Only two weeks later, cain disappeared. He had got into the habit of taking long walks on the outskirts of the city, not as before, because he was in need of sun and fresh air, natural benefits that had not been lacking in the last ten years, but to escape the oppressive atmosphere in the palace, where, apart from the hours spent in bed with lilith, he had nothing else to do, unless you count a few rather fruitless exchanges with the stranger that was enoch, his son.
Chapter 11
Suddenly, he found himself going in through the gate of a city he had never visited before. His first thought was that he didn't have a penny on him and, as a stranger there, he could see no immediate way of earning one. If he had taken the donkey with him when he set out for his walk, this economic problem would have been easily resolved, because, as any buyer would have agreed, such a beast was worth his weight in gold. He asked two passers-by for the name of the city, and one of the men replied, This is the land of uz. The natural tone in which he said this, without a hint of impatience, encouraged cain to ask another question, And where might I find work, he asked, adding, as if to justify himself, I've only just arrived, you see, and I don't know anyone. The men looked him up and down and could see that he was neither a beggar nor a vagabond, although their eyes did linger a little longer on the mark on his forehead, and the second man said, The richest landowner in these parts and the greatest of all the men in the east is called job, you could try asking him for work, you might be lucky, And where would I find him, asked cain, Come with us, we'll take you there, he has so many servants that one more or less won't make any difference, Is he that rich, Immensely so, imagine being the owner of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, The poor have a lot of imagination, said cain, indeed, you might say that's all they have, but I must confess I find such wealth unimaginable. There was a silence, and then one of the men remarked quite casually, We've met before, Yes, I have a vague recollection, said cain nervously, We angels have excellent memories, your name is cain and you were in sodom when the city was destroyed, Yes, that's true, I remember now, As you know, my colleague and I are angels of the lord, And what have I done to merit two angels of the lord helping me in my time of need, You were kind to abraham, you helped to ensure that no harm befell us in lot's house, and that deserves a reward, How can I thank you, We are angels, if we don't do good, who will, asked one. Cain took three deep breaths before summoning up the courage to ask, Given that your mission in sodom was to destroy the city, what mission brings you here, We cannot reveal that to anyone, said one, Well, it's not a secret exactly, said the other, and it won't be a secret once things start to happen, besides, this man has shown he can be trusted, Well, it's up to you, but what if he runs and tells job, Job probably wouldn't believe him, Fine, do as you please, I wash my hands of it. Cain stopped and said, Please don't fall out because of me, tell me if you want, but if you don't, don't, it really doesn't matter either way. In the face of such selflessness, the more reticent of the angels gave in, Go on, he said, tell him, then fixing cain with a stern eye, he said,
But you must swear that you will reveal to no one else what you are about to hear, I swear, declared cain, raising his right hand. The other angel said, A few days ago, as happens now and then, all the celestial beings were gathered before god, including satan, and god asked him, Where have you been, and satan answered, I have been walking to and fro about the earth, Did you notice my servant job, there is none like him on the earth, he is a perfect and upright man, who fears god and eschews evil. Satan, who listened to these words with a scornful sneer on his face, asked the lord, Do you really think his religious feelings are entirely disinterested, isn't it true that, like a hedge, you protect him on all sides, him and his family and everything that belongs to him. He paused, then went on, But if you were to put forth your hand and touch what is his, you would see how he would curse you. Then the lord said to satan, Everything he has is at your disposal, but him you cannot touch. When satan heard this, he left, which is why we are here, To do what, asked cain, To make sure that satan doesn't go too far, that he doesn't overstep the mark the lord has set him. Then cain said, If I've understood you rightly, the lord and satan made a wager, but this man job isn't to know that he is the object of that gamblers' agreement between god and the devil, Exactly, exclaimed the angels as one, That doesn't seem very fair of the lord, said cain, if it's true, as I've heard, that job, for all his wealth, is also a good and upright man, and very religious too, he has committed no crime, and yet, for no reason, he is about to be punished with the loss of all his money and possessions, now it may be, as many people say, that the lord is just, but I don't think so, it reminds me of what happened to abraham, whom god, in order to put him to the test, commanded to kill his son isaac, it seems to me that if the lord doesn't trust the people who believe in him, I really don't see why those people should trust in the lord, The ways of the lord are inscrutable, not even we angels can fathom the workings of his mind, Oh, I've had enough of all this nonsense about the lord's ways being inscrutable, answered cain, god should be as clear and transparent as a pane of