Somersault

by Kenzaburo Oe

  “But when we moved here I didn’t think about it, and the day before yesterday I asked Dr. Koga to give us some antibiotics. But he told me that if Patron needed them he’d better examine him. That’s what was bothering me and why I was so cross with Ikuo.”

  “So Dr. Koga doesn’t know about Patron’s wound?” Kizu asked.

  “Guide and I were the only ones who knew. And then Ogi happened to see Patron in the bath once.”

  “Until the Somersault, though, Dr. Koga took care of Patron, so wouldn’t he have noticed this wound?”

  “If it’s something that appeared after the Somersault, Dr. Koga wouldn’t know about it, would he? Guide never told me when the wound first appeared, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask Patron directly. But now with the church starting up again, pus is coming out and it scares me. The wound shouldn’t have appeared after the Somersault, should it? When Patron was relating his visions and calling on people to repent there was no wound, but now, after the Somersault, there it is.... Or maybe the wound is God’s punishment for the Somersault. That scares me, too.”

  Her skin flushed, the color so different from before, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Her eyes, glistening with tears, clung to Kizu. Kizu didn’t feel like going where the overwrought Dancer’s question led. He had to shift to a different question, one with a different answer.

  From his experience running seminars, Kizu knew he had to divert Dancer from the question she’d raised. Instead, using some down-to-earth language he knew would sound dubious to this young woman, he said; “Let me ask Dr. Koga about getting some antibiotics. At my age I can’t claim it’s gonorrhea, but if I say I have some pus coming out of my urethra, I think he should give me the medicine to help Patron without insisting on examining me first.”

  Dancer looked blank for a moment, but was soon her old self again.

  24: Viewing the Sacred Wound

  1

  Kizu, however, didn’t find the time to negotiate with Dr. Koga, for the day after he talked with Dancer the situation changed abruptly. Ogi was taking care of things at the office, and Dancer had gone out to the dining hall for a late lunch when an anxious phone call came from Ms. Tachibana.

  It was warm that day, almost summery, and Ms. Tachibana’s call was not unconnected with this rise in temperature. Patron had had a fever since morning and couldn’t get up, so Ms. Tachibana had brought him breakfast in bed. When she fetched his lunch, he had thrown off his covers because of his fever and the hot weather, and the upper half of his body lay exposed. But what threw her into a panic was Morio, curled up at the side of the bed at Patron’s legs, with yellow pus covering both eyes, one ear, and his nose and mouth.

  Ms. Tachibana had screamed, and Morio flopped his arms and legs around like a baby turtle but was panicked, unable to open his eyes. Patron was awake and sat up in bed. That’s when Ms. Tachibana saw the red hole in his chubby left side, pus oozing out.

  By the time Ogi ran over, Patron had fallen asleep again, and Morio’s head and face had been wiped clean. Ms. Tachibana, though, was still struggling with panic, her shoulders trembling as she insisted that Patron had a wound in his left side. Apparently wanting to take care of Patron, Morio had pressed his face against it and had gotten covered with pus. Ms. Tachibana insisted that Dr. Koga take care of Morio’s eyes and his precious ears so that no bacteria invaded them, but insisted even more loudly that he come over right away and treat Patron’s wound.

  Dr. Koga was in his clinic. Making his excuses to his patients, he promptly boarded the car Ogi had brought around. Ogi reported to him that the wound in Patron’s side was festering, and learned that Dr. Koga, Patron’s longtime doctor, had no knowledge of this wound, which had not closed up for years.

  “So what you’re saying is that, since you first saw it, the hole in his side has remained open?” Dr. Koga asked. “And that it’s festering and causing the fever? Have you taken his temperature? . . . Well, that’s okay. Dancer’s not there. I can imagine how flustered you were and why you raced right over.”

  When he entered the bedroom where Patron lay, Dancer was back from lunch. Dr. Koga handed her his medical bag and told her to open the window on the forest side to let in some cool air. Morio was up, changed into a fresh shirt and trousers, but still looking thunderstruck. After checking his eyes and ears, Dr. Koga ordered Ms. Tachibana and Ogi, as well as Kizu, who’d been summoned, to escort Morio out to the living room.

  For whatever reason, Ms. Tachibana had kept the rooms shut tight while Patron was in bed with his fever, but now they threw all the living room windows wide open. Morio sat directly on the floor, choosing an FM station on the stereo, the sound of a string quartet, or perhaps a sextet, filtering out for a moment before he slipped on the headphones and went into his own little world.

  Ogi leaned forward near Kizu and Ms. Tachibana, and they spoke in low voices.

  “I had no idea he had that hole in him,” Ms. Tachibana explained, “which is why I was so shaken. Dancer just told me about it. I can imagine how unpleasant it must be to have had that for so long! Mrs. Shigeno said that Patron’s being in hell was no metaphor, and I’d have to agree.”

  “I just happened to hear about the wound yesterday from Dancer,” Kizu said. “It’s much worse than I imagined.”

  As you’d expect of a craftsman whose eyes are the tools of his trade, Kizu’s expression showed that the afterimage of what he’d seen was still fresh in his mind.

  The two of them were silent, so Ogi felt obliged to tell his own impression of the wound in Patron’s side—something that was actually more Dancer’s idea than his own. “Well,” he said, “I certainly consider his wound rather extraordinary, though I’m not at the point of thinking of it, as Dancer does, as a Sacred Wound. Patron is certainly a man of special gifts, someone who’s had great hurdles to overcome in his life. I never imagined I’d be working for a person like him.

