Someone screamed and Levy opened his eyes. He was in the shul, awake, not dreaming, but he still heard it. Then something hit the basement wall, the building shook, and Levy jumped up and ran to the basement stairs just as Reverend Ryder careened into the entryway. He stared up at Levy without seeing him and pulled himself up the bannister with his right hand. His left arm was gone, blood pumped out of the empty socket, hit the wall, and splashed the stairs. He smashed into Levy and kept going. Levy ran after him, shouting that he could help him. Ryder fell down the front stairs of the porch. He got up, ran to his bike, and rode away, one handed, blood running down his side.

Levy ran after him. One block, two, until he gasped and his throat burned. He staggered and leaned against a tree. The rain was heavy, it washed away the blood. Levy caught his breath and started running again. He knew he couldn’t keep going, there were pains in his chest, his legs were numb. Then he saw Ryder ahead, lying on the grass in the empty square.

He staggered across the square and fell to his knees next to him. Ryder was on his back with his eyes open. Levy felt for a pulse in his neck, couldn’t find it and tried his wrist, then chest. His heart wasn’t beating. Levy put his palm against the half-­open mouth, but Ryder wasn’t breathing.

Levy looked up at the bike which had fallen next to the dead man. It was old and too small for Ryder. It was his son’s, or had been his since he was a child. The man had a wife and children and Levy knew he’d done this somehow. The dream he’d had, or the terror when he’d heard the scream made it happen. He stared at the dead man and tried to feel something. Forty years ago he’d have been in anguish, but that was before everything. Now he felt some remorse, but it was vague, like a needle pricking a callus. He stayed on his knees anyway, until he was soaked through, and the skin on his back was wet. Then he stood up, crossed the square, and looked back at the body. The streetlight and glow from the sky and rain lit the body on the lawn so it looked like it was under a spotlight.