glass and not go wasting his energies on creating an atmosphere of constant terror and fear, god, in short, does not love us, He it was who gave you life, My father and mother gave me life, they joined flesh to flesh and I was born, there's no evidence that god was present at the act, God is everywhere, Especially when it comes to ordering people to be killed, why, the death of just one of the children burned to death in sodom would be enough to condemn him outright, but for god, justice is an empty word, and now he's going to make job suffer because of a bet and no one will hold him to account, Be careful, cain, you're talking too much, the lord is listening and, sooner or later, he will punish you, The lord isn't listening, he's deaf, everywhere the poor, unfortunate and wretched cry out to him for help, they plead with him for some remedy that the world denies them, and the lord turns his back on them, he started out by making a pact with the hebrews and now here he is making a pact with the devil, what's the point of having a god. The angels protested indignantly and threatened to leave him there with no work, but at that point, the theological debate ended, and the three men more or less made their peace. One of the angels even said, I think the lord would enjoy discussing these matters with you, One day perhaps, said cain. They were standing at the door of job's mansion, and one of the angels asked to speak to the steward, who did not come in person, but sent a representative to find out what they wanted, Work, said the angel, not for us, because we are not from around here, but for our friend who has just arrived and wants to start a new life in the land of uz, What can you do, asked the under- steward, Well, I know a little about donkeys, I was assistant to the farrier in joshua's army, Very good, that's an excellent recommendation, I will send a slave with you and you can start work at once, I just need to know your name, Cain, And where are you from, From the land of nod, Hm, I've never heard of the place, You're not the first, saying the land of nod is tantamount to saying the land of nowhere. Then one of the angels said to cain, There you are, now you have work, For as long as it lasts, replied cain, with a glum smile, Don't be so pessimistic, said the under-steward, anyone fortunate enough to enter this house will have work for life, there's no better man than job. The angels said goodbye and embraced cain before returning to their task of ensuring that the lord's orders were carried out, besides, who knows, it may all turn out better than we think.
Unfortunately, it turned out far worse than could ever have been expected. Armed with the carte blanche given to him by the lord, satan attacked simultaneously on all fronts. One day, while job's sons and daughters, seven sons and three daughters, were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house, a messenger came to job's house, our very own cain, who, as we know, had been employed to tend the she-asses, and he said to job, The oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them, when the sabeans fell upon them and took them away and put all the servants to the
sword, and only I escaped alone to tell you. Cain was still speaking when another messenger arrived, The fire of god is fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the slaves and only I escaped alone to tell you. While he was still speaking, there came another, The chaldeans, he said, divided into three groups and fell upon the camels and carried them off, having first put the servants to the sword, and only I escaped alone to tell you. While he was still speaking, there came another, who said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house, when suddenly the came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell in upon them and killed them, and only I escaped alone to tell you. Then job stood up and rent his cloak and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return to the womb of the earth, the lord gave and the lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the lord. The disasters befalling this unfortunate family will not stop here, but before proceeding, allow us a few remarks. The first is to express our bewilderment at the fact that satan was able to do as he pleased with the sabeans and the chaldeans in order to serve his particular interests, the second is to express our even greater bewilderment on learning that satan had been authorised to make use of a natural phenomenon, in this case a great wind, and worse still, and this really is inexplicable, to use god's own fire to burn the sheep and the slaves tending them. So, either satan is far more powerful than we thought, or what we are seeing here is a grave case of tacit complicity, assuming it was tacit, between good and evil. Mourning had fallen like a tombstone on the land of uz, because all those who died had been born in the city, which was now condemned, who knows for how long, to a general poverty in which job would not be the least of the poor. A few days after these unhappy events, there was another gathering of the celestial beings, and satan was again amongst them. The lord asked him, Where have you been, and satan answered, I have been going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down in it, Did you notice my servant job, asked the lord, there is none like him on the earth, he is a perfect and upright man, who fears god and eschews evil, and who still holds fast to his integrity, even though you moved me to destroy him for no reason, and satan answered, I did so with your agreement, whether or not job