Miho
had arranged to take Bruno to a mountain outside her city to visit a remote
temple. It was an ancient temple with massive pillars covered with moss, a
popular weekend excursion for local residents, and surrounded by cedars older
than time itself. Miho and Bruno had met by chance. He
was a traveler with no itinerary and lost among the maze of sushi shops, izakayas and mamma-san snacks. He saw Miho with her
freshly-dyed magenta hair and psychedelic nail polish and asked her.
“ 'Scuse
me, ma'am, do ya know where I can find a McDonalds?”
Miho was the right person to ask
because she loved talking to foreigners regardless of their nationality.
“Oh are you hungry? Why don't you try
some sushi?”
“I don't eat raw fish. What do you think I
am, a walrus?”
“I see. How about Okonomiyaki?”
“Huh?”
“They are Japanese pancakes. Somethig like
pizza!”
“No, I want a hamburger.”
“O.K yes. We do
have Mac-co-do-ru-nal-dos. I will take you
there."
Miho was all of twenty going on fifteen. Bruno
was twice her age. She had never been abroad but loved the mystery and mystic
mood of being with foreigners.
“It makes me feel soooo
international” she once confided to a friend.
It
was also her habit to keep a notebook into which foreigners left a "peace
message" for the world - something like – “hang in there, baby -it's worth
it!” Next to the message there was a photo of herself and some stranger which
she would take as soon as they had inscribed their message into her book.
No one ever refused to write something. One
really couldn't because Miho was so sincere and naďve. Her "Peace to the
World" notebook meant more to her than it ever could mean to the world.
So together Miho and Bruno went to
McDonald’s which was near the station and Bruno ordered a Big Mac with fries
and chocolate milkshake. Miho ordered a cup of lemon tea. They began to talk
and by the time they had left a relationship (of sorts) had started.
Bruno was a
construction worker with more brawn that brain, lifted weights when he could
and ended up in
Before leaving McDonalds
Miho asked Bruno “Would you like to visit famous temple? I could take you there
to ring our famous peace bell.”
“Sure why not? When?”
“How about tomorrow?”
So, the next day found them on the top of
the mountain where the temple was situated in cedar-silence. They got to the
top of the mountain by cable car and there were but a handful of tourists and
pilgrims in the gondola. The tourists carried cameras and guidebooks. The
pilgrims carried walking sticks and small cups of sake to leave as offerings to
the gods. The sake was left as divine offerings for the deceased as they
relished life in the hereafter.
“Now I want to show you the peace bell!” Miho
was quite excited. This was not her first visit. If anything she was a regular
visitor dragging scores of foreigners up to the mountain to ring the peace bell
and the local attendant at the temple sometimes muttered to a colleague “Here comes Miho with some foreigners.”
Since the bombing of
“We have more peace bells than atomic bombs?”
She always said this with a cute giggle. Even
one peace bell in the whole country would qualify to make that statement true.
After leaving the cable car
Miho and Bruno walked along a mountain road covered by protective trees. The
smell of cedar and the breathing of a fresh breeze led them to a bridge and a
small waterfall. Miho was wrapped in awe. She really loved this place and in
the autumn it was especially rapturous with dragon flies flitting from flower
to tree and a cool wind rustling the trees creating a smell of leaf, wind and
breeze.
“Here we are!” she said to Bruno.
Bruno was not quite sure where she had led
him considering there was nothing but some wooden pillars supporting a bronze
bell. Around him was forest and no other building were in view.
“Where's the temple?” he asked.
“Oh the temple’s another 200 meters up the
hill but this is our peace bell.” As she said this a glow came over her like an
epiphany. “Here is where we strike the peace bell and send our message around
the world.”
Miho picked up a gong mallet about a meter
long and approached the bell. The bell itself was quite large and very old. It
was cast from bronze and may well have been made over 500 years ago.
