Somersault (55 page)

“Guide was a true teacher, for Ikuo and for you,” Patron responded. “I too was taught by him.”

Dancer waited for Patron to continue, but since he didn’t, she let out everything she’d been holding inside.

“I don’t know if I really understand Guide’s way of thinking,” she said, “but you might recall, in one of the myths Socrates discusses, how there are people who are like spheres, before people are differentiated into male and female? Guide told me once that he and Patron used to be connected like that, their bodies and spirits with one big artery-like pipe running through them. ‘Our hearts are one,’ he said, ‘pumping blood into that pipe.

“‘For Patron,’ Guide went on, ‘the conversion of his visions into words is like synthesis or hormone production within a living organism. At that stage the materials or hormones aren’t yet complete. Those flow into the pipe in my direction. And I return this to Patron,’ Guide said, ‘as something solid, as hormones without anything extraneous.’ The relationship between Patron and Guide, then, was as seamless as a dream.

“When I heard this, I thought that though Patron and Guide had suffered a lot, if they continued to live quietly like this until they died these would be their happy golden years. Like an acolyte in a monastery, I was happy to serve them and I completely forgot about dancing.”

Ikuo was irritated at Dancer’s romantic way of speaking. “But even before the Somersault,” he asked, “wasn’t there an attempt to sever the pipeline between Patron and Guide? I can understand the radical faction wanting to be directly connected with Patron, without Guide as a go-between. They must have dreamed of becoming mystics themselves, having the same kind of trance visions that Patron did, and then realizing them in the real world.”

Kizu spoke up. “Just as with Ikuo, I had nothing to do with the church at that time. I’m basing this on church documents I’ve read. But didn’t the church teach that believers following Patron would also have trances?”

“You have to understand there are two aspects to trances,” Dancer answered. “One aspect is as part of the daily prayers of the followers who’ve accepted Patron as their savior; the other came about when the radical faction went off on their own and committed the mistakes they did. In a normal situation, where the church was healthy, Guide should have been able to keep the radical faction under control.”

“So the radical faction short-circuited the process, lumping themselves and Patron together,” Kizu said. “Guide felt he had to restore this circuit between himself and Patron, that he had to strengthen his control over their followers, right? So it was unavoidable that he cut off the radical faction—in other words, do the Somersault.”

“It’s a little strange to be speculating about these things with Dr. Koga and Mr. Hanawa here with us,” Dancer said, “but I’d have to say I agree entirely. And in making sure that happened, wasn’t Guide doing the right thing?

“The radical members who killed Guide were people who held a particular grudge toward the Somersault. They’re different from the members who’ve moved here with us. I hope the local people will appreciate the distinction. The first group held Guide prisoner and roughed him up to the point where he died, so the whole thing had to be referred to the Tokyo DA’s office. It’s unbelievable how cruel they were, pushing him to the point where the aneurysm in his brain burst.

“One thing’s for sure,” Dacner went on. “When he was being mistreated by them, Guide maintained his dignity to the very last. Toward the end of the tape recording you can sense he has resigned himself to being killed. He stood up to them. ‘Why,’ he asked, ‘are you using professional equipment to record all this? Are you planning to provide the courts with proof of your crime?’ The radicals said, ‘We’re doing it so we can send it to Patron and make him suffer and die.’ They loathed Patron too. They had a great deal of anger toward both men.”

“But didn’t Guide, who created the institute in the first place, have a pretty intimate relationship with them?” Kizu wondered. “They shelved that
relationship and tried to connect directly with Patron. After the Somersault, though, the press claimed that Patron and Guide got some devilish thrill out of letting the radical faction climb to the top of the roof and then yanking away the ladder.”

“That’s completely wrong,” Dancer insisted. “Guide translated Patron’s visions back to him in understandable language, and then he transmitted them to the followers. That was Guide’s role. Guide wanted to insert the reactions of this group of sensitive, intelligent young people into the pipeline between himself and Patron.”

