from behind Patron's residence.

Ogi unlocked the door to the office, let the two of them in, told them to lock the door behind him, and left.

Dr. Koga cut across the first room to the room nearest the lake, and was standing by the fax machine, a pile of faxes beside it, about to reach out for them automatically when he stopped short and fixed an unsmiling gaze on Kizu.

"Ever since he saw the Fireflies last night, Patron's been quite fright- ened and not himself. Ikuo restrained him and calmed him down, but Patron's quite strong and gave him a hard time. And that's not all."

Dr. Koga explained that the night before, as the Fireflies were perform- ing, Ikuo had visited Patron to show him the plan for enlivening Patron's sermon on the final day.

A ceaseless line of people, headed toward the chapel and back, was pass- ing in front of Patron's house, and the constant stir had Morio on edge. Two Fireflies stood guard outside the front door, which stood about five yards up a slope from the courtyard, and with people posing one after another in front for souvenir photographs, the normally unflappable Ms. Tachibana, too, was uneasy.

Patron spent quite some time preparing for his sermon on the final day.

He wasn't scheduled to appear at any other functions until then, but at that time he would be speaking in front of an expected crowd of some one thou- sand people, seven hundred registered participants plus casual visitors from Maki Town and its surroundings. Even during the heyday of the church before the Somersault, Patron had only spoken to such a large crowd a hand- ful of times.

The plan that Ikuo brought over to discuss with Patron was a proposal he'd received from Gii's mother by way of Gii. Satchan was grateful to Ikuo for taking the Fireflies under his wing and helping them expand to the point where adults in Maki Town approved of the group. She was also allowing the church to use the cypress island in the Hollow, land she owned, in their conference and had made the church a proposition.

The giant tree, half destroyed, was awful to look at, even though new leaves appeared on it every year. The cypress was the remains of what hap- pened when Brother Gii, planning to dissolve the Church of the Flaming Green Tree and leave the area with his wife, Satchan, burned down the tree in place of the chapel. The next morning, as Brother Gii set off with a small group of pilgrims, he was stoned to death by attackers.

Fifteen years later, it still pained Satchan to look at the horrible sight of this burned and mangled tree still standing. "If you cut down the tree and use the land as a small park," she said, "I'll give the island to the church."