"Isn't that fire pretty close to the fire tower?" someone shouted back.
"Then maybe they can't get the firefighting pump out," shouted someone else.
Everyone was apprehensive, imagining what was going to happen to the place if they were forced to just let the fire burn itself out.
"Anyway, all of you had better get home," said Nagaharu. "Haru, you take Natsue and get down there quick."
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"Warn the villagers with the drum. Without the bell, people in the fields and mountains may not know there's a fire yet." He started at a run toward the shrine.
At the shrine stage, the religious group gathered to witness the dance offering they were supposed to get for their donation stirred in surprise as Tajikarao burst on stage and began to beat the drum with a discordant rhythm. Hurried along by the sound, Haru, with Natsue by the hand, went down the Women's Slope. Still in her shrine-maiden's costume, Natsue had trouble keeping her cuffs from getting tangled as she tried to keep up with her mother. On top of that, she was still holding the bell she had been using in the dance, and it was ringing busily with every step she took. This annoyed Haru, but she couldn't tell Natsue to throw it away. Moving along to the mingling of drum and bell, she was greatly surprised to find herself imagining that she was back dancing on stage in the days of her childhood.
The Kusumoto house was right at the base of the peak, so Nagaharu could afford to let the other priests go down first, because his house was farthest away from the fire. Haru's mother, Nobu, was standing outside the yew hedge wondering what to do. "It's a big one!" she exclaimed, relieved to see Haru. She pointed all around toward the bottom of the slope. In the time it had taken Haru to get down from the peak, the smoke had spread considerably.
"Where did it start?" asked Haru.
"Who knows? The patrolman from the Middle Shrine was here a few minutes ago, and he says he got word that the fire had even got into the post office."
"Even the post office? That means it must be all over the bottom of the slope."
"I guess so. Dry as it is, who can tell how far it will burn?" Suddenly Nobu realized someone was missing. "Where's Nagaharu?"
"He's beating the drum, because the firebell didn't ring."
"Oh he is, is he?" Nobu looked up at the peak. She was used to the sound of the drum, but right now it only made her mad. "At a time like this, he ought to be down here with us. What are we supposed to do without him?" she said, scowling. Nagaharu was an adopted son-in-law. The Kusumotos had produced only women for the last two generations, and he and Haru had yet to produce a son.
"I wonder how Taki's doing?" worried Haru. The smoke did not look like it was too far from the Tendoh house. "I'm going to go have a look."
"This is no time for you to be doing that!"
"I'll be right back. Would you mind getting Natsue changed out of her costume?" said Haru over her shoulder as she rushed off.
As Haru came around the curve at the top of the slope, the whole scene of the fire came into view. The level area at the bottom was already a sea of flames, and even outside that area, the fire had spread to ten or more houses. It seemed to be moving faster along the houses to the east than it was north up the slope with its many trees, and there was already a lot of smoke pouring from the windows of the school building, about a hundred meters from the heart of the flames. If the school caught, the fire would spread much further in one leap. Haru imagined the scene as she ran along with shaky knees.
The handcart with the pump being brought down from the Middle Shrine village rattled loudly past her. The firemen in their livery coats were mostly middle-aged or older, and their hoarse shouts to mark time as they pulled the pump hardly inspired confidence. Out of the blue smoke into which they were headed came small groups of people fleeing up the slope with only the clothes on their backs. The fire must have spread too quickly for them to save a thing. They hurried along as fast as they could, covered with soot, children howling and adults raving.
As Haru reached the Otomo house, the family was trying to get its belongings out. Two houses away, the farmer's roof had caught fire, and they could feel the heat on their cheeks with every gust of wind.
"It's no use. We've got no water," said Mitsuyoshi, carrying an oblong chest, nodding toward the pond in his garden. A little stagnant water was barely visible on the bottom, and the newts were turned red bellies upward.
"Did you check on Taki?"
"Yes, but she wasn't there. She must have already fled."
Placing the chest on the cart, Mitsuyoshi hurried back into the house. Out of it came his wife, moving slowly with her palsied mother-in-law leaning on her shoulder. The younger woman grinned at Haru. What the grin might mean, Haru could not guess. The older one, her bloodshot eyes fixed on the sky, kept mumbling about the wrath of the gods. She had suffered a collapse from the shock of the defeat, and since then had taken it into her head that the gods were sure to punish Japan for its unconditional surrender.
Mitsuyoshi had said that Taki was not there, but Haru decided to check anyway. Taki's house was just a block away on the other side of the street, and it would be only a matter of time before the fire reached it. Haru could already hear the rustle of sparks falling on the tops of the cedars, oaks, and chestnut trees above her.
Entering the house, she found the air unexpectedly cool. It was dark inside, and her eyes took some time to adjust. She called Taki's name any number of times from the entryway. The houses of all Shinto priests were big, intended as they were to provide accommodations for religious groups, but the Tendoh house was conspicuously larger than most, and Haru could not be sure that her voice would carry to every corner of it. It was no time for ceremony, and she did not bother to take off her shoes. Going to the back, she looked into the bedroom. Taki was not there. Haru called out at the top of her voice, then strained her ears for an answer. Finally, she heard a faint moaning.
Taki was in the garden at the back, crawling on the ground on all fours, her face smeared with mud.
"What are you doing, Taki?" scolded Haru.
"It's coming out... it's coming out..." Taki howled at the sky like a wolf, her hand pressed against her lower abdomen, as if she were trying to hold back a bowel movement. Her belt was undone and the front of her unlined kimono was dragging on the ground, her breasts and her gigantic belly half exposed.
"What's coming out, Taki? Do you mean the baby's being born?" asked Haru, rushing over and quickly tying Taki's belt.
"It's coming out, it's coming out," Taki kept on, bobbing her head up and down. Each time her head went down, her tears dripped onto the ground. Fear and pain were once again distracting this unfortunate girl.
Haru had to do something, but what? "Taki, you wait here. I'm going to get my mother." She started to go.
"Don't go! Oh, please, don't go," cried Taki desperately.
"But..." As Haru turned to look at her, Taki fell flat on her back, her legs toward Haru, and the bottom of her kimono fell open. Before Haru could avert her eyes from the embarrassing sight, what she saw made her gasp. From between Taki's spread thighs, a blood-smeared spherical mass was pushing its way out. It was unmistakably the baby's head. All over Taki's white thighs and buttocks were dribbles of slime that looked like the trails of slugs, and trickles of blood were running everywhere.
She would die like this, thought Haru, rushing into the house in a daze. She fumbled all over the place in the darkness until she had managed to find two cushions, a pair of scissors for cutting the umbilical cord, and some thread, then she went back to the garden.
The baby's shoulders were already visible. Taki's arms and legs were stiff, and she was groaning intermittently, apparently with the effort of trying to push the baby out. Haru placed the cushions under Taki's buttocks. The baby came out slowly above them. With an agility she would not have believed possible of herself, Haru took hold of it and laid