Jacob's Ladder

Epilogue

Everything ends well: death follows the happy ending. Everything, at long last, is accepted—the destruction of a people; the funeral of one’s only child, who has died of leukemia. The old Jacob is reading otherworldly books in otherworldly libraries, and listening to otherworldly music. The little Jacob is learning to read, pecking on the piano keyboard, and attending to the clear sounds.

Marusya has finally found herself—look how the clouds move, changing their aspect from moment to moment, at will, not submitting to any logic. She moves in concert with clouds, and with sounds; and this is joy …

At the end of her life, Nora begins to resemble Tusya. She wears Tusya’s large rings on her bony fingers, and teaches theater to aspiring young artists.

Vitya receives the Major Prize, which he fully deserves, and which Grisha secretly dreamed about.

At the end of the 2030s, Grisha dies, an old, old man, in Jerusalem. At his grave, his innumerable children and grandchildren place a slab on which, according to his will, is carved not his name, but a URL: “www…” If the curious follow the link, they can read an ecstatic missive about the Divine Text, addressed to Grisha’s heirs and at the same time to all humanity. His text is as long and convoluted as it is remarkable.

Yurik, like his great-grandfather Jacob, is immersed in music. Not the clarinet, not the piano, not the guitar—he is trying to hear the music that pours through the cosmos. And it is not in the least important whether he became a professional composer, or remained that same small boy, who used to say:

“Mama, remember how I sang in your tummy?”