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There is a knock at the door I call out to come in He enters; he is alone, dressed in black, a cape, a hat--he esture for hiht his flute He sits in the chair near the crate of dynamite and smiles at both of us But there is no joy in the sret what is about to happen Outside, behind us through the broken s, a hint of light enters the black sky Ray sits silently staring at our visitor It is up to me to make conversation

"Are you happy?" I ask

"I have known happiness at ti time"

"But you have what you want," I insist "I have brokenfor you to destroy"

"I feel no compulsions these days, Sita, except to rest"

"I want to rest as well"

He raises an eyebrow "You said you wanted to live?"

"It is my hope there will be life for me after this life is over I assuoing to all this trouble to wreck ht"

"You always had a ords"

"Thank you,"

Yaksha hesitates "Do you have any last words?"

"A few May I decide hoe die?"

"You want us to die together?"

"Of course," I say

Yaksha nods "I prefer it that way" He glances at the crate of dynamite beside him "You have made us a boht it You see the fuse there, the lighter beside it? Go ahead, old friend, strike the flaether" I lean forward "Maybe we should have burned a long tihter He considers Ray "How do you feel, young e," Ray says

"I would set you free if I could," Yaksha says, "I would leave you both alone But it has to end, one way or the other"

This is a Yaksha I have never heard before He never explained himself to anyone

"Sita has told me your reasons," Ray says

"Your father is dead," Yaksha says

"I know"

Yaksha pulls his thuhter and stares at it "I never knew ly bastard Are you going to do it or do you want me to do it?"

"Are you so anxious to die?" Yaksha asks

"I never could wait for the excitein," I say sarcastically

He nods and ins to fizzle, it begins to shorten--quickly There are threeYaksha sits back in his chair

"I had a drea to the sound of the waves, it see that no one had ever heard before A song that explained everything in the creation But the nized for what it was, not by any living soul If it was, if the truth was brought out into the open and discussed, then the ic would die and the waters would evaporate And that is what happened in my dream as this realization came to me I caiven life to, and then one day I woke up and realized I had been listening to a song Just a sad song"

"Played on a flute?" I ask

The fuse burns

There is no reason for me to delay Yet I do

His dream moves me

"Perhaps," Yaksha says softly "In the drea an endless barren plain of red dust The ground was a dark red, as if a huge being had bled over it for centuries and then left the sun to parch dry what the being had lost"

"Or what it had stolen froain

"What does this drea you could tell me, Sita"

"What can I tell you? I don&039;t know your mind"

"But you do It is the same as yours"

"No"

"Yes How else could I know your ed He is alert, he alas, to everything that was happening around him I was a fool to think I could trick him Yet I do not reach for the metal rod that will detonate the boer I speak

"Maybe your dream means that if we stay on earth,

and once more multiply, then ill make a wasteland of this world"

"Hoould we ame?" he asks "I told you you can have no children Krishna told you so similar" It is his turn to lean forward "What else did he tell you, Sita?"

"Nothing"

"You are lying"

"No"

"Yes" With his left hand he reaches for the burning fuse, his fingers hovering over the sparks as if he intends to crush them Yet he lets the countdown continue "You cannot trick me"

"And how do I trick you, Yaksha?"

"You are not waiting to die I see it in your eyes"

"Really?"