Kizu pressed on. “If anyone got a devilish thrill out of this, wasn’t it those who tortured and killed Guide while recording the whole thing? But what was
their
goal? What possible significance was there in making Guide suffer, physically and emotionally, to the point where he died?”

“I don’t think they acted without a purpose,” Dancer said. “I think they were trying to be proactive, trying to figure out why the Somersault had to take place. Guide told me about some of those young radicals. What I got out of it was that these were young people who were trying to fill in what was missing in their own lives. They were searching for spiritual peace. They wanted the wisdom that would allow them to live in the trying times to come.

“They were bright and serious, which makes them all the more sad. These lonely, suffering young people had, for the first time in their lives, created their very own community at the Izu Research Institute. But Patron and Guide just couldn’t handle them. If the control of the church was turned over to the radical faction, the ship of the church, so to speak, would have rammed into an iceberg. So Patron and Guide scurried away to safer ground. You can’t deny that, right?”

“You’re pretty outspoken for a young woman, aren’t you?” Kizu said regretfully.

Patron, who’d let it all slide by, spoke up. “But she’s exactly right, “he said, standing up for Dancer. “We not only abandoned ship, we denied that the ship ever had any use to begin with—either back in the beginning or in the future. That’s what the Somersault was all about.”

3

When Dancer saw that his little pronouncement was over, she spoke again, before Kizu had a chance to comment.

“Apart from their special fields,” she said, “Guide was the main teacher for those young people, showing them how to live a life of faith. As everyone
admits, he was a born educator. The young people’s group in Izu should have been Guide’s masterpiece. I don’t see it as a group of sadists. These were the best and brightest of the elite university system, people used to the seminar system of training, right? They weren’t about to dig themselves holes in which to ponder things alone; they were best at getting together to study and debate as a group.

“Their last seminar—with the guest speaker being held against his wishes, a dangerous thing to do—revolved around learning what, ten years after the fact, the Somersault meant to Patron and Guide.

“If you listen to the tape, you’ll hear that in the beginning they were divided into two groups. One group vehemently denied Patron, saying the church was totally meaningless. They were the ones who felt abandoned and wanted revenge. The other group insisted that Patron and Guide were victims. TV had made them into laughingstocks all over Japan. Thanks to this, the underground shock troops didn’t get a chance to leap into action.

“This second group viewed the Somersault as Patron’s clear warning that the end of the world was near. Just as Jesus was crucified along with two criminals, letting oneself fall into the most wretched place possible meant the final stage had been reached, where the end time is announced. ‘We should believe in the sullied and insulted Patron and Guide and await the Day of Wrath,’ they said. ‘If Guide, who suffered the worst pain in the most wretched of places, tells you to believe in him, all trials can be transformed into something positive.’ That’s the kind of appeal these people made.

“The two groups didn’t just debate each other, they also talked about their individual experiences, the trying times they had had because of the Somersault—not just the obvious abandonment and loss of spiritual support but their need to take responsibility for the plans of the whole group, be investigated by the authorities—all of this must have been horrible.

“In the face of this horror, Guide didn’t try to make excuses or explain away his true intentions. As long as the questions were straightforward, he answered them concisely and sincerely. The only time he got emotional was when he heard they’d poisoned his Saint Bernard. ‘Why did you have to do that?’ he rebuked them. This brought on laughter from those who were detaining him, from the first group, at least.

“Because of what they’d gone through, all the kidnappers demanded a complete explanation. I’ve listened to the tape many times and would sum up Guide’s response as follows.” At this point Dancer took out a paper she’d had ready and began to read.

“‘Some people say that Patron and I did the Somersault in order to use the media to deceive the public. That’s not true. We might have done something like that if the Somersault had been entirely our own arbitrary decision.

“‘With a great deal of fanfare we confessed to the public that all our beliefs until then were a sham. The highlight of the whole Somersault was when Patron said that the written records of his visions—the account, for instance, of an anthropomorphic God—were completely laughable and our gospel was worse than some stupid Hollywood spectacular. But what this showed was that there is a faith that
isn’t
mistaken. After the Somersault, Patron and I fell into the pit of hell. Our faith may have been in error, but this was an unmistakable sign that over the two of us and our errors towers a living God.

