Barry N. Malzberg by Le Croix

Author:Le Croix
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2011-12-27T03:41:29+00:00

He looks at the man who has come from the tomb. Little sign of his entrapment is upon him; he looks merely as one might who had been in deep sleep for a couple of days. He touches him once gently upon the cheek to assure the pulse of light, then backs away. The crowd murmurs with awe. This is no small feat; here he has clearly outdone the loaves and the fishes. They will hardly be able to dismiss this one; it will cause great difficulty when the reports hit Rome. “How are you?” he says to Lazarus. “Have you been merely sleeping or did you perceive the darkness? What brang you back from those regions?”

Documentary sources indicate no speech from the risen man, of course. But documentary sources are notoriously undependable, and, besides, this is a free reconstruction as he has been so often advised. Perhaps Lazarus will have something to say after all; his eyes bulge with reason and his tongue seems about to burst forward with the liquid syllables of discovery. But only an incoherent babble emerges; the man says nothing.

He moves in closer, still holding the grip. “Were you sleeping?” he says, “or did you perceive?”

“Ah,” Lazarus says. “Eeeh. Om.”

He shrugs and dropping his hand moves away. If a miracle is to succeed, it must do so on its own terms; one must have a detached, almost airy attitude toward the miracles because at the slightest hint of uncertainty or effort they will dissipate. “Very well,” he says, “be on your way. Return to your life.”

The disciples surround him, all but Judas, of course, who as usual is somewhere in the city, probably making arrangements for betrayal. There is nothing to be done; he must suffer Judas exactly as Judas must suffer him; it is the condition of their pact. Peter puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. “What if the man cannot move, master?” he says, always practical. “What if he is unable to complete the journey from the grave.”

“He will be able to.”

Indeed Lazarus seems to have adopted a stiff gait which takes him slowly toward the crowd. The crowd is surprisingly sparse after all; it is not the throng indicated by scriptures, but instead might be only forty or fifty, many of whom are itinerants drawn to the scene in their wanderings. Scriptural sources were often only a foundation for the received knowledge, of course; the scribes had their own problems, their own needs to fill and retrospective falsification was part of their mission … still, he thinks, it is often embarrassing to see how hollow that rock is upon which the church was built. Oh well. “I think we had better leave now,” Peter says.

“Oh?”

“Indeed,” this man of practicality says. “it will make more of an impression, I think; it will lend more of an air of mystery and have greater lasting effect than if you were to stay around. A certain detachment must be cultivated.”

“We will surround you, Master,” little Mark says, “and leave together hiding your aspect from the populace.

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