God's Grace by Bernard Malamud

Author:Bernard Malamud
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2011-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

After he had swept the cave and put things away, Cohn, as he slept, conceived a white dream. An albino ape had appeared in the mist-laden forest, a fearsome male chimpanzee no one had seen but all seemed to know of.

“Is he for real?” Cohn asked Buz, and Buz replied, “He hos to be, I dream of him often.”

Cohn lived in serious concern that the white ape might appear in his cave and make demands. He foresaw trouble.

He felt he would not be at ease until he had talked with the creature, asked who he was, and what he wanted here. If he wished to join the community, let him sign up.

One morning he set out to find the albino ape in the rain forest. He remained there searching for three days and nights, but got no more than a muffled glimpse of a white figure, dimly lit amid misty trees and the green-gloomy foliage.

Exasperated, Cohn flung his iron spear (he had chanced on it in the Rebekah Q) to the ground; and in his dream was angered at God for having got him to this island and into this dream. “What kind of God is that?”

At once, above the trees, he beheld a bulbous cloud shaped like a white tulip held aloft by strains of music.

Mr. Cohn? an angelic voice spoke, one so beautiful that Cohn was all goose pimples when he heard it. He sank to his knees. “Yes, sir, or ma’am, whichever the case may be.”

Mr. Cohn, please don’t utter blasphemous thoughts. Or express childish doubts about the Deity. I say this for your good.

Cohn sincerely apologized. “I’m sorry I misspoke. After seeing that white ape, I felt a dread something bad might happens.”

State the nature of that dread.

“Was he really there like a dim light in those trees, or is it all imagined and dreamed by me?”

He is insofar as it seems to be, said the angelic voice.

Cohn groaned at length. “That moldy chestnut encore?”

What there is to use we use, the angel replied.

“What I want to know is: Is he on this island, and others like him in black or brown? Or any like me?” Cohn went on, “Another human being, for instance—perhaps female—anywhere in what’s left of the world? I wish to know for my peace of mind. Put yourself in my place.”

Where I put myself is not your concern, Mr. Cohn. But I will say in answer to your question that there are none like you anywhere, any more.

“How would anybody know for sure?”

Who knows anything for sure?

“That old saw, too?”

What’s usable we use, said the angel with the beautiful voice.

“Then who knows what’s happening anywhere? Is this island what it seems to be?”

What does it seem to be?

“At least an island with two on it, conversing.”

Whatever I reply, would you in reality believe me?

“Not necessarily,” Cohn warily said.

So call it a dream.

“No more than that?” he cried.

But the angel had gone, though the haunting sound of his voice lingered.

Cohn woke holding his spear aloft in a dark-green forest.

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