Read Ebook: The shrine by Sheldon Walter J

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Ebook has 134 lines and 7035 words, and 3 pages

"Well, that's what I came here for--"

"I told Mr. Murdock," said Naito, drawing his robe more closely about him, "to send a man who would understand. Someone who was not all western ... who had a little of the oriental viewpoint."

Blair laughed. "Murdock would think that about me. Because I show a little interest in things oriental--because I don't think a deep freeze or an eight cylinder juke box on wheels is the greatest thing in the world. Nevertheless, Mr. Naito, I come from a middle-class American background, and my viewpoint is still pretty western. Nor am I one of these odd intellectual types who seem to be ashamed of it."

"There is hope," said Naito. "I am glad you came."

Blair took folded copy paper and a pencil from his pocket. "But shall we get down to business now? First, let me get your full name, and where you come from, and all that. Then the exact name of your sect here, or whatever it is."

Naito seemed amused.

Yuki stood by with great poise. Blair glanced at her and thought yes, flower. When she stands she grows quietly, like a flower.

"Yes," said Blair politely. "Now what about these magic tricks of yours?"

Murdock had said there would be magic tricks. Friends of Murdock's, tourists, had come across the Hataka Shrine and had seen them. Murdock had sent Blair with his Speed Graphic to get the story. The Americans of the security forces, who supported the Tokyo Trib, liked these features very much. From them they became experts on Japan without the annoyance of going too far afield from their wellstocked clubs or comfortable billeting areas.

Naito, the high priest, sighed.

"I will do it the cheap way, then."

He took Blair to another corner of the garden. Yuki followed, gliding. Here water trickled from rocks into a small pool where black and orange carp swam. Naito watched the pool for a while, and presently the water stopped running. A moment later it began to seep upward toward the cleft in the rock.

"There," said Naito.

"What's this supposed to prove?" asked Blair.

"Water running uphill," said Naito. "Is that enough of a trick for you?"

"I don't get it."

"Okay. A round balloon."

Naito blew it up. Instead of inflating to a round shape it extended itself into a long, banana like form. Then he blew it up again, and this time shapes like fingers came out of it at various points.

"Well?" said Blair.

"Oh, the water illusion, and the balloon thing are clever enough--I don't have any idea how you do it," said Blair, "but the tricks, well, they lack drama, if you see what I mean. No flash. I'd like a good visual trick. One I can really photograph."

Now Naito seemed to seethe inside. He breathed quickly, heavily as he talked. "What will you have?" he said. "What will you have, Mr. Blair? I can do the Hindu rope trick, I can fascinate snakes, and I can put Yuki in a box and saw her in half. Is that the kind of thing you might understand?"

"Well, it ought to be something sort of new," said Blair.

They sat upon grass mats in one of the cottages over cups of pale green tea. Yuki sat beside Blair, and her shoulder touched him now and then. When this happened he found it difficult to concentrate on what Naito was saying.

"I'm afraid I'm not very much up on my science."

"Well, I'm trying to explain it in terms a westerner will understand. You saw a quantity of water run uphill. It was not an illusion, Mr. Blair. It is highly probable that water will not run uphill, but it is also possible that, under certain circumstances, it may. And as for the balloon--tell me, why does gas exert equal pressure in every direction?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

"I remember Boyle's law."

"Exactly. And Boyle's law, or Ohm's laws, or Newton's laws, or anyone else's laws are based on probability--nearly overwhelming probability. But what happens in the rare, almost unthinkable case where every factor does not act according to the most pragmatic law of all--the law of averages?"

"We're getting way up in the clouds now," said Blair.

"Please try to see it."

"Yes, please do." Yuki touched his arm.

"Now, wait a minute, Dr. Naito," said Blair. "You're a very nice fellow and I don't really want to offend you, but honestly, I've been around, and a lot of people have tried to fool me with double-talk. Not as learned as yours, but the principle's the same. Now look, why don't you make some fine visual trick for me that I can photograph? Then I can get out of here."

"Oh, dear," said Naito.

"Now what's the trouble?"

"This isn't what I wanted at all. I hoped Murdock's reporter would be--well, sensitive. You see, the time has come to spread what we've learned, to find new supporters. I'd hoped to get a few this way."

"How about my trick?" asked Blair.

"Very well. Come into the garden again."

In the garden he spoke rapidly for a few moments to Yuki in Japanese. Then he turned to Blair. "Watch her. Have your camera ready."

"I'm ready."

Yuki, a few feet away from them, closed her eyes and at first began to turn slowly in one spot. Her step, to begin, was a slow pirouette, then gradually she began to revolve more rapidly. Presently she was turning so fast that Blair could scarcely believe it. He would not have believed before that the finest professional dancer could pirouette with this speed. He began to take pictures. He was so busy taking pictures that at first he did not notice the blurred shape that was Yuki, whirling, begin to disappear. Then this became apparent to him. He stared, open-mouthed, and Yuki vanished from sight.

"My gosh--that's terrific!" he said. "Where did she go?"

"She's still right there," said Naito.

Blair walked to the spot, felt nothing; he moved his hands about where the girl had been spinning. "She's not there," he said, returning. "That's a honey, though. You could make a nice living back in the states out of that one alone."

Naito sighed.

"Now, how do you bring her back?" asked Blair, and kept his camera ready.

"Presently, presently," said Naito. "I think she distracts you, and now, while you can't see her, you must try once more to understand. You must know why I do these tricks, as you call them."

"All right. Why? Or better yet--how?"

"You in the west would call it psychokinesis--mentally controlling matter. Your conventional table lifting of spiritualists is an example. So is the phenomenon of people who seem to be able to will dice to fall a certain way. And in your literature--well, Moses and the Red Sea is the first thing that comes to mind. Actually, your Dr. Rhine and some others have discovered some evidence that seems to support, to the western mind, the existence of psychokinesis. But you can never really understand it with western, scientific thinking methods. I cannot even explain it clearly in your terms."

Blair smiled a little. "I think you could explain it all logically enough, if you really wanted to. But, actually, I don't blame you for not wanting to give a trick like that away."

"This is no trick, and it is not what you understand as logical," said Naito, shaking his head stubbornly. "I know that you must have logic to understand; you crave the drug of logic. You want everything labeled, and explained in terms of cause and effect. You cannot conceive that cause and effect may be one--or indeed exist independently. And do you see what this way of thinking has led to?"

"What has it led to?" Blair tried to be patient.

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