Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (196 page)

I
had
been
in
terror,
but
in
what
was
I
now?
How
little
to
me
was the
human
absence
of
light,
the
normal
absence
of
sound
that
had frightened
me.

I
was
nowhere,
and
it
was
real.
I
was
nothing
and
I
was
enduring.
I would
have
returned
to
my
blank,
dumb
prison
as
one
flies
to
a
paradise,
but
I
could
not,
for
something
had
happened
to
me.
I
was
translated;
and
until
that
experience
was
fulfilled
I
could
not
regain
myself nor
evade
in
any
way
my
happenings.

Therefore,
I
do
not
know
how
long
I
remained
crouched
in
that stony
den.
Nor
how
I
lay;
nor
aught
that
happened
to
me.
But
at
a point
I
did
return
to
normal
consciousness,
and
that
as
swiftly
as though
one
had
taken
me
by
the
shoulders
and
clicked
me
to
another direction.

All
that
monstrous
Something-Nothing
ceased;
and
I
was
listening with
these
ears,
and
staring
through
known
darkness
with
these
eyes that
see
you.

There
were
footsteps
outside
the
door,
and
in
an
instant
the
door grinced
and
screeched
and
swung.

It
was
those
two.
But
I
did
not
move
from
where
I
lay,
and
when
I did
so
it
was
because
he
lifted
me.
Those
giant
arms
could
lift
me
as one
plucks
up
a
cat;
and
in
a
moment
I
was
walking,
and
the
arm
that was
yet
around
my
waist
was
pressing
me
lovingly
to
his
side.

"We
were
only
playing
with
you,"
he
said.

And
she
at
my
other
side
cooed,
as
she
fondled
my
hand.

"It
was
only
a
game."

I
looked
wordlessly
from
one
to
the
other
and
laughed
gently.

It
was
strange
that
I
did
not
wish
to
speak.
It
was
strange
still
that
I would
not
speak;
and
to
everything
that
they
said
I
returned
my gentle
laugh.
That,
it
seemed
to
me,
must
be
sufficient
communion even
for
them;
and
who
in
the
world
could
wish
to
speak
when
he might
laugh?

We
walked
on,
slowly
at
first,
and
then
hastily,
and
sentences
came from
one
to
the
other
across
me;
sometimes
explanations,
at
times assertions
and
assents.

"It
took
us
ten
minutes
to
get
out,"
he
said,
"and
we
thought
----
"

"For
you
are
so
much
cleverer
than
we
are,"
she
interposed.

"That
you
would
have
been
home
almost
as
quickly
as
we
were."

"It
took
us
ten
long
minutes
to
imagine
that
although
the
door
was closed
it
might
not
be
fastened,"
he
went
on,
"but
when
I
pulled
on it
it
opened
at
once.

"I
was
glad
to
see
the
moonlight,"
he
continued
in
a
tone
of
reverie.