Sally and Leonard looked at each other.
He can sit like that a long time, Felix said.
Really?
Felix nodded.
Sally approached him.
Mr. Abulafia? she shouted into his ear. Mr. Abulafia? I can help you!
That won’t help, Felix said.
Mr. Abulafia! Time is running out! You need to listen!
Sally prodded the master’s shoulder. He swayed but did not attend.
You’ve seen this before? Leonard asked Felix.
Felix nodded.
How long does it last? What brings him out of it?
Felix shrugged and looked at his toes.
You know, don’t you?
It’s embarrassing.
Embarrassing? Leonard asked. How can you be embarrassed with us? We love you more than anyone anywhere, except your mother, right?
Just yesterday, your uncle here ran through ancient Rome in crayon-colored sleeping togs. All the girls tittered, but he wasn’t embarrassed, were you, Leonard?
I’m not sure they tittered, exactly.
They tittered! Sally said, and Felix giggled.
Just this afternoon, Leonard said, Sally here, who has to be the bravest girl ever, got scared of a man covered in wheat flour. She thought he was a ghost!
Felix smiled. Sally glared.
You weren’t embarrassed, were you, Sally? Not in front of me, right?
Sally considered this.
No, she said, I wasn’t.
Why are you afraid of ghosts? Felix asked.
It’s complicated, Sally said.
Felix waited.
The kids at school, Sally said, they used to make me sit on the municipal compost heap till after dark, then they scared me with white sheets. I was very little.
Didn’t you have an uncle to take care of you?
No, Sally said. I didn’t have anyone. Not anyone. I would have nightmares but no one noticed.
No one? Felix asked.
My parents, well, they were busy, she said, and maybe her voice faltered.
Leonard squeezed Sally’s hand; she squeezed it back.
So what is it? Leonard asked Felix. No embarrassment. What makes Abulafia wake up?
He wakes up when I tell him stories, Felix said. He likes to hear about Princess Celeste.
The Princess Celeste
Felix said storytelling always worked better on Leonard’s knee, so Leonard sat on a wooden bench and Felix climbed onto his lap.
Abba says Celeste is really the Shekhina, and the compost heap is the unredeemed material world, Felix explained.
Ah! Leonard said, squeezing Felix.
You start, Felix said.
Me? Leonard asked.
Yes, Felix said. The stories are better when you tell them.
Oh, Leonard said. Okay.
He looked at Sally, who waited attentively.
Who should our story be about today? Leonard asked. And Felix said, A beautiful princess named Celeste! and Leonard said, Oh, and where does Celeste live? and Felix said, In a great wooded land surrounded by beasties! and Leonard said, Beasties, oh my! and Felix, his pale cheeks pinkening, said, They’re terrible! They like to dump little boys onto the municipal compost heap! And on it went.
Abulafia opened his eyes.
What happens next? he said.
Sally’s plan
I have a plan for you, Mr. Abulafia, Sally said.
I’m listening, Abulafia said glumly. Neither his meditation nor Felix’s story had improved his spirits.
First you must give us the watch, Sally said.
Abulafia looked at her blankly.
The demon in the reliquary, Leonard explained.
Abulafia nodded listlessly. Leonard took the watch from the low table and strapped it to his wrist. It was still cold, and on its face Dwane’s head was frozen and covered with hoarfrost, though the icicles on his chin had started to drip. Leonard pressed the Go to Sleep button to silence Dwane, but the button seemed to have frozen — once defrosted, Dwane might say anything! Leonard nodded to Sally in a way that suggested urgency.
How many days before the birthday of the world? she asked Abulafia.
Five, Abulafia said.
Good number! Leonard said, approving.
But you’re leaving today, correct?
Correct. The plan was to convert the pope and be back in time for the Sabbath.
Does your plan still matter now that you know the world will not end?
Of course it matters! A Jewish pope? We would all be safe then.
Okay, Sally said. Well, the birthday of the world must be a powerful time.
Naturally, Abulafia said. Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Remembrance, the Day of Judgment, the day on which we are inscribed in the Book of Life, when our holy shofar cracks open the heart, and the Gates of Heaven.
Visit the pope on that day, then, Sally said. The Franciscans may imprison you for a few days, but you will be okay. I promise.
How do you know this?
The Birthday of the World will protect you, Sally said. I know this from the future.
Abulafia nodded.
I met many Franciscan followers of Joachim in Sicily, he said. I shall be safe with them. Then he looked up, seeming to wake from his miserable haze.
The boy must come with me. I need him.
No, Sally said.
You would keep him against his will? Leonard asked.
Of course not, Abulafia said, standing, but he wishes to stay.
Can I, Leonard? Oh, can I?
Felix, we have to go home. If we don’t go now, you’ll be here forever.
Oh, no!
Asher, you like it here, don’t you? You like the games we play and the things I show you?
Oh, yes!
You will never see me again, Felix, or your home, if you decide to stay, Leonard said.
You will never find another teacher like me, Asher. Know this for sure.
Felix, you froze the whole world, you even froze yourself!
I did?
You will learn to do even more marvelous things if you stay with me, Asher. No one will ever toss you onto a dung heap again.
Compost heap, Sally said.
Are you going back too, Sally? Felix asked.
Sally didn’t reply.
You need a teacher, Asher. Know this: For fifteen years I was tormented because I had no one to guide me. The dung heap was nothing compared to the torture I endured. I was like a blind man. I will not let this happen to you.
Leonard? I want to stay! Can’t you stay too?
Felix, your mommy needs you.
Mommy? My mommy needs me?
She was injured the night you froze the world, Leonard said. Do you remember? She needs a healer, except all the healers are frozen.
Felix began to cry.
You are lying! You must prove this thing, Abulafia challenged.
If I can prove this thing, and the boy wishes to leave, will you agree to help us return? Leonard said. I will then give back to you what you lost.
Abulafia scoffed. I will do this thing, he said, though you will not do that thing.
Leonard is an honest man! Sally said. Even when he isn’t, he is!
Leonard smiled at her gratefully and sat on the ground, pretzeling his legs in Pythagorean fashion. He looked at the watch: the hoarfrost had melted from Dwane’s head, revealing inflamed facespots. Dwane’s eyes were blinking and shifting this way and that, as if he were trying to orient himself.
Come, Felix, sit on my lap. Quickly, please. Sally, hold on to my shoulder.
Once Felix and Sally were in place, Leonard cautioned them to be absolutely still and quiet. He pulled the aleph out of his underarm pocket. It shimmered black and all colors, it hummed all music, it smelled like revolutionary stew and all possible odors, both pleasing and vile, in all possible combinations. Leonard closed his eyes, did a five-second Pythagorean meditation, then gathered his thoughts, as well as the thoughts he was about to have, and might have had, and probably would never have, and concentrated them into an absolute point, hard and sharp as a diamond, and with that diamond inscribed the word Carol into his mind’s eye, then looked deep into the depths of the aleph — and there she was!