deserved it was none of my business, neither was the idea of tormenting him, and he went on, A man is capable of giving all that he has to save his life, even his own skin, but put forth your hand now and make him suffer illness in his own bones and body and you will see that he will curse you to your face. The lord said, He is in your hands, but on condition that you spare his life, That is all I require, answered satan and he left the gathering to go and find job and, before you could say knife, he had covered him with boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. It was terrible to see the poor man sitting in the dust of the road while he scraped the pus from his legs with a potsherd, like the lowest of the low. Job's wife, who had not said a word until now, not even to mourn the death of her ten children, felt that it was time to speak up and she asked her husband, Do you still cling to your integrity, if I were you, if I were in your place, I would curse god even if, by doing so, I risked bringing about my own death, to which job responded, You speak like a foolish woman, if we receive good from god, why should we not also receive evil, that was his question, but his wife answered angrily, Evil is satan's business, it would never have occurred to me that god would appear to us now in the guise of satan's rival, God cannot have put me in this state, only satan, Yes, but with the lord's agreement, she said, adding, According to the ancients, the devil's wiles would never prevail over the will of god, but I'm not sure now that things are that simple, it seems likely that satan is just another instrument of the lord, the one who does the dirty work to which god prefers not to put his name. Then job, at the height of his suffering, and perhaps, although without admitting as much, encouraged by his wife, broke the dyke of the fear of god sealing his lips and cried, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man-child conceived, let that day be darkness, let not god regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it, let darkness and the shadow of death stain it, let a cloud dwell upon it, let the blackness of the day terrify it, let it not be joined to the other days of the year, let it not be counted among the months, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein, let the stars of the twilight be dark, let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the dawning of the day, because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb nor hid sorrow from me, thus job bemoaned his fate, pages and pages of imprecations and lamentations, while three friends of his, eliphaz the temanite, bildad the shuhite and zophar the naamathite lectured him on the need for resignation and on the duty of all believers to bow their head to the will of god whatever that will might be. Cain had managed to find employment, the fairly lowly task of looking after the donkeys of a small landowner, to whom he had to repeat over and over, to him and his relatives, the story of the attack by the sabeans and their theft of the she-asses. He reckoned that the angels must still be around, collecting information about job's misfortunes in order to carry the news back to the lord, who would be impatient to hear them, but, to his surprise, they were the ones who sought him out, to congratulate him on having escaped the cruelty of the sabean nomads, A miracle, they said. Cain, of course, thanked them, but that prerogative did not make him forget his grievances with god, which were growing steadily, The lord must be very happy, he said to the angels, he won his bet against satan, and despite all job's sufferings, he has still not denied god, We knew he wouldn't, And god knew too, I imagine, Oh yes, the lord most of all, Which means that he made the wager because he knew he would win, In a way, yes, So nothing has changed, then, the lord knows no more about job than he did before, True, In that case, can you explain to me why job should have been transformed into a leper, covered in suppurating wounds, having lost all his children and all his wealth, The lord will find some way of compensating him, Will he resuscitate his ten children, raise the walls of his house and bring back the animals that were killed, asked cain, That we don't know, And what will the lord do to satan, who would seem to have abused the authority given to him, Probably nothing, Nothing, asked cain, scandalised, slaves may not count in the statistics, but a lot of other people died too, and you're telling me that the lord will probably do nothing, It's not our fault, that's how it's always been in heaven, The fact that satan should be present at a gathering of celestial beings is, in itself, incomprehensible to any mere mortal. The conversation ended there, the angels left, and cain began to think that he really should find a more dignified path in life, I'm not going to stay here for ever, looking after donkeys, he thought. This praiseworthy notion was deserving of consideration, but, unfortunately, his options were nil, apart from going back to the land of nod and taking his place at the palace and in lilith's bed. He would grow fat there and give her two or three more children, but now another idea occurred to him, that of going to see how his parents were, to find out if they were still alive and if they were all right. He would wear a disguise so as to go unrecognised, but no one would deprive him of that joy. Joy, he asked himself, for cain there can never be any joy, cain is the man who killed his brother, cain is the man born to witness the unspeakable, cain is the man who hates god.
