Part 10 (1/2)

Isaku stepped onto the dirt floor to start the evening meal.

For the next two days their fever continued to drop, but on the evening of the third day Isaku was in despair at the thought that the elder's misgivings seemed to be coming true. The fever returned with a vengeance, and the spots became much more densely cl.u.s.tered on their skin.

Kane vomited again and again, wailing and crying in between attacks. Their mother and Isokichi moaned in agony with the latest bouts of headache and backache, and when Isaku touched their foreheads he was amazed at how hot they were.

The next morning he was horrified when he saw their faces in the clear sunlight s.h.i.+ning into the house. The spots had turned yellow and seemed to have all burst at once, leaving a suppurating ma.s.s oozing down their faces. Their eyes were blocked with pus, but, lacking the strength to wipe it away, the three of them just lay there gasping for air.

Isaku finally understood that this was no ordinary illness and could only be the disease called smallpox that Jinbei had described. Yet it looked as if, rather than having a disease, they had been cursed. Even the word 'pox' had an eerie ring to it.

His mother and Isokichi groaned desperately and Kane cried in a rasping voice between violent muscle spasms. Giving them herb tea was obviously having no effect, and Isaku now had no idea how he should be treating them.

Gripped by panic, he rushed out of the house and ran down to the beach. Maybe the elder would be holding a meeting there; but not a soul was to be seen, so he headed for the village chief's house, hoping to get some advice to help his family.

On the way up the slope to the chief's house, Isaku saw a dozen or so men and women standing in the yard, all deathly pale.

'There's pus all over their faces,' Isaku shouted as he ran toward the villagers.

'My family's the same. All the sick ones are covered in pus,' said a middle-aged man in a trembling voice.

The elder came out of the chief's house. His white-whiskered face was gaunt and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked around the congregation and in a feeble voice said, 'Jinbei was right. It must be smallpox. The chief's eyes are blocked up with pus, too.'

'What can we do to make it easier for them?' asked one man imploringly.

'We can do nothing but pray,' he replied. His head bowed, he left the yard and moved unsteadily down the slope.

The village was in uproar. The symptoms of most of the sick were more or less the same, and by all accounts many people were losing their minds. Kane was clearly insane, launching herself again and again into a bolt-upright sitting position as she wailed in a strange high-pitched voice, something between laughter and crying. After each attack Isaku laid her back down on her straw bedding.

The next morning he heard that several people had died during the night. Kane's condition continued to deteriorate, and after a series of violent fits around midday, she, too, died. Their mother and Isokichi had both lost consciousness, so neither was aware of what had happened.

The following day the elder left a note in his house and then jumped to his death from the cliffs near Crow Point. The waves smashed his body onto the rocks again and again, breaking his head to pieces. The note was addressed to the village chief. It recorded the elder's deepest apologies for bringing this terrible disease into the village by his declaration that the pus-stained red clothes were safe to wear, and explained that he had chosen to take his own life to atone for his misjudgement.

The elder's son was given the task of collecting the body and disposing of it in deep water. Suicide was judged a sinful act, so the custom was for the culprit's body to be dropped into the sea rather than given an honourable burial on land.

With the elder's death, the village was cast into further turmoil. The number of deaths increased dramatically, and, with no indication of how the bodies should be disposed of, the surviving family members could do little but set up a light offering to the G.o.ds and pray in front of the family shrine. There was no way enough coffins could be built to handle the number of dead, so the bodies were left in the houses.

Eventually, on Jinbei's instructions, two men went round the village and told the people what to do with the bodies. Because there weren't enough able-bodied people to carry so many bodies up to the crematory, they ordered that the next day the bodies should be burned on the beach and the bones carried up for burial the day after.

Isaku wrapped Kane's body in some straw matting and carried her outside. There was no change in either his mother's or Isokichi's condition; both of them lay unconscious, gasping feverishly for air.

Isaku made a funeral pyre out of a criss-cross arrangement of pieces of wood and laid Kane's body on top. He worked some kindling until it caught fire and the wood started to burn. The straw matting soon burned away to expose his sister's face engulfed in flames; no tears came into Isaku's eyes. Around him were little groups of villagers standing beside their own flaming pyres. They all looked intent on burning away the virulence harboured by the bodies of their loved ones, and all seemed to have forgotten the sorrow of losing a family member.

Though there were many infants and young children among the dead, there were also a number of young men and women and old people. Isaku fed the fire with wood and poked at Kane's body with a bamboo rod to make sure the flames burned their way through.

At dusk Isaku picked up the bones and put them in a wooden tub. There was hardly anything to them.

When he got home, he placed the tub in front of the ancestral tablet and started to grill a fish on the fire. He called out to his mother and Isokichi, urging them to have something to eat, but they just lay there gasping, incapable of uttering a word in reply. Their mouths and nostrils were full of clotted pus.

That night a squall blew up and covered the house in sheets of rain. The downpour had stopped by morning, but the house creaked with the force of the wind.

Isaku pa.s.sed the time quietly tending to his mother and Isokichi. Their arms, legs and faces swelled even more, and fresh pus oozed from under what had already caked onto their skin, which by now was invisible under the purulent ma.s.s. It was as if they were wearing masks.

Jinbei's messengers called again, this time advising that recovery would begin once the scabs fell off naturally, and he must not remove them prematurely. Isaku did his best to feed his mother and Isokichi, spooning gruel into their mouths through the gap between their scab-encrusted lips.

