Satan in Goray - Isaac Bashevis Singer [30]
After a brief silence he replied, "Just a moment!" The rabbi crawled out of bed, groped for his slippers in the dark, and pulled his robe around him. Then he went to the door. In his confusion he knocked his head so hard against the top of the door-post that a lump immediately rose on his forehead. Blindly, his hand trembling, he lifted the chain, drew the bolt, and turned the key twice in the keyhole. Grunam burst into the room, bringing the cold with him, breathing as though someone had been pursuing him. "Rabbi," he gasped, "a thousand pardons! A whole crowd of men and women have gathered together! At Reb Eleazar Babad's, on the upper floor! Men dancing with women. Profanations!" Rabbi Benish could not believe his ears. Had things gone this far in Goray? Without delay and silently he began to dress. In the darkness he found his trousers, put his fur coat over them, and even located his broad sash. Several times chairs fell; Rabbi Benish stumbled against the table edge and hurt himself. His legs were unusually torpid; a tremor crossed his back, stabbing icily at his spine. For the first time in many years Rabbi Benish fell into a fit of coughing. Old Grunam's eyes shone like those of a cat. "Rabbi, forgive me," he began again. "Come," Rabbi Benish almost shouted. "Quick!" Weak-kneed, Rabbi Benish pulled up his collar. He expected darkness outside, but it was bright as twilight. An icy wind immediately gripped him and took his breath away. Thin needles of snow or rain--it was impossible to tell which--began to sting his face, which immediately swelled. His forehead and eyelids stiffened and became bloated. Rabbi Benish looked about him, as though unable to recognize the town, and wanted to take Grunam's hand, so as not to slip and fall. But all at once a great hoarse wind rushed upon him, thrusting him back several steps, and began to drive him downhill from behind. His fur hat, torn from his head, flew high in the air like a black bird, crookedly plunged to the earth, and began to roll madly straight toward the well. Rabbi Benish seized hold of his skull cap with both hands, and the ground wavered beneath him. "Grunam!" Rabbi Benish shouted, in a stranger's voice. Later, Rabbi Benish did not know himself how it had all happened. Grunam began to run after the sable hat, racing down the steep incline; then, as though attempting to cover the hat with his body, fell and rose to fall again. He rolled down the hill and all at once disappeared entirely, as though carried off. Casting a terrified glance over his shoulder, Rabbi Benish realized that evil was abroad and tried to re-turn to his house. But at that moment his eyes were filled as with sand. The skull cap fell from his head, the tails of his coat billowed, and began to drag him backward. His head spun and he choked. Suddenly the storm seized him, bore him aloft for a short distance, as on wings, and then cast him down with such violence that in the turmoil he could hear his bones shatter. With the last vestige of his conscious-ness he was still able to think: "The End." The whole incident must have taken a few seconds. Grunam arrived in haste with the fur hat, but he could no longer find the rabbi. He was certain that the rabbi had turned back to the house and began to rap on the shutters, calling, but there was no answer. Then, sensing evil, Grunam fell to shouting at the top of his lungs: "Help, the rabbi! He-lp!" The first to respond was the rabbi's wife; then his daughters-in-law and grandchildren sprang from sleep. Running outdoors half naked, they roused the town with their frightened cries. At first no one could understand what had happened. Terror had de-prived Grunam of speech; instead, he gestured and blinked like a mute. Doors opened on every side. Many of the townspeople feared that marauders had descended on the town, others thought there was a fire. A full half hour passed before Rabbi Benish was found half covered with snow near a chestnut tree some twenty paces from his home. The rabbi's wife fainted when she saw what had happened, and all the women began