In the morning Samuel had the major join him in the back of a truck, and had it park in the street across from the fence. Then they waited. The crowd appeared as usual, the haggard little man among them. Samuel waited for the children to be well out of sight and the crowd to disperse before he climbed out of the truck and went after the man slowly making his way down the street.
"Mr. Gandhi!" he cried, "Please, wait! I'd like to have a word with you."
The man looked back in sheer horror and quickened his pace. But in only a few paces he began to cough horribly, blood foamed in his mouth. Samuel caught up and steadied him.
"It's all right! It's all right!" he comforted. "We just want to speak with you. There's nothing to be alarmed about!"
"Please!" the man begged between coughs, "Please! Leave me alone. I mean no harm. I just want to see my children before I die!"
Samuel pulled away the filthy handkerchief he was using and gave him his own. "Why don't you come up and speak to them?" he asked.
"No!" the man moaned. "No! You're brave men. You don't understand! You don't understand what it's like for a man to abandon everything he loves, to run away and leave them to fend for themselves. How can a man go back? How can he say 'I'm sorry!'? How can ask their forgiveness? Please, just let me be. Just let me die in peace!"
He began to collapse and Major Joseph picked him up. "The truck!" Samuel snapped. They quickly put the man in it and drove back to the base. They soon had him in one of Samuel's spare rooms and a doctor was summoned. After examining the patient for some time the doctor came out.
"You're right," he remarked, "it's one of the untreatable tuberculoses. I've put him on synthetic blood. It will make him more comfortable. But there's nothing they can do. If we could have gotten to him a little sooner, one of the internal light treatments your First Speaker developed might have worked. But it's too late now. Thank goodness we have inoculations! I will make sure that everyone in the house is current....boosters probably wouldn't hurt. It is only a matter of hours. It is only his sheer will that is keeping him alive."
The doctor left. "What are we to do?" Joseph asked.
"I've called Gandhi in," Samuel answered. "She should be back within the hour. I will inform her and from there the decision is hers."
The major nodded. A while later Gandhi came into Samuel's office with a worried expression. "What is wrong?" she asked. "Has the UN voted yet? Are they coming to help?"
"No," Samuel answered, "they're still debating. Warlock Gandhi, your husband is in my house. He has been here for several days, watching the children go to school and come home. He's dying. He wants to see you and the children before he passes. He wants your forgiveness. The doctor says it's a miracle that he was able to get himself here. It is not my place, but I would think he has shown that he cares. He made a mistake. I don't know what else to say. He doesn't have much time, only a few hours."
Gandhi stared at him. "May I be excused?" she asked.
"Certainly!" Samuel answered. He went home and was sitting in his livingroom when Gandhi appeared dressed in her finest Indian garments, her daughters and son also in their best attire. "Where is my husband?" she asked.
Samuel let her in. He stood at the door for a moment as she knelt and kissed her husband's cheeks. The man opened his eyes and smiled, tried to speak, but no words could come. Gandhi took his hand and patted it, then motioned the children forward. Gandhi hurried off and Samuel left. A few hours later Gandhi returned to the livingroom.
"He's gone," she announced. "Could you...could you arrange the funeral? I would like to drop his ashes from the bridge over the river. It is not the river that is sacred to us, but it is a river."
"Go get some rest," Samuel ordered. "I'll arrange it."
Gandhi hurried off and Samuel got busy on the phone.

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