"What moment is that?"
"We shall allow the number of Assyrian warriors to increase a bit more. When the situation becomes unbearable, they will be forced to attack. But, with the proportion of three or four to one of ours, they know they will end in defeat. That is when our envoys will offer peace, safe passage, and the sale of water. This is the governor's plan."
The commander said nothing and allowed the foreigner to leave. Even with Elijah dead, the governor could still insist on the idea. He swore to himself that if the situation came to that point he would kill the governor, then commit suicide, because he had no desire to witness the fury of the gods.
Nevertheless, under no circumstance would he let his people be betrayed by money.
"TAKE ME BACK to the land of Israel, O Lord," cried Elijah every afternoon, as he walked through the valley. "Let not my heart continue imprisoned in Akbar."
Following a custom of the prophets he had known as a child, he began lashing himself with a whip whenever he thought of the widow. His
back became raw flesh, and for two days he lay delirious with fever. When he awoke, the first thing he saw was the woman's face; she had tended to his wounds with ointment and olive oil. As he was too weak to descend the stairs, she brought food to his room.
AS SOON AS HE WAS WELL, Elijah resumed walking through the valley.
"Take me back to the land of Israel, O Lord," he said. "My heart is trapped in Akbar, but my body can still continue the journey."
The angel appeared. It was not the angel of the Lord, whom he had seen on the mountain, but the one who watched over him, and to whose voice he was accustomed.
"The Lord heareth the prayers of those who ask to put aside hatred. But He is deaf to those who would flee from love."
THE THREE OF THEM supped together every night. As the Lord had promised, meal had never been wanting in the barrel nor oil in the vessel.
They rarely spoke as they ate. One night, however, the boy asked, "What is a prophet?"
"Someone who goes on listening to the same voices he heard as a child. And still believes in them. In this way, he can know the angels' thoughts."
"Yes, I know what you are speaking of," said the boy. "I have friends no one else can see."
"Never forget them, even if adults call it foolishness. That way you will always know God's will."
"I'll see into the future, like the soothsayers of Babylon," said the boy.
"Prophets don't know the future. They only transmit the words that the Lord inspires in them at the present moment. That is why I am here, not knowing when I shall return to my own country; He will not tell me before it is necessary."
The woman's eyes became sad. Yes, one day he would depart.
ELIJAH NO LONGER cried out to the Lord. He had decided that, when the moment arrived to leave Akbar, he would take the widow and her son. But he would say nothing until the time came.
Perhaps she would not want to leave. Perhaps she had not even divined his feelings for her, for he himself had been a long time in understanding them. If it should happen thus, it would be better; he could then dedicate himself wholly to the expulsion of Jezebel and the rebuilding of Israel. His mind would be too occupied to think about love.
"The Lord is my shepherd," he said, recalling an ancient prayer of King David. "He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me beside still waters.
"And He will not let me forget the meaning of my life," he concluded in his own words.
ONE AFTERNOON he returned home earlier than was his wont, to find the widow sitting in the doorway of the house.
"What are you doing?"
"I have nothing to do," she replied.
"Then learn something. At this moment, many people have stopped living. They do not become angry, nor cry out; they merely wait for time to pass. They did not accept the challenges of life, so life no longer challenges them. You are running that same risk; react, face life, but do not stop living."
"My life has begun to have meaning again," she said, casting her gaze downward. "Ever since you came here."
FOR A FRACTION of a second, he felt he could open his heart to her. But he decided not to take the risk; she must surely be referring to something else.
"Start doing something," he said, changing the subject. "In that way, time will be an ally, not an enemy."