e in ghosts?

MOTHER. My religion won't allow me to. But I believe our sense of right
and wrong will find a way to punish us.

STRANGER. Soon I felt cold air on my breast--it reached my heart and
forced me to get up.

MOTHER. And then?

STRANGER. To stand and watch the whole panorama of my life unroll before
me. I saw everything--that was the worst of it.

MOTHER. I know. I've been through it. There's no name for the malady,
and only one cure.

STRANGER. What is it?

MOTHER. You know what children do when they've done wrong?

STRANGER. What?

MOTHER. First ask forgiveness!

STRANGER. And then?

MOTHER. Try to make amends.

STRANGER. Isn't it enough to suffer according to one's deserts?

MOTHER. No. That's revenge.

STRANGER. Then what must one do?

MOTHER. Can you mend a life you've destroyed? Undo a bad action?

STRANGER. Truly, no. But I was forced into it! Forced to take, for no
one gave me the right. Accursed be He who forced me! (Putting his hand
to his heart.) Ah! He's here, in this room. He's plucking out my heart!

MOTHER. Then bow your head.

STRANGER. I cannot.

MOTHER. Down on your knees.

STRANGER. I will not.

MOTHER. Christ have mercy! Lord have mercy on you! On your knees before
Him who was crucified! Only He can wipe out what's been done.

STRANGER. Not before Him! If I were forced, I'll recant... afterwards.

MOTHER. On your knees, my son!

STRANGER. I cannot bow the knee. I cannot. Help me, God Eternal.
(Pause.)

MOTHER (after a hasty prayer). Do you feel better?

STRANGER. Yes.... It was not death. It was annihilation!

MOTHER. The annihilation of the Divine. We call it spiritual death.

STRANGER. I see. (Without irony.) I begin to understand.

MOTHER. My son! You have left Jerusalem and are on the road to Damascus.
Go back the same way you came. Erect a cross at every station, and stay
at the seventh. For you, there are not fourteen, as for Him.

STRANGER. You speak in riddles.

MOTHER. Then go your way. Search out those to whom you have something to
say. First, your wife.

STRANGER. Where is she?

MOTHER. You must find her. On your way don't forget to call on him you
named the werewolf.

STRANGER. Never!

MOTHER. You'd have said that, as you came here. As you know, I expected
your coming.

STRANGER. Why?

MOTHER. For no one reason.

STRANGER. Just as I saw this kitchen... in a trance....

MOTHER. That's why I now regret trying to separate you and