"It's been a long time since I've seen all of you," he began. "I imagine you former members of the church who've come from so far away will under- stand why I'm inside this doll made up to look like Guide to deliver my ser- mon. As I need not remind those who are from this region, this papier-mâché covering is called a shell in the valley. Wearing this shell to talk is in keeping with your legends… Whenever Guide related my visions, I was in a sense clothed in his body. The shell covering my spirit was his flesh. Now that I've been left behind by Guide, I'm trying to re-create the past, at least on the sur- face.
"I would like to speak with all of you about the Somersault. And I'll begin by talking about a young man who was the first one to evaluate the Somersault in a positive light. He's the model for Jonah in the triptych in the chapel I'm sure you've all seen. He's so perfect a person to serve as the model that the Fireflies, following Japanese pronunciation, have dubbed him Yonah.
"After Guide and I did our Somersault and left the church, many people discovered the place where we had taken refuge and came to ask us what the Somersault was all about-its present and future meaning. But only one per- son and one group understood it as an inescapable calling. The person was Yonah, and the group was the remnants of the Izu radical faction. This group was essentially negative toward the Somersault; Guide was killed by them in place of me. The reason I'd like to begin with Yonah, as I said, is because he viewed the Somersault in such A positive way.
"Before that, though, let me speak of the interrogation that group did of Guide. They questioned him, grilled him, and he answered-or at least he tried to. I couldn't share in his pain; I could only listen to the recording made of this kangaroo trial. But throughout it, Guide never once lied, I can guarantee that. And after a long interrogation, Guide was tortured to death.
"This evening Guide has joined the procession of Spirits-those who have died untimely deaths in the midst of this forest. We will burn up all the shells on the island so the Spirits can return again to the forest. The real shell of Guide's Spirit is exhibited there on the tower. The papier-mâché I'm wear- ing is thus nothing more than a shell of a shell.
"Guide, who died this untimely death, thus joins the procession of Spirits in this land where our Church of the New Man will be built. He was an ex- tremely responsible man, who even took responsibility when I made mistakes, and I know that whenever the Church of the New Man goes through trials he will be there to help us. I am grateful to the Fireflies for letting Guide's soul join the Spirit Festival. And I'd like to express my respect for them for having the sense to come up with the name Yonah."
Applause rang out from three sides of the lake. On the wooden scaf- folding on the cypress island, Guide's Spirit thrust out his papier-mâché chest. Once more the Guide doll at the grandstands lifted up the micro- phone, and the crowd became so quiet one could hear the cries of insects for a moment.
5
"Now, this young man who first viewed the Somersault in a positive way came to me, as you see him in the triptych in the chapel, as Yonah. In addition to what he's actually said to me, I have also imagined the appeal he's making to me silently. What he really wanted to ask me, I think, was whether I did the Somersault in order to be the kind of Lord who could rewrite the ending of the book of Jonah. Even if I wasn't that sort of Lord, he wanted me to know that I could be--I could rewrite the book of Jonah.
"Here I'd like to re-create what I imagine Yonah's words to be.
"Since you are a person who can communicate directly with God, he'd say, isn't it possible for you to become another Lord yourself? You're the person who made a fool out of God. Even after God decided against de- stroying the people, children, and cattle of Nineveh, you're the Lord who can raise his voice in protest! You're the Lord who can call not just on Nineveh but on the whole world, to repent as it faces the end time-the Lord who can defend the original calling.
"When I was a child, Yonah would continue, I heard the voice of God telling me to take action! And I obeyed this voice. But afterward I never heard the voice of God again. I suffered, thinking the reason must lie with me. But it was God who erased this call. Just like Jonah, I have the right to protest.
"Transmit this protest to God for me! If God still continues to cancel out his call, then I want you-as someone with the courage to make a fool of God-to give me your own special call. Tell me to take action!
"Because you had done a Somersault, when I met you I thought I'd finally met a person who could rewrite the ending of the Book of Jonah, something I've longed to do for such a long time. Let me and my friends stand by, awaiting your call.
"I think this was the young man's appeal to me as Yonah.
"Yonah knew that the Somersault Guide and I did was a decision we were forced into by the tense situation between the Izu radical faction and the authorities, and that carrying it out, we knew, would have great after- effects on church members throughout the country. Over the past ten years this has become public knowledge through reports in weekly magazines and other media. Yonah had to be aware of this.
"But Yonah saw a relationship with God in this very dilemma Guide and I found ourselves in. If Guide had shot back the following question to Yonah, this would only have created the grounds for Yonah to question us: "Yonah, Guide might have said, have you considered one other possibil- ity? That even before the Somersault neither Patron nor I ever believed in a tran- scendental being? Just like most Japanese! Still less did we believe in the possibility that we were mediating for God. That this whole setup of Patron's coming into direct contact with God through his trances and me relating the visions he had is nothing but a bunch of nonsense we made up ourselves?
"Yonah would be shocked at first on hearing this. No doubt, though, he would come back with his own fearless response. By your Somersault, he'd say, you made a fool of God, Patron. But can you make a fool of something that doesn't exist? The fact that you had no choice but to do the Somersault is inescap- able proof that God appeared to you. Patron acted as he did in front of the TV cameras at the time of the Somersault, but if you think he did it for the viewers, you're greatly mistaken. He did it for the sake of God, a God who is real.
"Yonah's positive questions have made me ponder things, and I now recognize that I made a fool of a God who is real though silent, a God who is definitely keeping watch on me. And because this is so, the descent into hell awaited me after the Somersault. If Guide and I really broke all connections with the other side through the Somersault, why in the world would we have to suffer in hell?
"What was it like to live as Patron? I'd like to review this very briefly for you. Through the trances-that I couldn't willfully produce or distance myself from-I had visions that became a part of me. That's how I spent the better part of my life. Still, though, if people ask me if I saw God's face or heard his voice, or ask me what the face and voice of God are like, I can't say.
"I was asked this once by a lady who helped pave the way for our move here. The former diplomat who spent his final years in the Hollow after retire- ment tried his hand at writing a science fiction story. The plot apparently involved a being from another universe that covered the planet like a weather system and sent out messages. When I was in the midst of a trance it was like this-as if I were a mushroom in the middle of a wind stream.
"Friends, after I moved into my residence here in the Hollow I've been scattering sunflower seeds under the eaves of the second floor. The nuthatches have taken over, chasing away all other little birds. They eat a few of the seeds right there and take some away to hide for later. While they're gathering their sunflower seeds they're quite bold, but just as they're about to fly away they do a complete about-face, screeching as if they've been overcome by fear.