May Our Joy Endure by Kevin Lambert

Author:Kevin Lambert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: 2024-07-24T17:15:04+00:00

Céline raises her eyes, the children are following, waiting for what will come next. She reads on.

In this land of mountains and deserts, people fought over the succulent peaches that brought relief from the arid winds.

In the village, the child sold them all.

By noon, he had filled his pockets and emptied his large basket.

But he did not immediately take the path that would lead him home.

Not far from the village there lived a very old man.

It was said of him that he was the wisest of all beings.

They said that he knew all about the meaning of the world and the sense of things, pains and sorrows, that he made dead trees flower and healed the sick.

Since that morning, the child had harboured a great sadness.

He knocked at the old man’s door.

The man rose on his ancient legs to open the door with his old hands.

The child had crossed the village to ask a question only the old man would be able to answer, he who knew all, knew the weight of every stone on the mountain and the shape of every grain of sand in the desert.

“Three boys stole my peaches.

They are the baker’s sons, they are fed with good warm bread.

Yet they stole my fruit.

I implore the desert and the mountains.

Each night I pray to the spirits of the wind.

And despite everything, people are mean.

Why does the desert’s spirit not protect me from thieves?”

The old man hesitated.

He asked him to repeat the question.

Drew his hand through his beard.

Probed his memory.

But no answer came.

“Little one, with your question, you are wiser than me with all my answers.

I have written all the world’s books, but I do not know why people are mean.

Why the spirits of the wind are indifferent to the sorrows of children.

Come back to see me in a hundred days, and I will have the answer.”

He tottered to the village, to ask for a horse strong enough to cross the desert and scale the mountain, then he left on a long journey.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.