However, he needed a donkey to take him there. At first, he even considered forgetting about donkeys altogether and travelling on foot, but if it took a long time before he was sent to another present, he would have no option but to wander those deserts, guiding himself by the stars at night and, by day, waiting for them to come out. Besides, he would have no one to talk to. Contrary to what most people think, the donkey is a great conversationalist, one need think only of its many ways of braying and snorting and the sheer variety of its ear movements, however, not everyone who rides a donkey knows that language, which is why seemingly inexplicable situations arise, like when the creature
stops in the middle of the road, motionless, and refuses to budge even if beaten. People say then that the donkey is as stubborn as a mule, when, in fact, it's simply a communication problem, as happens so often between human beings. The idea of travelling on foot did not, therefore, last long in cain's mind. He needed a donkey, even if he had to steal one, but we, who are gradually getting to know him better, also know that he will not do this. Cain may be a murderer, but he's an essentially honest man, and even the dissolute days he spent in concubinal bliss with lilith, however reprehensible in bourgeois eyes, were not enough to alter his innate moral sense, one has only to think of the way he bravely stands up to god, although, truth be told, the lord has not as yet noticed, unless one recalls the discussion they had over abel's still-warm body. In this toing and froing of thoughts, cain had the providential idea of buying one of the donkeys in his care, by taking only half his salary and leaving the other half in the hands of the landowner as payment on account. It would take a long time to pay off this debt, but cain was in no hurry, no one in the world was expecting him, not even lilith, however nervously and impatiently her body might toss and turn in bed. The owner of the donkeys, who was a decent man, drew up the accounts in his own fashion and to cain's benefit, not that cain noticed, mathematics never having been his strong point. It did not take many weeks before cain found himself, at last, in possession of his own donkey. He could leave when he wished. On the eve of his departure, he decided to go and see how his previous employer was doing, to see if the sores left by the boils had now healed, but was horrified to find him still sitting on the ground at the door of his house, scraping at the wounds on his leg with a potsherd, just as he had been on the day when the curse fell upon him, for god's surrender of him into satan's hands had proved to be the very worst of curses. Much coin, much care, people say, and job's story demonstrates that to the full. Discreet as any fugitive has to be, cain did not approach job to wish him some improvement in his health, after all, employer and employee had never met, that's the problem with social divisions, with each of us stuck in our own place, preferably the place we were born, how then will we ever make friendships with people from different worlds. Mounted on the donkey that now belongs to him by right, cain returned to his place of work to prepare what he needed for the journey. In comparison with the donkey he had left behind in lilith's stables at the palace, the magnificent beast that had prompted the envy of the farrier at jericho, this new mount is more of a retired rocinante than an animal to be led proudly out on parades. However, even the least demanding of independent minds will acknowledge that the beast has good strong legs, albeit somewhat skinny and inelegant. All in all, cain is not ill served, thought the donkey's former owner, who came to the door to say goodbye when cain, early the following morning, finally set off.
Cain Page 10