The media's concern had been with the so-called FIERY SUICIDE AND LOYAL DEATHS of Patron and the Tachibana siblings; starting with intense TV coverage, specials appeared in the weekly magazines covering an overabun- dance of material in a typically unfocused way. The illustrated weeklies ran color photographs of the sprawled, naked body of Patron, like some dry- lacquered image of Buddha, with the nude, charred bodies of Ms. Tachibana and Morio reaching out to him.
When the church made its official response, which included dealing with the police, Ogi had been in the thick of things. So there was no need for him to hear once again from Ikuo about all this. Still, Dancer had prepared a file of clippings from the local press on this period for him to peruse.
As he was talking with Ikuo and leafing through these clippings, though, Ogi noticed that in the middle of September, just after he moved away from the Hollow, Kizu had finally opened his art school for junior high students.
As one of those involved, Ogi knew that the church had tried to repair its relationship with the Old Town and Maki Town. Guessing from his experi- ence at the time that Kizu himself wasn't pushing the project too hard, Ogi deduced that this must have been the doing of Asa-san, the wife of the former junior high principal. And this art school in the Hollow in turn had led to the present healthy relationship with the junior high and to their using the chapel for their music classes.
Another article discussed how Kizu's falling ill again had led to the clos- ing of the art school after a short time. Along with the article was a color photograph, about half the size of a postcard, of a landscape Kizu had painted of the fall foliage around the chapel and the monastery. Ikuo explained to the tearful Ogi that since the leaves didn't turn that well last fall, the painting must have been done in the beginning of December when Kizu took his students to the north shore for outdoor sketching instruction.
Soon after closing the art school, Kizu went into Dr. Koga's clinic. Ikuo speculated that the local reporter didn't touch on the events of the summer conference, or on the "miraculous" disappearance of cancer from his body, not just out of respect for Kizu's international standing as an art educator but because of his contributions to the town.
The previous night Dr. Koga had described in detail how Kizu had died of a cancer that, for his age, had spread quite quickly. The cancer, which Dr. Koga deemed a new occurrence of the disease, started in the liver and spread to his lungs, and the autopsy revealed some brain tumors as well. In the year that had passed, Dr. Koga had taken on the look of quite the coun- try doctor, his skin, including the bald spot now at the crown of his head, a sunburnt brown, his mannerisms deliberately exaggerating this role, refer- ring to himself, in imitation of Gii's childish way, with the rough pronoun washi instead of the normal watashi; Dancer gently ribbed him about it, and though his observations on the symptoms were quite pointed, his look was the same as always, a mix of gloom and urbane cheerfulness as he recalled what had happened.
"Some people say the cancer that was removed in the United States came back, but since a fair amount of tests concluded that he didn't have any can- cer before this, I'd say cancer snuck up on him for a third time and this time got the better of him. Kizu was in my clinic until spring. Since he was resigned to what was going to happen, he really wanted to go back to stay in his house in the Hollow, so Ms. Asuka devoted herself to nursing him. Former Brother Gii had planted a lot of cherry trees on the east slope as part of his Beautiful Village project, and Professor Kizu passed away when they were in lull bloom.
"The Red Cross doctor and myself were both convinced that when Pro- fessor Kizu came here to live with Patron his cancer had disappeared. Opin- ion is divided, though, about whether he had cancer from the beginning or not. But once Patron was gone, the cancer rallied for a full frontal attack and did him in. After he returned to the Hollow, Professor Kizu didn't fear his cancer; death didn't bother him anymore. It was as if he'd conquered cancer and wanted to die. The cancer ravaged all his organs, and it was a pointless struggle.
"I'll let Ikuo tell you how Professor Kizu spent his final moments, since I wasn't there at the very end. Ms. Asuka seemed at a loss as usual, but also quite in control, and reported that she thought Kizu might not make it through the night so Ikuo should come attend to him. She doesn't have an ounce of sentimentality, though when Professor Kizu was in the hospital she stayed in his room the whole time. She's an unforgettable person, Ms. Asuka.
Professor Kizu too, of course."
The story of Kizu's final moments that Ikuo told to Ogi-not at all what Ms. Asuka anticipated, with Dancer there as well-he said he'd add later on.
Ikuo's later letter, written on the model Ms. Tsugane set for first drafts in that it left nothing out-proved helpful in this regard.
This letter contained details that Ikuo found hard to talk about that day in the chapel especially since all this became the basis for a turnabout in Ikuo's life. Even as an outside observer Ogi could sense, in this visit to the Hollow, how much Ikuo had gone through in a year's time, and this made him real- ize how in his own past year with Mrs. Tsugane he too had changed.
After Ikuo and Ogi had talked together for nearly an hour, Gii came over to the space heater with Fred and said that he and the Fireflies had to do some snow removal so he'd await their visit in the afternoon, and left the chapel alone. Fred seemed to be dying to tell Ikuo something about what he and Gii had discussed, so Ogi left his talk with Ikuo for later.
Ikuo spoke in English with Fred. The type of English they spoke- Fred's, of course, but also Ikuo's, who had been bilingual since childhood- was not the type of English Ogi was used to hearing. But once the conversation had settled down on track and he retrospectively picked up on what they'd said and outlined their conversation in his notebook, he was able to follow the general drift.
At first Fred seemed to be sounding out Ikuo, holding some mysteri- ous trump card in reserve. Repeatedly he asked Ikuo whether there'd been any changes in Gii's way of thinking or his actions since the summer confer- ence. At last night's discussion, everyone seemed to take it for granted that Gii was going to be the successor to the Church of the New Man. But wasn't Gii just being pushed forward like some automaton? After Patron's death, among those influential in the church, the hard-line remnants of the radical faction left the Farm together with Mr. Hanawa, and the police and the media had sounded a warning about allowing the Technicians who remained to hold any power in the church. Wasn't the way the church dealt with this-having a young boy like Gii as the front man-just a smoke screen?
Ogi couldn't catch all of what Ikuo replied in English, not because he spoke too quickly but because of the content. Still, he could tell that Ikuo, very patiently and meticulously, was responding to Fred's provocative questions.
But what really remained with Ogi was the change in Ikuo since they'd last met. He'd swept away the dangerous instability of old, the rebelliousness and negativism, the violence that even he himself couldn't control. Very clearly Ikuo was Yonah no more.
Since the summer conference finale ended as it did, Ikuo said, Gii and the Fireflies, who were deeply involved, were naturally shaken. Especially Gii, who showed his own unique reaction to events. He was furious that the per- formance with which the Fireflies had planned to wrap up the summer con- ference was upstaged by Patron's and Ikuo's plans. The reconciliation began only when Ikuo explained to the Fireflies how at the very last minute Patron had turned the tables on him.