Kiku's Prayer Part 25

No one else was in the chapel. Evidently Laucaigne and the other priests had withdrawn without noticing Kiku.

Kiku suddenly came to herself. What had become of the ship that Seikichi had boarded? In the stillness of dawn, she could no longer hear the singing voices.

She ran outside in a daze.

The waters of the harbor were calm again today, and the surrounding hills were wrapped in a milky morning mist. But there was no sign of the ship.

Tears streamed from her eyes like water gushing from a well. She wept loudly. Why does Seikichi have to experience so much pain? What evil has he ever done?

She wanted to scream the words through the streets of Nagasaki from her spot on the hilltop. She wanted to shout them to the people who were still sound asleep in the spring dawn. She wanted to shout them to the ocean and to the sky.

Awakened by her wailing and sobbing, the priests rushed out of their house. Laucaigne held her in his arms and did his best to console her.

Throughout that day, the fathers demanded through the French consulate that the j.a.panese government provide them information on where the 113 Urakami believers had been sent, but their demands were rejected. Governor Sawa had adopted a rigid att.i.tude toward foreign pet.i.tions.

"It's frightening. I hear that the Kuros were taken to the open sea and tossed into the ocean!"

"I heard that they'd been sent to Sado to work in the gold mines."

Such rumors began to pop up one after another in the streets of Nagasaki that very day.

Kiku stayed in her bed throughout the day like an invalid. The priests could read in her hollow eyes and unfocused gaze how much she really loved Seikichi.

She refused any food, leading Okane to snap disagreeably, "You seem pretty comfortable for somebody dying of love," but Kiku just stared blankly into s.p.a.ce, as though she did not hear.

Seikichi often appeared in her dreams.

Seikichi would be walking along, his hands bound behind him, with a policeman shouting at him. Kiku would rail at the policeman in hopes of rescuing Seikichi.

She also saw scenes of Magome, the lotus flower in bloom. Kiku would be playing with Mitsu and some other friends, making garlands of flowers.

"If you want to see flowers, they're in full bloom in Nakano!" she would tell the others, but none had been willing to follow her to Nakano.

"Kiku, what's wrong?" She was roused from her dreams by a familiar voice calling to her through the sliding screen. In the hallway stood Pet.i.tjean, who had been absent from j.a.pan for some time. Kiku did not recognize the young foreign man standing to his side.

This young Frenchman, Father De Rotz,4 was later to be venerated by the j.a.panese as the saint of the Sotome region.

1. Prince Arisugawa Takahito (18351895), a member of the Imperial Household, was a close adviser to the emperor, a general in the Imperial Army, and lord president of the Council of State. kubo Toshimichi (18301878), like his comrade Kido Takayoshi, was instrumental in founding the new Meiji government; traveled with the Iwakura Mission (18711873); and served as Home Minister and, later, Minister of Finance. Because he led the troops against the insurrection of his old friend Saig Takamori in 1877, kubo was a.s.sa.s.sinated by loyalists, who regarded him as a traitor. Kuroda Nagatomo (18391902) was the last daimyo of the f.u.kuoka domain and its first governor after the changes in political structure following the Meiji Restoration.

2. Hagi, in present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture, lies on the Sea of j.a.pan. Tsuwano is located in what is now Shimane Prefecture, also near the Sea of j.a.pan. f.u.kuyama is today a part of Hiroshima Prefecture.

3. Koku is a measure for rice, the rough equivalent of what one adult could eat in one year, and was the standard measure of a daimyo's wealth and prestige.

4. Marc Marie De Rotz (18401914), born in Normandy to an aristocratic family, was brought to j.a.pan by Father Pet.i.tjean in 1868. He became parish priest in s.h.i.tsu (located in the Sotome region outside Nagasaki) in 1879. He freely parted with his own considerable wealth in order to a.s.sist the Christian peasants, built churches for them, established a printing operation, constructed roads and dikes, taught techniques of sewing and dyeing and set up a production factory, built a medical clinic and pharmacy, established a Latin seminary school, and fostered the training of j.a.panese nuns. He is buried in s.h.i.tsu, and a memorial museum was established to celebrate his contributions.

