Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"Before they pass on tonight, the Quiet Women are praying that they can atone in your place for what you did. They're also praying that you're repentant after having fallen with Guide into hell and after Guide had to atone with his death. They're cleansing your image so you can be an appropriate leader for the new church. They've already typed up a prayer on a word pro- cessor and prepared a thousand copies. It's a direct prayer to God but also an appeal to their former colleagues in the church and an announcement aimed at the media. To the Quiet Women you are no longer the Patron who medi- ates between man and God. They're trying to reestablish the bond between you, repentant, and God.

"In their discussions so far, the Technicians recognize how inscrutably adroit you were in doing the Somersault. They're optimistic that after you hear about the Quiet Women passing on you'll deliver a sermon responding to that and cancel the Somersault once and for all."

The window started to get lighter. The leaves were still dripping, but the rain had let up.

Patron closed his eyes and lay back down, while Morio, who was awake all this time, didn't move a muscle. Ogi felt sorry for both of them. But Patron's words after a long silence didn't reflect any of these empathetic feelings.

"Dancer feels very strongly that this is beyond her," he said. "I'm afraid I've dragged her into some foolish things. And you too, Ogi. I imagine that the church from now on won't be the same Church of the New Man that I was hoping to make with you two. When you leave the Hollow, Ogi, I'd like you to take Dancer with you."

It bothered Ogi that Patron hadn't mentioned Ikuo, but Ikuo didn't respond to this. Instead, he spoke of other things, his tone changed.

"Friday night convinced me that the popular interpretation of the Som- ersault in the media was absolutely correct," Ikuo said. "In other words, you feared the mass suicide of your followers, so you took humane steps to pre- vent it. But if the Quiet Women commit mass suicide now, that will just add insult to injury. So I'm going to make sure that not only will their plan fall through but also they'll be so sick they'll give up any alternate ideas too. I've got it all set to go.

"Dr. Koga will be helping me, but I don't think I'm making him feel he's a traitor to his fellow Technicians. I have two plans, Plan A and Plan B. Which of the two it'll be is up to me, not Dr. Koga. While the Quiet Women are recovering, I'll put one of those plans into effect. All you need to do is persuade people in a humane way. Once the Quiet Women aban- don their mass suicide of atonement, I suspect the radical elements of the Technicians will be so deflated they'll leave. Then the followers reunited at this conference will support your humane church, with the Quiet Women, who've given up on passing away, at the center.

"In order for all this to happen, you'll need to use the sermon today to set the direction you'll be going in. Emphasize this humane approach. The name of the church, Church of the New Man, should help."

"This Plan A and Plan B you mentioned, let's say what you do tonight is Plan A. Well, what is it?" Patron asked, sitting up in bed. Morio sat up too and gazed at Ikuo with the same expression on his face as Patron.

"It's as much of a farce as your Somersault. Dr. Koga's going to give me twenty-five doses of a powerful laxative."

At this Ogi couldn't help but let out a high-pitched giggle.

"Dr. Koga will also prepare twenty-five doses of a second kind, as part of these two plans. There's no toilet in the chapel, so they'll have to break their siege. But after they've had such terrible diarrhea, they won't have the strength left to climb high enough to hang themselves, will they?"

Patron and Morio both looked as if they loathed the faint smile that played around Ikuo's now-silent lips. But this didn't bother Ikuo. He turned his gaze first to Patron, then Morio, and finally to Ogi-who was holding his tongue after his previous slipup-as if appraising their reactions one by one.

"I'd like you to make sure that plan succeeds without fail," Patron said.

"On your way out, would you ask Dancer to come in here? If Ogi takes her place, I think she can leave the office for a while."

"I'm going to let Ogi go for the clay," Ikuo said. "Even if he were to go back to the office, we're not expecting any important calls today, so I think it's okay for him to sneak off for some R and R with his friend."

Once more Ogi was flabbergasted.

"There's something else I'd like Dancer to tell you," Patron said, in undisguised disgust for Ikuo. "She's the one-not Professor Kizu-who has the greatest influence on you now."

Late in the afternoon-in another little innocent tale-Ogi, thinking he might as well go along with what Ikuo suggested, vanished for a while, and then, after he got back, received a proposal from Ms. Tachibana, who'd been awaiting his return. She wanted to tell him that she wouldn't be able to take Morio to hear Patron's sermon in the special seating set up between the grandstands and the area below the monastery.

The music played for Part One of the Spirit Festival was captivating, with its exaggerated changes of rhythm, but there'd been some capricious disparities that Morio, with his sensitive ears, couldn't stand. (During Part One of the Spirit Festival, innocent young Ogi, too, had heard the music loud and clear as he and Mrs. Tsugane were trysting deep in the forest.) Ever since the incident, two days ago, Morio had been upset and didn't seem able to re- cover. Ms. Tachibana said that during Part Two of the Spirit Festival she was going to make him lie down in Patron's bedroom, ear plugs in place. Right after Part Two was finished. Patron would begin his sermon, but by that time it would be impossible lor them to push their way through the dense crowds to get to their reserved seats.

Even after the rain cleared up it still wasn't very hot, and the evening was pleasant. Just before Part Two of the Spirit Festival was to begin, Asa-san and her husband, the former junior high principal, had planted themselves in the special roped-off seating, where Ms. Tachibana and Morio would normally be, and the principal was explaining to Ogi about the music used in the Spirit Festival. The rhythm was the same you'd find in boat dances in fishing vil- lages along the Shikoku coast and on the islands of the Inland Sea, he said, which lent credence to the legend that the pioneers who settled this land had rebuilt the boats that used to sail down the Maki and Kame rivers to the sea and used them to sail upstream.

Since he'd left the office untended during his afternoon R and R, Ogi was busy until Part Two of the Spirit Festival began. With the Quiet Women using the chapel exclusively after 7 P.M. on this, the last day of the conference, he was inundated with one complaint after another.

The conference participants were planning to enjoy watching Part Two of the Spirit Festival from the seats set up on the path that circled the lake and then listen to Patron's sermon. After that, some of them complained, shouldn't all the believers be given equal access to the chapel for prayer?

Another complaint came from a group that had been lined up in the court- yard, talking and waiting their turn to view the triptych, when the Techni- cians roughly pushed ahead of them.

Ogi also had to listen to one well-intentioned report. When Mr. Matsuo of the Fushoku temple heard that Ogi hadn't seen Part One of the Spirit Festival, he described the whole thing to him from start to finish. Mr. Matsuo was in charge of lending out dolls, costumes, and props to the participants from his own temple and the Mishima Shrine, and he'd observed every detail.

Just as the Fireflies procession had been changed to a course running through the forest surrounding the lake on three sides, the procession in Part One of the Spirit Festival that started at 3 P.M. was also a revised performance.