  “Even so,” Ogi went on, “I don’t think my devotion to him has any mystical coloring to it. Nothing of Dancer’s insistence that the wound in Patron’s side is a condition of his sanctification. That’s been my attitude toward Patron, and I don’t think it’s put me at a disadvantage. Dancer, though, has a lot invested emotionally. She feels it’s her responsibility that the wound in Patron’s side she’s been taking care of when she bathes him and so on should have started to fester; this has really upset her.”

  “Dancer thinks Patron’s wound getting worse like this after we’ve moved to the Hollow might be a premonition that something’s going to occur with the new church movement,” Ms. Tachibana added.

  Kizu looked as if he’d heard this before, but Ogi gave it some thought and, though he hadn’t figured it all out himself, told them what was bothering him.

  “Dancer hasn’t confirmed this herself, but according to what Dr. Koga told her, that wound apparently appeared after the Somersault. When I happened to learn of this wound by chance,” Ogi went on, “I didn’t have any proof, but I was sure it must have been there ever since he started his church. You know—since people who start religious movements must be different, it was a sign that he’s chosen. Following this logic, even after abandoning his doctrine and his church, Patron must still be an extraordinary person since he still has the wound. Maybe this way of thinking only goes to show why people call me an innocent. But don’t people who are outside a religion tend to sanctify the people within it, even though they’re not necessarily influenced by them?

  “Once I heard that the wound appeared after the Somersault, though, my simplistic way of interpreting it was as God’s punishment, as a sign of disgrace. Isn’t that why he called himself an antichrist? But whether it’s a holy sign or sign of disgrace, one thing’s for sure—I can’t view this Sacred Wound from a neutral standpoint anymore, as if it has nothing to do with me.”

  Ogi, though concerned about what was going on in the next room, had become more and more absorbed in his own impressions. He could feel Kizu’s eyes on him, a leisur
ely look that reacted positively to what he was saying. Ogi felt embarrassed by his final, excited words, but Kizu took up where he left off.

  “About this Sacred Wound,” Kizu said, “to use the term you seem to have settled on: I wonder how Ikuo will react to having had this kept secret from him by his fellows in the church. That might be a problem. Just as you say, Ogi, I can’t imagine Ikuo being unmoved by it. Two days ago, I think it was, Ikuo and Dancer debated whether or not to have Patron pose naked in my triptych. Dancer let Ikuo have his way without revealing a thing about an injury.”

  Just then Dancer and Dr. Koga emerged from the bedroom. Dancer turned to Kizu and spoke in a decisive voice.

  “There’s something I’d like to say. I’m the one who confused the situation, so first of all I’m going to go over to talk with the Quiet Women. I assume they’ve all heard the details of what Ms. Tachibana saw, and I’d like to apologize for keeping it a secret.

  “Dr. Koga says the key thing is how the Technicians react. They shared a life of faith with Patron until the Somersault and believe they’re somehow privileged, so we really have to put our heads together to come up with a convincing way of explaining things to them. To them, Ogi and I are just some assistants who started working during Patron’s period of inactivity, so it might be better if Patron spoke to them himself.”

  Dr. Koga went over to take a look at Morio, who was still absorbed in his music, his head turned completely away from them; then he turned toward Dancer.

  “Aren’t you’re being a little too emotional about this?” he said. “I can understand how seeing Patron suffer with this fever might make you react. But being overwrought and attacking the church organization is only going to lead to trouble.”

  “So being overly calm about it is better?” Dancer asked. “You said we need to wait until his wound is cleaned up and his fever is down, and we shouldn’t let the news about the Sacred Wound spread beyond those who’ve actually seen it. But I don’t think that’s what’s important.”

  “What is important?”

  “How the church moves forward. After Patron suffered for ten years, he’s restarting his movement—which is the whole reason why he moved here. And right afterward something happened to the Sacred Wound he’s been concealing. Isn’t that significant? I’d like to apologize to Professor Kizu too,” Dancer went on. “I opposed his plan to use Patron as a model to help complete the painting for the chapel. But seeing how things are, I realize I was wrong. Please feel free to go into the bedroom and sketch him as he is, suffering from the wound in his side. Dr. Koga can wait a while before bandaging it up.”

  2

  At dinner that evening, Ogi didn’t run across either Ikuo or Kizu in the dining hall. Dancer went off to discuss the Sacred Wound with the Quiet Women at the Hollow and with the Technicians at the Farm, but she didn’t show up later at the office. Ms. Tachibana and her brother were staying with Patron.

  As Ogi ate his solitary late supper, one of the Quiet Women, Ms. Oyama, came up to him. She’d already heard from Ms. Tachibana and Dancer about Patron’s fever and all the attendant happenings. She didn’t, however, express any concerns about Patron’s health. Instead she invited Ogi to attend the prayer meeting the Quiet Women would be holding that evening at eight in the chapel to pray for Patron’s recovery.

  After dinner, in the interval before the meeting, Ogi stopped by Patron’s residence. According to Ms. Tachibana, the antibiotics hadn’t started working 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 bowlcut 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 notebook. 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 worsened recently, leading to a terrible fever. Today Patron is not yet fully conscious, 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 painting in the chair her mother uses in her work.”

  Having taken care of the mother and daughter’s official change of residence 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 nowadays 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 between 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 descended.

  “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, announcing 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.