“‘Right now Patron and I, believing in that sign, are crawling up out of hell. But the way you’re acting now disqualifies you from being part of Patron’s new movement. Ten years ago, like a crystal extracted from a solution, it was you, rather than our gospel, who substantiated our religious movement’s errors. Our book has been trampled on and disappeared, yet still you haven’t repented.’

“As Guide said this, the first group laughed in his face again. Laughing about the dog was bad enough, but this time it was even more cruel. At this point, according to what Dr. Koga told me, the only thing the second group felt it could do was get away, it being obvious that Guide was only going to be tormented further. I cried as I listened to this tape, knowing that all that was left for Guide was to be killed. Such a meaningless death. And just when he was climbing out of hell with Patron!”

Dancer turned her face toward the hemispherical light on the ceiling, her pink mouth open, and cried. Teardrops rolled down both sides of the slim bridge of her nose. Despite her tears, Ikuo zeroed in on her. “I’d say that Dancer’s long tale has done what it set out to do. You’ve kept with the intentions of the town authorities who are accepting us into their midst, cried tears over Guide’s death, all very natural as a response, making it hard for Patron to oppose this. Your goal is to have everyone arrive at a consensus to deny one party of the former radical faction—in order to accept Dr. Koga and his more ‘sensible’ colleagues. But is this fair? Is it right for Dancer’s tears to make us agree that the former radical faction’s burst of laughter was cruel and outrageous? Is this really appropriate for a new church with Patron at its center?

“According to Ogi, when he was listening to the tape with Dancer, she did indeed stop the tape and cry for a while after the second burst of laughter. But Ogi said that after this she plugged in some headphones and listened to the rest of the tape by herself.

“I don’t believe Dancer is just an emotional person, let alone a sentimental one. This morning she called me over to talk with her. ‘We’ve already decided the conditions under which the town would accept us,’ she told me, ‘yet you’re trying to wreck it all. And even if you weren’t, the antichurch movement is smoldering in the town,’ she said, ‘criticizing me and any plan to allow former radical-faction members who want to be accepted back into the fold.’

“Though we’ve only heard the church’s side so far in our discussion today, we’re seeing a consensus forming between the leaders of the church—apart from me—and the town. The reason you haven’t heard from Dr. Koga today is that Dancer negotiated with him beforehand, as she did with me. Unlike with me, however, with him she was successful.

“After the accident with Guide, I met with Dr. Koga, leader of the former radical faction, and we spoke after this from time to time. I promised to try to persuade Patron and the other staff members to allow as many as possible of the former young radicals to participate in the new church.

“With the Somersault, Patron and Guide had broken off their relationship with the church. Ten years later they returned from hell and wanted to start a new movement. Patron’s first concept of the new movement was to include only people who had had nothing to do with the first church. Until he was kidnapped, that was Guide’s idea as well. But that just shouldn’t be done, in my opinion.

“The former radical faction may have been split over the meaning of the Somersault, but after they were forced out of the church by official and police pressure, they continued to keep their promises. They’re also a group that has the power to actually get things moving, so I don’t think it’s very bright to exclude them when you’re trying to start over.

“Of course I wish they’d never done something as awful as kill Guide. They knew Patron had risen from hell and was starting a new movement, so in order to get a handle on what was going on, wasn’t it only natural for them to want to speak to the person they had had the deepest relationship with—Guide? Dancer hinted that one part of the former radical faction was planning from the very start to get revenge on him and had no thought of reconciling. But is that really true?

“If they were just after revenge, why did they wait ten years? And why target Guide instead of Patron, the one really responsible for the Somersault? Didn’t the cruel laughter we heard when Guide refused to let members of
the former radical faction participate in Patron’s new movement ring with the sound of their despair?