Hey Little Songbird-A Hadestown Story

Wait for Me II/ Doubt Comes In

Hades and Persephone watched Orpheus and Eurydice leave the Lethe Hotel from the balcony of their suit. Orpheus led his wife down the street by the hand, dutifully trusting that Eurydice was following him. Both of them looked overjoyed to have been given a second chance. He was smiling a grin that spanned that whole length of his face and singing so that all of Hadestown could hear him. She looked radiant and sang along with him. The two of them made Hadestown seem like a less gloomy place.
"Think they'll make it," Persephone asked her husband.
"I don't know," Hades replied.
"Hades, you let them go."
"I let them try."
"How bout you and I? Are we gonna try again?"
"It's almost spring, we'll try again in the fall."
"Wait for me?"
"I will."

Mr. Hermes had stopped the young couple as they walked out of the hotel.
"I just wanted to wish you luck before you go," he said.
"Thanks, Orpheus replied, giving the old man a hug, "Thanks for everything."
Eurydice kissed the old man's wrinkled cheek.
Mr. Hermes took one of her hands and one of his and looked into their eyes.
"You two have a long walk ahead and before you go, I have some advice: the meanest dog you'll ever meet, isn't the one that howls in the street. He'll show his teeth and tear some skin but brother, that's the worst of him. It's the dog that howls in your mind that'll drive you mad. The walk you'll have to worry about is one between your ears and behind your eyes. That's the one that leads to paradise or ruin."
"We'll remember that," Eurydice said.
Orpheus grabbed his wife's hand and they blissfully ran down the street together.

As she and Orpheus reached the outskirts of Hadestown, Eurydice began to feel chilly because she was wearing only her sleeveless evening dress. Orpheus slid off his jacket and handed it to her.
"Thanks," she said.
"It's freezing isn't it," he replied.
"That means spring is coming."
She giggled. Orpheus could tell that she was smiling, though he was looking straight ahead and she was behind him.
When they came to the entrance to the wall, Orpheus searched in the dark for the passage he had entered through.
"This is where I got in," he told Eurydice, "We climb through here and we're home free."
"It's pitch black in here," she responded.
"But if you keep looking ahead, you'll see the lantern hanging from the ticket booth at the depot."
Orpheus did not remember the passage being so long. He crawled for what seemed like hours and the lantern hanging from the depot still looked liked a faint star. Eurydice was deadly quiet. He could not even hear the rustling of her dress or her breathing.
A few times, he forgot she was there.
The silence was enough to drive him mad. How would he know that she would be there at the end of the passage? She had abandoned him when things were difficult before.
Don't look back, he repeated to himself.
At the other end, Orpheus climbed out and looked up to see that the sun was rising over the trees: the sky was a rosy color streaked with purple clouds. He sat in the grass and waited for Eurydice to climb out the other end of the passage.
The peace and quiet of the morning was broken by the growling and barking of hounds and Eurydice's screaming. Orpheus rushed over to her aid.
"Don't," she shouted, "If you look at me, then I can't leave."
He grabbed a large stick from the woods, then removed the bandanna from around his neck and tied it so it covered his eyes.
"Leave her alone," he shouted at the hounds, swinging the stick at them.
The hounds continued to growl and snap at him. Orpheus remembered that he still had some of the sunflower seeds that had put them to sleep the last time. He reached into his pack, scooped up a handful of seeds, and scattered them on the ground; the hounds ate them and fell asleep.
"Are you hurt?" Orpheus asked Eurydice.
"They tore up my ankle," she replied.
"Can you walk?"
"Yes, but it'll hurt something awful."
A train whistle interrupted their conversation.
"That's our ride home," he scooped her up in his arms, "Look out for a car we can hide in."
Eurydice found an opened boxcar for them to climb into and directed him there.
"Put me down here," she instructed him when they reached the boxcar she had picked out, "A little more to the left," he gently put her down on the car's platform, "Perfect."
She inched herself inside, being careful of her injured ankle. He climbed in next to her and slammed the sliding door shut.
"New Orleans, here we come."