9.(34-38) Sheep in the Meadow/Farmer & Geisha/End Slim Novel 9

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34. Tsukisappu

The sun is at zenith when Jun asks “How about some Genghis Khan? I know a farmer by Tsukisappu.” Kimi says Yes-Yes and along the dusty road they drive past women in monpe work-knickers digging a trench about the City outskirts, past wide-brim-hat farmer ankle-deep in water, stooped over in rice paddy, and into hilly countryside. The people they pass look up in amazement at the private car.

   Tsukisappu is 30 kilometers north. A wide rolling meadow that was made ideal for grazing with westernization, it became a sheep area and place to dine out on the cooked sheep delicacy. The iron pan for cooking is shaped like old time Mongol warrior hat hence Genghis Khan and the food is, ideally, eaten in meadow at cookout on grass. It is a barbeque and eaten by picking up, off red-hot cooking grill, freshly sizzling sheep meat mutton strip or various frying vegetable with long chopsticks, dipping each in a choice of pungent sauces and alternating with white rice all washed down by hot saké.

35. The Farmer and his Geisha

Jun knocks on front door of sod-roof farm house. A white-haired farmer opens and, knowing Jun from deliveries at nearby training camp, greets him. Inside at a low table is his woman also with white hair and pretty, like the geisha she used to be. Both toothlessly smile and bow.
   He says: “Lieutenant, please, you and missus come and share our meal.”

   Kimi whispers to Jun: “They think I’m your wife?”
   Jun whispers back: “Farmers – old fashioned; in their mind, what else?”

   They go to the back yard by a wide green meadow. Nearby, sheep graze. Kimi walks beside Jun, following the old couple toward a willow tree under which is a blanket and a charcoal fire, heating a Genghis Khan brazier. Several strips of fresh raw mutton are neatly set out beside the brazier; also sliced green peppers, onions, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, a steaming bowl of white rice and a big brown porcelain jar full of hot saké and drinking cups.
   Eating begins. Using long, thick chopsticks, Farmer places strips of sheep and pieces of vegetable on the red hot brazier. Sizzling and crackling they emit dense, fragrant white smoke. No sooner one morsel begins to sizzle than Old Lady picks it up and puts it into Kimi’s or Jun’s bowl while Farmer adds raw replacement.

   Kimi picks up juicy sizzled strip between her smaller regular chopsticks, swishes it in bowl of pungent sauce and puts it in her mouth, chewing slowly to savor the mix of partly cooked, partly raw lamb and the exquisite sauce. Jun eats like it is the last meal for a Kamikaze. 
   As they finish, Old Lady gets rice wine saké which she and Kimi pour while Farmer speaks.

36. Farmer’s Dance

Old Lady was Farmer’s Geisha and he became her patron. He had a legal wife with children but fell too much in love so he separated from family and bought the farm where they live together now 30 years with no children to bother them and they dote on each other and raise sheep, and grow rice & vegetables
   She gets out her samisen, the traditional, stringed musical instrument of geisha, and, twanging a melody, sings a traditional song. Then, to her musical accompaniment, Farmer sings a ballad. Despite his old age he has good voice. He sings Coal Miner’s Song and a wartime favorite China Night and between songs, Old Lady pours the saké. Tipsy, the Farmer decides to show them the Awa Odori, an obscene dance and for an oldster he is surprisingly nimble and hops about making as if he holds a huge penis in both hands and swings it back & forth like an elephant trunk. When he finishes, Old Lady takes him in hand saying “I’d better get Grandpa to bed before he is a complete ass. Please forgive my drunken old man and make yourselves t’home here as long as you wish. No one will disturb.”

   It is evening and she lights lantern and leads Farmer wearily into house. Jun and Kimi watch them go while behind the hill the horizon still glows faintly and the air vibrates with cicadas buzzing.

   Jun looks towards horizon where Sol has set. “Japan is called land of rising sun but perhaps now we are people of setting sun?”

  “No!” says Kimi firmly. “I see the future better. The war is a swerve that will force change but it will end. Time is coming for The New People.”

