Headphones still on, Kizu turned to look at the snowy garden outside.
The small leaves of the azalea hedge shivered under the thick layer of snow; the snow-covered stems of the withered hydrangea leaves shook with the wind. Kizu noticed one clear difference between this scene and the one that greeted him on snowy mornings back in the States. At the thick base of the winter camellia, with its large white flowers, the snow was sticking to one side only. The snow was piled up on the branches and clumps of leaves, but the wind didn't budge it. At his apartment at the university the day after it snowed, the piled-up snow, as high as the roof and the trees, would blow up in the air and swirl around in dry and powdery flakes.
Gradually, though it was still muffled and at the same volume level, he could make out what Patron was saying. As he came to the end of the tape, one phrase in particular stood out: Thy will be done.
Kizu transcribed Patron's talk on the tape into the notebook. As he did so he felt a force pushing him back, interrupting the flow of the sentences, a force that had its roots in the quiet, calm measures in which Patron spoke.
Kizu couldn't reproduce this style in writing, and he was amazed all over again at the depth and intimacy that Patron and Guide had shared. Still, Kizu managed to finish a first draft, which he tore out of the notebook and placed beside the computer where Dancer was working.
"This is pretty flat and doesn't reflect Patron's tone of voice at all," Kizu explained timidly.
Guide has died of a brain aneurysm that was deliberately brought on by those who held him captive and, for a long time, harassed him in a kangaroo trial. The people in this group who victimized him were mem- bers ot the radical faction of our church at the time, ten years ago, when we did our Somersault. Several of these people belonged to the group that actually committed subversive activities. As a result these people, includ- ing ones who were legally sanctioned, took revenge on Guide and car- ried out their lynch-mob justice.
They were trying, after a ten-year delay, to make Guide take respon- sibility for the Somersault. But the Somersault was mostly my responsi- bility, something Guide did along with me. The relationship between Guide and myself continued all the while, from when it was just the two of us training ourselves spiritually, through when we formed a church, to the time when we undertook large-scale religious activities. The Som- ersault, too, took place as part of our longtime relationship. But I took the lead. It's illogical for the radical faction to kill Guide while not pur- suing me.
If they were aware ot this inconsistency yet still went ahead with it, it must be part of their strategy for the future. Their intention is to pro- voke me-but to what end? To direct me to perform another Somer- sault, this time without Guide backing me up?
What we did, though, makes that impossible. Having done our Som- ersault, the two of us tell into hell, where we stayed for ten years. lust when we found the strength to crawl out of this hell, Guide was tortured to death by those people who, clinging to their one-dimensional view- point, tried to force him into a backward Somersault. Now that he's been killed, all I have is a handful of trusted companions to help me begin my new movement.
This is what the people who killed Guide planned from the start.
They weren't really aiming at a reverse Somersault. Guide's refusal- unto death-to take a backward Somersault showed them exactly where we stood, stumbling up out of the abyss of our own private hell to begin again.
I'm announcing this to those who did not distort our Somersault and who patiently awaited our rebirth from hell. I am also appealing to those who only just learned about what happened to Guide and who want to hold him dear in their memory. Guide has been lost to us, but I, Patron, am taking a bold new step forward.
First of all, though, I will hold a memorial service for Guide. I would like to pray together with my new companions. Hallelujah! Thy will be done!
4
Dancer read Patron's announcement that Kizu had transcribed and, without expression, went to Patron's room to deliver it to him. Ikuo was up by this time and came over, and Kizu told him about the job he'd just com- pleted, urging him to listen to the Walkman. Ikuo, too, had a hard time at first in trying to turn up the volume. After he was finished listening, he said, excitedly: "Patron seems to be focusing on those who still believe in him and people who individually got in touch with him. But wouldn't this include people left over from the radical faction? Won't they respond to Patron's announcement too? Not those who were directly responsible for Guide's death, of course; that's out of the question. But don't some of these former faction members still want to take radical action?"
"You really seem to be interested in what moves that group is going to make," Kizu asked. "This meeting that Patron's going to hold is his way of memorializing Guide."
"Patron announced he's starting a new movement," Ikuo said, "so after the service there's no way he can retreat back into the hell he fell into after the Somersault. Not that I understand much about this hell or anything-"
Dancer rejoined them, interrupting Ikuo, who was about to say more.
"Patron says the announcement is fine," she said to Kizu. "He told me once that when he and Guide used to be engrossed in work together they'd invari- ably argue. Guide's task, as you know, was to take from Patron what could not be put into human language and somehow make it understandable, right?
I imagine, Professor, that as you listened to the tape you struggled with the same thing."
"But what I did was different from what Guide used to do," Kizu said, "which must have been an amazingly difficult undertaking. There's a con- text behind the nuances of what Patron says that I can't quite grasp, and I'm afraid I had to content myself with writing the sort of humdrum sentences anybody can come up with."
"I was talking with Ogi about creating a home page on the Internet for our new movement," Ikuo cut in. "People could access that and listen directly to Patron's announcement. What do you think?"
"Please don't get our Innocent Youth involved in all kinds of extrane- ous work," Dancer replied, sidestepping his question. "While he's busy at the hospital and crematorium, I'd like you to take care of the business here that needs to be done. I want to pass this announcement to the media, so I'd like you to input it into the computer."
Ikuo stretched out a long muscular arm to take the loose-leaf pages and began running his eyes over them.
"Patron said it's fine the way it is."
Undeterred by the way Dancer had flared up at him, Ikuo began in- tently working under Kizu's attentive gaze. Did the tension between these two young people have its origin in their conversation during their forced march through the snow the night before? Kizu wondered.
Less than an hour later the front doorbell rang, and since Dancer and Ikuo were engrossed in their work it was left to Kizu, ensconced on the sofa, to answer it. He stepped down onto the concrete floor of the entrance, unlatched the lock Ikuo had fastened, and found Ms. Tachibana and a young woman standing just outside the front door. The snow-covered garden behind them was excessively bright. Backlit by this, the pale young woman was introduced to him by Ms. Tachibana as her friend Ms. Asuka; Ms. Asuka merely nodded her head in greeting. Ms. Tachibana continued.
"There's someone outside the main gate who says he made a TV pro- gram about Patron before the Somersault," she said. "He hasn't seen Patron in fifteen years, and asked if Patron would be willing to meet him."
The three of them went to the office and found Dancer on the phone.
She soon held the receiver out for Ikuo.
"It's Ogi," she told him. "He says a bunch of people showed up at the hospital who are causing trouble. But he doesn't want the hospital to call the police to clear them out."