THE CROWD.

"THAT MITSU IS a real worker! She gives you an honest day's labor," the Mistress of the Gotya often flattered Mitsu.

The praise thrilled the shy girl. At the same time, though, she wished the Mistress would also say something kind about Tome, who worked alongside her. And she wished that the Mistress would stop making the occasional derogatory comment about Kiku.

"Compared with you, that Kiku was a real handful. I hear she's serving now at the Nambanji ... but I'm sure I don't know just what sort of service she's rendering."

The Mistress, who loathed Kiris.h.i.tans, and Oyone both disparaged the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans for their defiance of orders from the magistrate's office and for adamantly refusing to alter their beliefs.

Consequently, it appeared that the Mistress was annoyed at the very thought that Kiku was working at the Nambanji.

It was painful for Mitsu to hear the Mistress grousing about Kiku. Being reserved and timid, she said nothing, but her face bespoke her sadness.

Mitsu was in fact a very hard worker. She accepted the weight of responsibility for Kiku's desertion and tried to work twice as hard herself. She pushed herself to the point that Oyone and even Tome cautioned her, "If you don't slow down a little, you'll ruin your health."

On a brisk day in the fifth month, the Suwa Festival gets under way, and the rhythmic sounds of flute ensembles echo through the streets of the town. Carp streamers stir in the greenery-laden wind, and men who stroll about selling cakes wrapped in bamboo or oak leaves take breaks in the shade of the earthen walls in Teramachi. Once the dragon boat races conclude, the rains finally begin. It is the start of the rainy season.

One evening when a rain that felt like a precursor to the rainy season quietly soaked the roofs of the houses and the roads, Mitsu went on an errand for Oyone and was on her way back to the shop when she noticed a beggarly looking man in a state of complete exhaustion huddled beside the rear door of the shop.

Frightened, Mitsu stood back and watched him from a distance. The man lifted his pale face toward her and said feebly, "Miss, could you let me rest here for a while? I won't stay long."

Mitsu detected an Urakami accent in his speech and asked, "Are you from Urakami?"

"No!" He shook his head energetically. "No!" And then he asked, "I'm sorry, but ... could you give me a cup of water? I haven't put anything in my mouth since morning."

By nature, Mitsu could not bear to see miserable or pitiful people. Gazing now at the weary face of this man begging for water from the well and licking his lips as though from hunger, Mitsu felt great compa.s.sion toward him and replied, "Of course."

She hurried into the kitchen through the rear door. It was drizzling outside, and the kitchen was darker than usual. Oyone and Tome were nowhere to be seen.

Quickly she took some rice from the bottom of the kettle and made two rice b.a.l.l.s and ran back outside with them.

"I think this might be better than water."

The man stared at her in astonishment. A tear-like sparkle glistened in his eyes.

"You're very kind, miss." He greedily stuffed a rice ball into his mouth.

As she watched him eat, Mitsu said, "I'll give you something to eat tomorrow, too, so come here in the afternoon."

Early afternoon was the least busy time at the shop. And since lunch would be finished, there would likely be some food left over after the Master and the clerks had finished eating.

The following day, in response to her invitation, the man appeared at the rear entrance. And Mitsu, as she had promised, slipped him a rice ball and some pickled vegetables.

"Miss?"

"Yes?"

"Please give me some job I can help with. Getting this food for nothing, acting like a beggar ... it just doesn't feel right."

"Some job ...? I'm afraid I'm just an employee here myself."

"I'll do anything-chopping firewood or weeding. Could you ask your boss? All I'd need in return ... is something to eat."

Mitsu felt a little uncomfortable, but the man was pleading and nearly in tears, so she went directly to the Mistress to convey his request.

