Ikuo put on his robe and turned around, his entire face one dark mass.
From out of that came a voice dripping with a childish youthfulness.
"When I argued with Dancer I didn't have any definite idea in mind.
But after what you said, I was thinking it made sense to have Patron in the painting as God, showing him persuaded by Jonah's protest.
"God's given up on it once but has now completely consigned Nineveh to the flames and is standing there with Jonah gazing down at the burning city. That was the vision of God I had."
"If that's the case," Kizu said, "it certainly makes sense to have Patron model for the painting. I'd say the theme for the third panel of the triptych is starting to gell."
That night, after Kizu woke up once and then fell asleep again, he had a dream. Dr. Koga always gave him a great variety and amount of medi- cine, and though he was diligent about keeping up the dosage of the anal- gesic suppositories, he wasn't very conscientious about taking the other medicines, picking and choosing the ones he wanted and taking less than the prescribed dose. Even so, he started to run a slight fever, which he put down to the side effects of the drugs. Whenever he had a fever he'd wake up in the middle of the night, confused about where he was and why he was there.
He switched on the light beside his bed, went to the bathroom, and on the way back, still doubtful of his surroundings, looked into the part of his studio where the canvases weren't covered; and as he drew back the curtain and gazed out at the far-off buildings bathed in moonlight, things became clear to him and his fear and confusion disappeared. But the feelings he had until that moment-the sense of being cut off from this scene and his sur- roundings-remained strong within him. He went back to bed and, after he turned off the light, was struck by the thought that what he'd just witnessed was a scene from after his death.
I'll leave behind this half-finished work, and in less than a year I'll be dead, he thought, and what will remain is that scene. These thoughts led him to consider how pointless his life had been. No, he thought, it can't be that meaningless. He struggled to conjure up significant incidents from his life but couldn't think of a single one; his chest tightened with sadness, and he turned on the light once more and gulped down a sleeping pill.
After all this, he was finally at the threshold of sleep, in the dangerous place neither on this side or the other side of wakefulness, when he saw Patron seated in the precious barber's chair, Ikuo standing beside him, and the two of them gazing down at a city engulfed in flames. Kizu felt relief wash over him. This was the long-pending theme of the third panel of the triptych.
Kizu got up late the next morning, no doubt due to the aftereffects of the sleeping pill. His house on the north shore of the Hollow was surrounded on every side except where it fronted the lake by a thick growth of beeches, Japanese oaks, and other deciduous trees. Kizu had heard that the diplomat who formerly occupied the house had planted the tangerine, citron, and lime trees in order to make a fruit orchard, but that was now overrun by the thick greenery of the camphor trees. Farther back, a layer of oaks formed a sound- proof wall.
As the greenery grew more luxuriant, the several-times-a-week march of the Firefies through the woods grew harder to catch. Instead, every morn- ing, not too early, Kizu heard a flock of Japanese tits, sounding like a fall rain, fly over in search of food. On this particular day the sound was like a ripple through his fitful sleep.
The strangely realistic chair he'd seen in his dream was the one he'd seen being carefully transported in the light truck on his way back from the drive with Dr. Koga. He'd seen it later on, after it was installed, so all the details had been accurate.
The chair that Mrs. Tagawa, the barber's wife and the church's first new member after moving to this place, had brought along with her grade-school daughter was set up inside the chapel. In that makeshift barbershop she started off cutting Patron's hair and shaving him. For many years Patron had had all his tonsorial needs taken care of at a shop in Seijo, and he was pleased with the results at Mrs. Tagawa's hands. Patron found the barber chair comfort- able, even saying that when the church officially restarted that's where he wanted to sit to give his sermons.
Designated as the church's official barber, then, Mrs. Tagawa offered her services to all the male followers and, if they wished, to the female fol- lowers as well. So whenever the chapel wasn't in use, it did double duty as a barbershop.
The day after Kizu had the dream of the barber chair, he went over after lunch to check out how well the barbershop was doing. Mrs. Tagawa-Hisayo was her first name-was probably around her mid-thirties, and dressed in the mannish way you often saw women barbers dressed in the countryside.
A large old sofa set up between the piano and the barber chair was occupied by three gloomy-looking Technicians. In the next stall the daughter sat with a Hello Kitty notebook on her lap, perhaps noting down the order of those waiting for haircuts.
Kizu stopped by the office, where Dancer was working alone at her computer. Thinking he'd like to get a haircut, since he hadn't had one in a while, he asked her if he'd have to wait long for his turn. Dancer looked up at him, mouth open, no trace of a smile on her lusterless face.
"I'll check the appointment schedule. The Technicians are all well edu- cated, but there's a bit of a herd mentality at work. Once one of them gets a haircut they all follow suit."
Dancer's eyes gazed at Kizu from her yellow-ivory face. Kizu was si- lent, so once more she slowly began to speak.
"Did you know that Ikuo and I had a quarrel over his idea of having Patron model half nude for the triptych?"
Kizu found it strange that Dancer would be preoccupied all this time about her argument with Ikuo.
"Yes, I heard. I still don't have a definite plan about the third panel, but I had this fleeting vision in a dream that told me not to worry, it's all settled."
"I always thought Ikuo was more the type to stay quiet when he has an idea," Dancer said. "I imagine you've heard about the wound in Patron's body from Ikuo. I figured Ogi told Ikuo, which piqued his interest, and that's why he came up with this notion of Patron modeling nude. I couldn't say this in front of everybody, which is why our argument didn't go any- where. If Patron models as Ikuo wants him to, naturally it would be stupid to try to hide the wound anymore. It seems like, with the new church about to be launched, Ikuo wants to put Patron in a position where he can't retreat."
Kizu knew that lashing out at him was her way of getting rid of her gloomy feelings, but he couldn't imagine what she meant by a wound in Patron. He brought a chair over, sat down across from her, and urged her to tell him more. Realizing suddenly that Kizu didn't know anything, Dancer balked. Still, she mustered up a determined look. He was reminded of the dauntlessness she'd shown when he'd first seen her as a young dancing girl so many years ago.
"Ogi hasn't told you anything about it because he promised me not to. Still, if Ikuo knows about it he'd use the painting as pretext for break- ing that promise. In that case, I think it's better to speak of it myself.
"For a long time only Guide and I knew about the wound, but one day I got careless, and Ogi found out about it. Ogi must have let it slip to Ikuo, which led to his idea of having Patron model nude. If Patron agrees, there's nothing I can do about it. From the start he didn't plan to keep this a secret."