Just then something happened that truly startled Kizu. When he'd entered the store, walked past the register, and looked around, there hadn't been any other customers visible in the three aisles. But just then, in the aisle next to the one he'd been in, from out of the shadows of the shelves of deter- gent and toilet paper a thin-as-a-rail middle-aged woman suddenly popped up, pointed at Kizu, and began prattling.

"They call that son of hers New Brother Gii, but where he came from is anyone's guess! The woman who gave birth to him fourteen years ago? When I used to teach at the new junior high she was a boy student. A womanish man!

"Is it really possible she became a mannish woman and had a child?

You're from Tokyo-an educated man, I gather-but don't let her coax you into anything. She made my husband donate his whole estate to their church.

That's one scary woman, I tell you!"

"My, my, Mrs. Kamei," the woman at the register said. "And here I was thinking you'd recovered from your hysteria. I don't believe someone from out of town would understand what you're talking about, even when you go into such detail."

The woman customer's hair was pulled back, affording a clear view ot her face. Her skin had the strange look of a shriveled apple someone had for- gotten in a refrigerator. She shrank back at the words of the old woman at the register but still looked up at Kizu as she continued her warning.

"You've got to watch out for that woman. She's going to be running that Farm she inherited, together with your church, isn't she? That woman is what I'm saying! I went to the Hollow to warn you people not to be deceived by her, but with those men guarding the buildings I couldn't get close. So I lay in wait beside the river until you came out of the clinic. I don't have any ill feelings toward you and the others. All I want is to warn you how frighten- ing that mannish woman is!"

The old woman came out from behind the register and struck Mrs. Kamei-who was leaning against the shelf of detergent, saliva wet- ting her chin-on her back. When Kizu left the market he was afraid the woman might follow him, so he hurried up the slope that led to the Hollow.

4

The arrival of the first wave of new residents was finally over, the room assignments all taken care of, and it was decided to hold an evening meeting, with Patron in attendance, so everyone could hear the reports from those in charge of the various aspects of the move.

Kizu, though, hadn't heard about the meeting, since Ikuo had gone off after breakfast to take care of some matter at the Church of the Flaming Green Tree Farm without mentioning it. The first time he heard about the gather- ing was when he joined Ogi and Dancer, who as they were wont to do came an hour after the peak time for lunch in the monastery cafeteria. Dancer asked Kizu to report at the meeting on how his plan for a children's art school was coming along.

"If Ikuo had only told me there was a meeting, I could have finalized things with the teachers this morning," Kizu said. "For some reason they seem a little slow in responding."

Dancer found it strange that Ikuo hadn't said anything about the meet- ing, even though the two of them were living together.

"Ikuo's been talking about the Farm with Satchan, and they've just about reached an agreement," she said. "I expect he'll report on it tonight… Pro- fessor, you bought some of the Farm's ham, butter, and vegetables, didn't you?

Isn't it great? They've hired some of the local young people and have been able to continue farming the fields and running the meat plant on a small scale.

The original investment to set it all up came from their church.

"Satchan told us that wages have gone up this year and they might not be able to turn a profit. They weren't thinking of scaling back to the point where the work would be done in individual homes, but she was worried whether she'd be able to pass on the factory to the children going to the jun- ior high now and to her adopted daughters.

"When he heard this, Ikuo proposed that the Technicians be allowed to use the facilities for their own work and help run the factory with them, so it could get back to the size it was when the church was operating it. It was a perfect match. So they drew up a plan to have several people from the Tech- nicians spend their time at the Farm."

"He hasn't told me any of these details," Kizu said, clearly full of mis- givings, "but even if it's for the church could Ikuo really be so interested in the production of meats and other food? I find that hard to believe."

"He's very enthusiastic about it," Ogi said, in Dancer's stead. "He's also quite interested in the communal life the church's young people used to live at the Farm. Not long ago, Asa-san held a workshop on how they've been running the Farm, and Ikuo showed a lot of interest in something that came up; namely, that a sect in that church, people who were involved in the manu- facturing process, had engaged in weapons practice in order to defend the church."

Ogi went on to explain that Ikuo's plan was to have the Technicians take over work at the Farm on an experimental basis and make it into an economic base for a second and third wave of believers. Ogi also mentioned that Ikuo had been holding talks with a group of students from the junior high in the valley and the high school in Old Town.

"After we spent our first night in the house on the north shore of the Hollow," Dancer added, "we went back to the chapel the next morning. There were human bones laid out on the floor, and though Ogi was pretty calm about it, I can tell you I was shocked. After I talked with Asa-san, I understood that those bones were a written challenge to us from this group of boys and their little detective-novel secret society. Ogi, remember how they spelled out the name of their group in the bones?"

"YOUNG FIREFLIES. According to Asa-san it's the name given to a local custom-"

"That group, then, was threatening us because we're encroaching on their territory," Dancer said. "We knew the people in Maki Town were divided into two factions, those who accept us and those who want us out.

What worried me was whether those children sneaking into the chapel to play a prank were a vanguard of the group opposed to us and whether this meant a serious clash with the church was imminent.

"When he heard this, however, Ikuo went to meet with this secret soci- ety and arranged things with them by himself. I think the former junior high principal was also involved. We found out that the leader of this group is Satchan's son."

"Ikuo never said a thing to me about it," Kizu admitted.

"I'm sure the two of you have more important things to talk about,"

Dancer said encouragingly.

"Ikuo should be giving a report at the meeting today," Ogi said. "I think he's the person in the church who's been working the hardest, what with forg- ing a relationship with the Farm and trying to get to know the young men in the area."

The podium had been put away to clear a space in the middle of the chapel for the meeting, with several rows of chairs set up around this space. Light filtering in from the high windows on the cylindrical walls and down from the skylight made a play of light and shadow in the empty space that Kizu found beautiful.

Whenever they had meetings in the conference room of his university and there were more people than chairs, the students and staff would sponta- neously squeeze more chairs into each row, with an efficiency that always im- pressed Kizu, and the way the chairs were lined up here revealed an intimate knowledge of the interior of this building. Obviously it wasn't the first time they'd used the chapel for these purposes.

When Kizu mentioned this to Dancer, she told him that setting up the chapel had become part of the Technicians' day-to-day duties, just as the Quiet Women had taken on meal preparation and the daily cleaning of the inside of the chapel and its grounds.