She closed her eyes, made a wish then
gently hit the bell. "Boom!" it echoed softly. The sparrows in the
rafters of the wooden structure which housed the bell flew from their nests and
sought refuge in the trees The small ferrets in the forest nearby lifted their
heads and glanced over at the bell from which the sound had come. At the sound
of the gong they wiggled their ears.
Miho struck the bell a second time
"Boom!" Its sound rippled through the autumn air like the ripples on
the surface of the water when a pebble is tossed into a pond. Its echo danced
on the wind and rustled the leaves in the branches.
Miho paused a moment prayerfully and
struck the bell yet a third time. "Baam!"
The sound was a soft and soothing caress, a warmth of
intentions. For a brief moment nature was awakened from the slumber of the September’s
day, the call to peace marched solemnly and serenely through the sky and off
into the hills and down across the valley and melted gently into oblivion.
Miho was quite pleasantly moved by her use
of the gong and sighed softly at Bruno
“There, you see. It is really quite simple
I have sent a message of peace throughout the world.”
She said this with a deep sense of pride
and self-satisfaction as though her life was not without meaning and her simple
gesture had made the world a better place in which to live.
She turned to Bruno and
handed him the mallet to strike the bell.
“Here, now you try it. Remember to make a
wish before you strike.”
Bruno grabbed the mallet as though it
were a baseball bat. His powerful grip clenched its stem and he looked at it
maliciously perhaps in the same way Babe Ruth did at Yankee Stadium before
hitting a grand slam.
He swung the mallet back revealing his
muscular biceps and with a vicious swing connected with the bell.
“BAROOOM!” The
bell echoed a thunderous noise like the crack of thunder in a violent electric
storm piercing the silent air. The black crows cawed in fear as they left their
secret hiding places. The earth trembled and began to groan with the spasms
that precede an earthquake.
Miho looked in awe. This was
her King Kong, a primeval beast released from the jungle showing off to the
world his mighty power. Bruno was not finished. He drew the mallet back again
and dug his feet into the ground. He was now a Goliath ready to take on an army
of Davids who had not yet been vanquished. He focused
his power on the center of the bell and struck again.
BARAROOOM!
Nature was violently disturbed. The fury
of his might had awakened the forest animals from their holes in the ground,
the bears from their dens, the lions from their lair. All the creatures of
the wild looked into the direction from which had come such a thunderous noise.
Was this the day of judgment? The moment of recognition?
The call for the final battle of Armageddon?
Bruno was now ready for the final show of
what his brawn could generate. He reeled backward and put al of his weight onto
his right foot taking his left foot from the ground. He tensed up his muscles
honed into weapons by the sweat of human labor and swung firmly and finally and
fiercely at the bell.
BA-RA-VA-RA-ROOOOOM!
The peace bell screeched and
screamed. It was the scream of agony, an inanimate object built as a symbol of
peace was now a victim of sacrifice. The monks of the temple upon hearing the
succession of horrific gongs returned to the temple's sanctuary to commence
their chanting. The Earth trembled and the pillars that held the bell aloft
began to shiver and shake. They quivered and lost their power to support. They gradually
gave way to a force which made them weaken and slowly they collapsed. The peace
bell crashed to the ground and in the fall it cracked, wounded and forever
broken. It remained embedded in the soft sand-like soil which had lain beneath
it. Its message would be heard no more.
A smile of satisfaction came over Bruno's
face "Peace my ass!" he thought to himself
Miho was beside herself not knowing
what to do or say. She was stunned and speechless. Bruno put the mallet down
and wiped his sweaty hands across his trousers. A silence followed and both not
knowing what to say just stared at each other. After the resonating echoes of
the thunderous crash had ceased to fill the air, a strange and eerie silence
took possession of the land.
Miho was the first to speak. Her voice was
thin and feeble. “You sent a very strong message of peace to the world” she
said trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Yeah,
well,” Bruno replied with a shrug. “Yeah, well. Ya
know, .”
