There is a
gruesome oddity about him. But an old man explains. "They come back like
that," he says. "There is one who came back who shrieks all night. And
another who cannot remember anything."
Yet how strangely he talks! Of a country from which he has come--on the
other side, it lies. Hysterical questions arise. Is there food there, are
there houses there, is there milk for children and synagogues in which to
pray? There is everything one desires, he says. So the questions rise and
the answers come--curious child answers. But why is he so pale and worn if
the country whence he comes is so remarkable? Ah, because he was lonely.
All who are in this country are like him--lonely for the homes they left
so soon. For their people. All who are in the country whence he came sit
and remember only the things of the past. Yes, that is all one does in
this marvelous country--remember the things of the past, over and over
again.
* * * * *
They will go with him. The miser who has hidden away his gold, the widow
and her two orphans, the hungry ones and despairing ones--they will all go
back with him.
One comes out of the theater with a strange sense of understanding.
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