Gibran Stories Omnibus

could be so cruel to the One
who gave my son back to my heart.
     
     (A silence)
     
      Martha : But Lazarus should not stay so long among the hills.
     
      Mary : It is easy for one in a dream to lose his way among the
olive groves. And I know a place where Lazarus loved to sit and dream
and be still. Oh, mother, it is beside a little stream. If you do not
know the place you could not find it. He took me there once, and we sat
on two stones, like children. It was spring, and little flowers were
growing beside us. We often spoke of that place during the winter
season. And each time that he spoke of that place a strange light came
into his eyes.
     
      The Madman : Yes, that strange light, that shadow cast by the
other light.
     
      Mary : And mother, you know that Lazarus has always been away
from us, though he was always with us.
     
      Mother : You say so many things I cannot understand. (Pause) I
wish my son would come back from the hills. I wish he would come back!
(Pause) I must go in now. The lentils must not be overcooked.
     
     (The mother exits through the door)
     
      Martha : I wish I could understand all that you say, Mary.
When you speak it is as though someone else is speaking.
     
      Mary : (Her voice a little strange) I know, my sister, I know.
Whenever we speak it is someone else who is speaking.
     
     (There is a prolonged silence. Mary is faraway in her
thoughts, and Martha watches her half-curiously. Lazarus enters, coming
from the hills, back left. He throws himself upon the grass under the
almond trees near the house.)
     
      Mary : (Running toward him) Oh Lazarus, you are tired and
weary. You should not have walked so far.
     
      Lazarus : (Speaking absently) Walking, walking and going
nowhere; seeking and finding nothing. But it is better to be among the
hills.
     
      The Madman : Well, after all it is a cubit nearer to the other
hills.
     
      Martha : (After brief silence) But you are not well, and you
leave us all day long, and we are much concerned. What you came back,
Lazarus, you made us happy. But in leaving us alone here you turn our
happiness into anxiety.
     
      Lazarus : (Turning his face toward the hills) Did I leave you
long this day? Strange that you should call a moment among the hills a
separation. Did I truly stay more that a moment among the hills?
     
      Martha : You have been gone all day.
     
      Lazarus : To think, to think! A whole day among the hills! Who
would believe it?
     
     (A silence. The mother enters, coming out from the house door.)
     
      Mother : Oh, my son, I am glad you have come back. It is late
and the mist is gathering upon the hills. I feared for you my son.
     
      The Madman : They are afraid of the mist. And the mist is
their beginning and the mist is their end.
     
      Lazarus : Yes, I have come back to you from the hills. The
pity of it, the pity of it all.
     
      Mother : What is it Lazarus? What is the pity of it all?
     
      Lazarus : Nothing, mother. Nothing.
     
      Mother : You speak strangely. I do not understand you, Lazarus. You have said little since your home-coming. But whatever you have
said has been strange to me.
     
      Martha : Yes, strange.
     
     (There is a pause.)
     
      Mother : And now the mist is gathering here. Let us go into
the house. Come, my children.
     
     (The mother, after kissing Lazarus with wistful tenderness,
enters the house.)
     
      Martha : Yes, there is a chill in the air. I must take my loom
and my linen indoors.
     
      Mary : (sitting down beside Lazarus on the grass under the
almond trees, and speaking to Martha) It is true the April evenings are
not good for either your loom or your linen. Would you want me to help
you take your loom indoors?
     
      Martha : No, no. I can do it alone. I have always done it
alone.
     
     (Martha carries her loom into the house, then she returns for the
linen, taking that in also. A wind passes by, shaking the almond
tree, and a drift of petals falls over Mary and Lazarus.)
     
      Lazarus : Even spring would comfort us, and even the trees
would weep for us. All there is on earth, if all there is on earth
could know our downfall and our grief, would pity us and weep for