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"Out with him!" they screamed at the guards. "Isn't the evil he has caused enough? He is so perverse that the gods of the Fifth Mountain refused to dirty their hands with his blood!"
"Leave to us the task of killing him!" shouted a man. "We'll do it right now, without waiting for the ritual execution!"
Standing his ground against the shoves and blows, Elijah freed himself of the hands that grasped him and ran to the widow, who sat weeping in a corner.
"I can bring him back from the dead. Let me touch your son," he said. "For just an instant."
The widow did not even raise her head.
"Please," he insisted. "Even if it be the last thing you do for me in this life, give me the chance to try to repay your generosity."
Some men seized him to drag him away. But Elijah resisted, struggling with all his strength, imploring to be allowed to touch the dead child.
Although he was young and determined, he was finally pulled away to the door of the house. "Angel of the Lord, where are you?" he cried to the heavens.
At that moment, everyone stopped. The widow had risen and come toward him. Taking him by the hands, she led him to where the cadaver of her son lay, then removed the sheet that covered him.
"Behold the blood of my blood," she said. "May it descend upon the heads of your line if you do not achieve what you desire."
He drew near, to touch the boy.
"One moment," said the widow. "First, ask your God to fulfill my curse."
Elijah's heart was racing. But he believed wh
at the angel had told him.
"May the blood of this boy descend upon the heads of my father and mother and upon my brothers, and upon the sons and daughters of my brothers, if I do not do that which I have said."
Then, despite all his doubts, his guilt, and his fears, "He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
"And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God, hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
"And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again."
For long moments nothing happened. Elijah saw himself back in Gilead, standing before the soldier with an arrow pointing at his heart, aware that oftentimes a man's fate has nothing to do with what he believes or fears. He felt calm and confident as he had that day, knowing that, whatever the outcome might be, there was a reason that all of this had come to pass. Atop the Fifth Mountain, the angel had called this reason the "grandeur of God"; he hoped one day to understand why the Creator needed His creatures to demonstrate this glory.
It was then that the boy opened his eyes.
"Where's my mother?" he asked.
"Downstairs, waiting for you," replied Elijah, smiling.
"I had a strange dream. I was traveling through a dark hole, at a speed faster than the swiftest horse in Akbar. I saw a man--I am sure he was my father, though I never knew him. Then I came to a beautiful place where I wanted to stay; but another man--one I don't know but who seemed very good and brave--asked me kindly to turn away from there. I wanted to go on, but you awoke me."
The boy seemed sad; the place he had almost entered must be lovely.
"Don't leave me alone, for you made me come back from a place where I knew I'd be protected."
"Let us go downstairs," Elijah said. "Your mother wants to see you."
The boy tried to rise, but he was too weak to walk. Elijah took him in his arms and descended the stairs.
The people downstairs appeared overwhelmed by profound terror.
"Why are all these people here?" the boy asked.
Before Elijah could respond, the widow took the boy in her arms and began kissing him, weeping.