"If we brought a man we know nothing about into the shop, we could end up with something stolen and him running away." At first the Mistress flat-out refused, but Mitsu kept repeating, "But he's such a good-hearted person," so the Mistress finally went out the rear door to have a look at him.

Ultimately, he was hired on the condition that his only compensation would be food. His name was k.u.maz.

"Where are you from?"

"Ma'am, I'm from over by Sotome." But beyond that, he was for some reason noncommittal.

Ch.o.r.es were heaped on k.u.maz, but he worked hard and didn't utter a word of complaint. Of course, if he were booted out of here, he would have to go back to begging again, so he could hardly grumble no matter what ch.o.r.es he was a.s.signed.

He weeded, he drew water, he loaded merchandise from the store onto a cart, and he delivered it. His only free time was during meals, and then he was fed in a corner of the kitchen separate from the family and the other employees.

Thanks to him, the burden was lifted considerably from the female employees, including Oyone, Tome, and Mitsu. All they had to do was ask, "k.u.ma-san, would you mind?"-even with ch.o.r.es that were difficult for them, such as fetching water or chopping wood-and he never complained.

"Well, of course he doesn't. We picked him up off the street, didn't we?" Oyone said, but somehow Mitsu couldn't help feeling sorry for k.u.maz.

"Isn't he from Urakami?" Oyone asked Mitsu.

"He says he was born in Sotome, but his accent is like somebody from Urakami," Mitsu observed.

For whatever reason, Mitsu felt certain that k.u.maz had come from Urakami Village. He was certainly not from Magome, so he must be from Nakano, or perhaps Motohara ...?

"That k.u.maz isn't a Kuro, is he?" Oyone and the Mistress began to have suspicions about him. On one occasion, the Mistress had asked him, "I don't suppose you're a Kuro, are you?"

k.u.maz's complexion changed abruptly and in a loud voice he disavowed: "A Kiris.h.i.tan? No, I'm no Kiris.h.i.tan. I hate the likes of them!"

"Well, then, that's fine. We don't like Kiris.h.i.tans here, and we made the decision we wouldn't hire any Kiris.h.i.tans no matter what the circ.u.mstances," the Mistress nodded, relieved.

Not long after k.u.maz began working at the shop, summer arrived. Summers in Nagasaki are scorching. Some nights there is no breeze at all after the sun sets. On those nights, one could hear people throughout the house fanning themselves and turning over in bed, time after time.

Autumn began; it deepened, then turned to winter.

Employees at the shop received only two days of vacation during the New Year festivities. That was sufficient for someone like Oyone, but there was no way that Tome from the Got Islands could go home and back in only two days.

"Tome, why don't you come home with me?" Mitsu decided to invite Tome to her home in Magome. Tome was delighted.

They worked until late on the first day of the year, finally getting time off on the second. Tome and Mitsu left Nagasaki together early in the morning.

Near the summit of the Nishizaka Hill, they pa.s.sed several women heading toward Nagasaki from the direction of Urakami. The women moved in a line, and as they walked along they chanted words that Mitsu could not understand.

"They're Kiris.h.i.tans," Tome told Mitsu. Tome knew that there were homes in Got where people recited oraci in that manner.

The Kiris.h.i.tans that Tome and Mitsu crossed paths with on the Togitsu Highway were, of course, women from Nakano and Motohara. They were headed for the ura Church to seek the Lord's help on behalf of their husbands and sons and brothers who had been transported far, far away.

Back home after a long absence. Though it was a mere two days, everything about it-with one exception-was joyful and comfortable for Mitsu.

The only thing that bothered her was that Kiku was nowhere to be seen. Her parents wouldn't even mention Kiku's name, as though it were somehow taboo. Perhaps Kiku's relatives felt ashamed toward the other villagers for having produced a girl who had, of all things, fallen in love with a Kiris.h.i.tan boy.