Day after day corpses were being burned on the beach. Uneasy, Isaku went down to the sh.o.r.e to help carry firewood. It seemed that the village chief was still alive but in a serious condition.

The weather grew warmer and calm days with mist rising off the sea more frequent. The snow disappeared from the slopes behind the village, the only remaining traces of winter the sparkling strips of white on the distant ridges.

The beach was covered with the blackened charcoal remains of funeral pyres, some still burning. The number of bodies being burned was falling, an indication that the pestilence was on the wane.

When Isaku awoke one day early in March, he noticed that the scab covering his mother's right eye had dried up and fallen off. The eye was looking his way. The scabs covering her mouth moved and a m.u.f.fled voice leaked out, 'Kane's dead, isn't she?'

Isaku nodded, replying, 'Many people have died.'

His mother quietly closed her eyes.

That night both his mother and Isokichi started wailing. The itchiness under the scabs was unremitting, and, unable to scratch for fear of worsening their condition, all they could do to get some relief was to press down on the dried pus.

The next day, while the urge to scratch at the scabs was still there, the fever had gone down somewhat. At the same time the caked ma.s.s that had covered their legs and arms was beginning to flake off. Pus no longer oozed out from under the scabs on their faces, and a pale powdery substance spread over their skin.

No more funeral pyres were lit on the beach. The itchiness that had tormented Isaku's mother and Isokichi gradually let up, and the scabs on their faces curled up, ready to fall off. Isaku told them it would be best to let the scabs fall off naturally, but his mother couldn't bear them on her face any longer and started to pick at them with her finger. Nothing adverse happened as a result, and in no time they were even able to eat again unaided. The spots on the skin where the scabs had been were strangely white, with a reddish depression marking the place where the boil had been.

Isaku finally realised that his mother and Isokichi had recovered, but he shuddered when he heard Isokichi say, 'I can't see anything.' Star-shaped bulges covered the pupil of each eye.

His mother and Isokichi would get out of bed and sit by the fire, mostly without saying a word. As the days pa.s.sed, the redness where the boils had been faded, but pockmarks were left not just on their faces but all over their necks, shoulders, arms, and legs.

Reluctant to leave Kane's bones sitting in the house, Isaku put them in a pot and set off up the hill to the crematory, where he buried them. Beside him an old woman was swinging a hoe as she dug a hole to bury the bones of two dead kin.

A few days later all the people who had not been infected by the disease were summoned to a.s.semble on the beach. Isaku dropped what he was doing and went straight to the sh.o.r.e. About thirty men and women were standing in front of the little hut used in tending the salt cauldrons. He saw how few people had survived unscathed and realised how badly the village had been ravaged by the disease.

Isaku's eyes scanned the faces in the crowd. Sahei was there, but there was no sign of Tami.

The village chief came down the slope to the beach sitting in a makes.h.i.+ft litter shouldered by four men. The pockmarks covering his face served as a graphic reminder of what he had been through. The villagers prostrated themselves, and Jinbei's son Manbei stepped forward and knelt before the chief as the litter was set down on the sand. They spoke in whispers, then Manbei nodded his a.s.sent and turned round to address the villagers.

'It is the command of our revered chief that I take up the position of elder in the village. We have been stricken by a most terrible calamity, but the disease has now pa.s.sed. The chief has decided what we must do. Those still keeping the bones of dead family members in their houses should see to it that they are taken up to the crematory and buried as soon as possible. Also, most of you will be spending your time taking care of your family, but those of you who can should be out fis.h.i.+ng or collecting sh.e.l.lfish on the sh.o.r.e or tilling the soil. Now let us join our chief in a prayer to the sea.'

With that, Manbei sat down beside the chief.

The latter pressed his hands together in prayer, and the a.s.sembled followed as they turned to look out to sea. Isaku heard the sound of sobbing and felt tears welling in his own eyes. The grief over Kane's death that he hadn't felt until now suddenly overcame him. His heart bled for his little sister when he thought that her last moments of life had been spent thras.h.i.+ng about like a fish on a boat's deck.

That day a good number of villagers could be seen going up the hill to the crematory, carrying boxes or bags holding the bones of their loved ones. Isaku caught sight of Tami's father limping his way up the path, a box in his arms. The thought that it might contain Tami's bones sent a s.h.i.+ver down Isaku's spine.

The next day the sea was rough, but the following morning Isaku took his boat out for the first time in a while. The star-shaped blotches on Isokichi's eyes were still dark and the blindness showed no sign of improvement. Even blind, Isokichi might somehow manage to work the oar, but it would be impossible for him to go out in a boat for some time.

Before long the sardines started to bite, so much so that no sooner would Isaku drop the hook in the water than he would be pulling up a s.h.i.+mmering fish on the line. Other boats seemed to be having the same success.

They grilled the day's catch over the fire for their evening meal.

'The peach trees'll probably be coming into flower up in the mountains now,' whispered his mother as she took a sardine to eat.

Isaku studied his mother's expression. He was reminded that before long his father would return home. In the three years his father had been away, both Teru and Kane had died and now Isokichi had lost his sight. Their father would be grief-stricken, so their mother was probably more fearful than happy at the prospect of seeing him again. And, on top of that, as a wife she was no doubt mortified at the prospect of showing her hideously scarred face to her husband.