   Jun has given up trying to understand this strange former fishing-village girl. All he knows is she is different. And now he desires her again as he had by the lake and his desire is mirrored in her eyes. They clutch and cling then clothes come away and two bodies strive to one. They roll together in the dust, arms and legs entwined, now one on top then the other. Butts rise and fall and sighs and moans and gasps send nearby sheep in meadow into panic: love looks away and lust steals the day.

   Kimi's inside strums with pleasure as Jun empties into her. She lies under him squeezing his sex tightly, the muscles around her sexual opening involuntarily twitching on his firmness while her shoulders press the hard earth, her chin in his right-shoulder niche and her eyes taking in the brilliant July full-moon and stars above.

37. Envoi

Back at Village, a Midnight moon is up as Jun drives onto the beach and both he and Kimi sit silent, looking at the darkly illumined ocean and the jagged rock shoreline with the moon shining down. Kimi recites poem:

Waves be still

Be quiet the wind.

War be gone

Let peace begin.

Next morning the Villagers go to City Station to see Jun off. A 5-piece band plays and a city official stands on a wooden dais by the train giving a patriotic speech. With Jun are 50 or so air force cadets each in crisp white uniform. Many goodbyes are said, then Jun stands off to side with Kimi. “I have not forgot your words of yesterday by the lake and even if I am not brave enough to do it, now I understand.” A "toot" of the train interrupts, signaling all aboard.

   She bows her sayonara and Jun jumps onto the train ledge step as the band starts the National Anthem and all the well wishers hold red-ball rising-sun flags, waving as the train starts forward.
   Kimi runs alongside Jun who stands on lowest step at end of the final coach of the moving train on its right side. Reaching into sleeve of her kimono she pulls out a roll of pink & white crepe ribbon and, holding onto its free end, flings the roll to him. He catches and holds it in both hands allowing it to unroll as the train speeds up. She continues to run to end of platform; then she stands watching the lengthening unrolling ribbon between his departing hands and her stationary ones. For a fragile moment the two continue to be connected by the tinsel strip as the roll winds out; then, the ribbon tautens and snaps, its two broken ends fluttering in the wind created by the moving train.

   She stands silent alone, her fragment of ribbon fluttering over the empty track.

38. Plan

News of Saipan rocks Japan. First stories paint glowing picture of new tactical weapon – Kamikaze – which is destroying Yankee Monkee invasion fleet but, as days pass, the Americans inexplicably hold a beachhead even though heroic Imperial Army defenders are destroying them on land.

   Kimi, with Kimura’s reportage of Midway and Guadalcanal in mind, easily reads between lines and knows beforehand that Saipan will be another ‘victory in retreat.’ And afterward, the typical headline signals show she is correct:

IMPERIAL ARMY AND NAVY, HAVING DESTROYED THE U.S. FLEET, SHOT DOWN VAST NUMBERS OF PLANES AND INFLICTED OVERWHELMING CASUALTIES GO ON TO FIGHT ELSEWHERE.

Ancient Tanaka receives telegram that his grandson died a hero and the Emperor is awarding him a posthumous Purple Chrysanthemum for extreme valor.

   Kimi takes it stoically. Morning nausea and daytime sleepiness indicate pregnancy. He has left part of himself in me, thanks to me, and I shall bring it to consciousness so that it will give meaning to his life.

   Kimi is perfectionist and, when it comes to creating The New People, she has learned that circumstances at birth and arrangement of events of early life strongly determine a consciousness’s direction and success, and she knows from personal experience the strong affect of society’s opinion. So she feels great responsibility for assuring the new life she is bearing will not be badly influenced by ignorant prejudice.
   She forms a plan. She will not stay because her belly bulge will announce the out of wedlock that might deform Baby’s life. Her kid brother comes to mind, He had been working in Manchukuo since 1940. Wouldn’t it be believable for him to father a child there by a wife who died and afterward to send it back for Kimi to bring up? By leaving the Village before any hint of her pregnancy, no one else need know the new child is from Kimi’s loins.

  So she decides to return to Tokyo. When told of Kimi's plan, Grandma opposes it all night but Kimi is a hardhead and at last the old lady gives in. According to the plan, Grandma would talk about how Brother had married a Japanese in Manchukuo and the girl’s expecting a baby in the spring.

End of Slim Novel 9

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