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| Long ago, there was
a mother who loved her only son deeply. She was a pious
woman and her son imitated most of her good deeds, which
were many. Her son was good at heart, but young. The
woman knew that he still had much to learn before he
could fully adopt saintly ways.
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| God
decided to test this young son’s piety and love
for his mother. He sent a beautiful woman to capture
the young man’s eager heart. The beautiful woman
urged the son to keep their meetings a secret from his
mother, and though it pained the boy to do so, for he
never kept secrets from his mother, he obeyed. But the
real challenge had not yet been failed.
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| The beautiful woman
beguiled the boy so that she was able to make him promise
that he would do anything she asked. She therefore asked
that he should – if he loved her as truly as he
declared – cut out his mother’s heart and
bring it to her. The young man, blinded by love, dutifully
slaughtered his beloved mother. It was exactly six o’clock
in the evening, and his mother was reciting the Angelus
then. He held the still-beating heart in his hands as
he rushed to where he knew the girl stood waiting. But
when he got to their meeting-place, the girl was not
there. Nothing was there – save for the realization
of what he had done. |
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| The
heart still beat, though it tarried long in the hands
of the prodigal son. And then it began to speak. In
his shock, the boy dropped the heart, and it fell into
a crack in the ground.
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| "Are you in pain,
my child?" the mother’s heart inquired. "Let
me sing you a lullaby, to soothe you to sleep."
The heart softly started singing, as lovingly as its
owner would have done. And in the son’s remorse
he fell flat on his belly and kissed the ground that
the heart lay on. The boy was so filled with guilt and
grief that he did not notice himself changing, growing
smaller, losing all his hair and clothing so that he
was a tiny web-footed thing, that kissed and kissed
at the ground as if begging for someone’s forgiveness. |
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| At exactly six o’clock
every night, when the Angelus strikes, the lizard comes
down from the walls of the house, and crawls down to
the floor, where it would make slight ticking sounds
like quick kisses. It has been said that the lizard
has not yet redeemed itself in its own eyes, and that
with its tiny ears it could hear an ancient beating,
and a lullaby that does not end. |
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