One of the cicada's forelegs was missing its first joint, and as it tried to clam- ber up the higher edge of the butterbur leaf it tumbled down in a comical way.
"I imagine it must have been pretty surprised after spending a thousand days tucked away under the soil to emerge and find it doesn't have enough legs to cling to the trees. Would you choose a branch where its cry can be heard easily and put it there? The reason they cry is in order to mate, right?"
Ogi took the cicada, leaf and all, and placed the poor little creature on the branch of an oak that faced the lake, the leaves heavy after the rain.
When they stood at the entrance to the house set aside for Patron, an entrance made up of round stones held together with cement, they remem- bered they had left all the keys for the other buildings on top of the lectern in the chapel. Dancer went back to retrieve them.
For the five minutes she was gone, the sound of the water coursing down the channel from the forest into the lake grew noticeably louder. Worried about Dancer, Ogi peeked in from the entrance of the chapel carved into the wall. In front of the space between the lined-up chairs and the far wall, Dancer was down on her knees, leaning against the lectern. Ogi removed his shoes, went inside, and found her gazing up at him like some young girl who'd been beaten as she pointed in front of her. On the floor lay a small unblemished little skull facing in their direction. Thigh bones, ribs, and other large bones were laid out to form a complete skeleton, the finger bones and other smaller bones pushed over to one side. Next to this were fragments of bones, like small branches, laid out to spell YOUNG FIREFLIES.
Dancer's shoulders shuddered slightly, and in a tearful voice she said, "I thought that was a sign, but all it was was them stealing the keys to this place and doing this. In the morning we weren't likely to come over here, so they grew impatient and kicked up a racket. I can't believe how cunning these people are who don't want Patron's church here."
2
After Ogi made a call from the office beside the chapel, Asa-san got in touch with Mr. Matsuo, the head priest, and they both rushed over. They didn't think the bones had anything to do with a crime, but they didn't dis- turb them until finally Asa-san told Mr. Matsuo to gather them all up in a cardboard box. Ogi returned to the office where he'd made the phone call, and Asa-san told them about the YOUNG FIREFLIES.
"That's a name found in legends from the Old Town, the section apart from Maki Town. The name and practice died out long ago, but when one of the elderly people in the main house of my family passed away, they re- vived the practice at his funeral because he put great stock in the old customs.
I think I have a good idea where those bones came from.
"I'm sure you got this impression yesterday when you looked up from the road along the riverbed, but the land around here is shaped like the in- side of an urn. Young Fireflies refers to a custom where the young people ot the town light torches and climb up to the top of the forest at night. The young people here just liked the name, apart from the ceremony associated with it, and gave it to their young men's association.
"Children are basically very conservative, you know. Your moving in here marks a change in the status quo, so they're against it. I'd heard rumors that they were eager to do something to express their opposition. If this is what they came up with, I'd have to say it's pretty scurrilous. Scurrilous is the word old people use here when something's vulgar… "Since it's come to this, I'll have my husband talk with the junior high principal.
"Be that as it may, I was in charge of the keys for this building. I thought if I let them make spare keys for the chapel, they might use it for their junior high chorus practice. But they've repaid good with evil, you could say. It's all quite scurrilous, and I'm ashamed and truly sorry you had to be upset this way."
The next day, Patron, accompanied by Ms. Tachibana and Morio, arrived at the Matsuyama airport. Twenty or so former radical-faction members joined them there, having driven down from Tokyo in a caravan of sedans and a minivan. After linking up with Kizu, Ikuo, Dr. Koga, and Mr. Hanawa, who'd arrived at Matsuyama Station on the Yosan Line, the entire group arrived at the Hollow in force.
Apart from Dancer and Ogi, this was the first contingent of the new church to arrive in the area, and a few local people waited along the road by the riverbed to watch their arrival. In the lead car Morio sat next to Patron in the backseat, dressed quite stylishly in a long midnight-blue overcoat, gray chinos, and lightly tinted metal-frame glasses. Seeing him sitting there gaz- ing up with his splendid forehead and strongly etched nose, someone reported later to Asa-san that he was sure Morio must be the founder of the church.
Having set up his residence in the Hollow, Patron decided to meet within the week with the widow of the founder of the defunct church who had trans- ferred the chapel to them. With so many new people coming from the out- side to live in the area, the question of securing enough food for all of them had become a pressing matter, and as one practical step toward solving this, Asa-san introduced the widow, Satchan, the owner of the Farm, to Patron.
Asa-san had been hoping that Patron would talk to Mr. Matsuo, her- self, and others who had been connected with the Church of the Flaming Green Tree about the new church he planned to start here. The people of Maki Town, too, had expressed the same hope, and now that the church had actu- ally begun moving in, they again proposed such a meeting to Asa-san, who was acting as intermediary between the church and the town government.
One practical issue soon arose. The group in Maki Town opposing Patron had already published a broadside revealing that the former radical faction would be participating in Patron's restarted religious movement and that one of the leaders of this faction, Mr. Hanawa, would be living here with his colleagues to help Dr. Koga. What's more-and this was the critical point- the town would be hiring Dr. Koga to run the clinic in the Old Town. As before, objections sprang up among the town leaders that the former radical faction, the one the newspapers had accused of the death of Guide, was going to be moving into the Hollow.
These issues would normally have been discussed by the mayor and Patron, but Patron was asked beforehand to talk in an informal town hall meeting with local citizens.
Asa-san, who had already convinced Ogi that she was a person who held considerable sway locally, as well as someone who didn't beat around the bush when it came to formulating plans, proposed that Patron first meet with Satchan, and Patron agreed. Dancer took advantage of this opportunity to ask Ogi to seek a more detailed explanation than they'd heard before as to how the former radical faction was to be dealt with.
What worried Ogi most was that the widow of the founder of the Church of the Flaming Green Tree might not like it if internal affairs of the church were discussed with local people-especially in the chapel. But Satchan agreed to attend, as long as Asa-san and Mr. Matsuo were also there, and for the first time in a long while entered the chapel that her church had once owned. Town officials had also wanted to attend, but Asa-san had been able to limit their attendance to just a few of the more influential members.
"How do you feel about the religion you've created, leading people to salvation- and about your own salvation?" Satchan asked, to start off the meeting.
"Well," replied Patron, recoiling somewhat, "didn't you and your late husband also found a church?"
"Satchan merely wants to ask an honest question of someone who is involved in a similar movement-and in the same place, no less," Asa-san explained encouragingly.
"I don't feel so much that I'm continuing some teachings of the founder of our church," Satchan explained in a softer tone. "I spend more time con- sidering how my husband felt about things himself, as a flesh-and-blood human being. I believe he tried to lead his followers to salvation, but when I remember how he died I wonder whether he cared about his own salvation at all. I've been pondering this for quite some time."