But when the two-day holiday came to an end, on the morning when they had to return to Nagasaki, Granny called for Mitsu and asked, "Would you give this ... to Kiku?" She furtively produced a bundle of dried persimmons. "And tell her if there's anything she needs, I'll have Ichijir get it to her.... Tell her that, will you?"

"OK." Mitsu nodded, almost in tears. She was overjoyed that Granny did, after all, worry about Kiku.

She returned to the Gotya that evening with Tome.

"Well, aren't we just the little princesses? Getting yourselves a little chance to rest up," Oyone said sarcastically, but Mitsu and Tome both were used to her insults.

"This morning we ran into some Kiris.h.i.tan women on the Togitsu Highway," Tome told Oyone.

"Probably the wives of the exiled Kuros."

At that moment, the sound of the ax chopping firewood in a corner of the kitchen abruptly stopped. k.u.maz was silently listening in on their conversation.

His face seemed to contort with inexpressible anguish. He stared at the ground, struggling against the pain of his loneliness, but when he noticed Mitsu looking at him, he quickly raised his ax once again.

Once the New Year holidays were over, Mitsu, making sure the Mistress and Oyone didn't discover them, persuaded Tome to dash with her early one morning to deliver the dried persimmons from Granny to ura.

Kiku was sweeping in front of the gate of the Nambanji, just as she had at the Gotya. Catching sight of Mitsu climbing breathlessly up the hill from the beach, she shouted, "Mitsu!" and rushed to her. Mitsu gave her the dried persimmons, exchanged only a few words of conversation with her, and then with painful reluctance announced that she had to get back to the shop.

"Mitsu." Just as Mitsu was leaving, Kiku suddenly blurted out something unexpected: "If you come to see me again, I may not be here." She whirled around and disappeared inside the Nambanji.

After glancing over her shoulder to check the spot where Kiku had gone, Mitsu raced back to the Gotya. She was worried by what Kiku had said as they parted. Did it mean she shouldn't come too often, because Kiku was busy? Or did it mean that Kiku intended to leave the Nambanji and go somewhere else? It was hard for Mitsu to decide what it meant.

Kiku herself was struggling to decide. Should she follow Seikichi and go to be where he was?

Listening in on conversations between Pet.i.tjean and Laucaigne, she found out that the priests had received word that the Kiris.h.i.tans-113 of them, including Sen'emon and Seikichi-had been taken by boat to Shimonoseki, but they seemed to have no information about what had become of the men after that. They did not know how much farther the prisoners might have gone after they were carted off the boat at Shimonoseki.

One morning, Kiku abruptly went to say good-bye to Pet.i.tjean. "I'm sorry I've been nothing but trouble." Stunned, Pet.i.tjean asked, "Kiku, if you leave here, where will you go?"

"Sir, I haven't thought about that yet. But I'm going to find out where Seikichi is."

"What are you saying?" Pet.i.tjean emphatically shook his head. "If we can't find out where he is, there isn't any way that you'll be able to track him down, Kiku. Stay here for a while longer. The number of padres here is increasing, and we need at least one other person to look after them. If you stay here, we'll surely find out where Seikichi has gone."

Kiku listened without responding. In her heart, she felt that what Pet.i.tjean said was true.

To begin with, she had no money to travel to Shimonoseki. Even if she did make it there, how in the world would she go about locating him?

And so summer ended and fall came. Autumn foliage flourished around the ura Church. Seeing the Chinese bellflowers and the wild chrysanthemums, Kiku longed from the depths of her heart for her home in Magome. But more powerful still was the yearning to see Seikichi.

Each day as she cleaned the chapel, she hurled words of rage at the statue of the Blessed Mother Mary. "You're really a horrible, devilish woman! Now that you've separated Seikichi and me ... are you happy?" She had no one else on whom to vent her anger, her resentment, and her sorrow other than to fling them at this statue.