Suddenly he was free. What is this? He looks back; filth, death and nothingness cloud his eyes. Quickly he removed his gaze, he didn’t need a reminder. He lived through it all, it wasn’t a story told to him. It was him.
Almost unsure, he raises his gaze and just ahead of him was beauty as he had never seen. It wasn’t beautiful because of the colours or arrangement of objects, it was beautiful because of the intensity of light, everywhere in front of him dazzled with this light, he looked on amazed that no object cast shadows, there was no darkness at all, confused he asked ‘how can this be?’.
He jerked violently expecting to be attacked when he heard a voice say to him ‘this is your new home’. Wondering where the voice was, he turned and saw a man, not very handsome because he was sad. The pain he saw in his eyes made him gasp how could anyone be this sad? He couldn’t quite tell his age because it is a well known fact that sadness and pain does add its own age. So confused was his mind about what was happening around him that the only solid thought he could hold on to was trying to decipher the man’s age! At the same time he wondered what he would do with the knowledge.
Again the man spoke ‘why do you reject this?’ now he knew the man was not talking to him, as he opened his mouth to ask, he noticed for the first time blood on the man’s dress. ‘Oh you must be injured!’ he shouted as he rushed to him, thinking to help but he stopped just short of him. How and with what could he help? He thought. Touching him will probably disease the wound, he knew he was filthy and though he needed to bath and be clean, he knew that was too much to hope for.
The old man looked at him and smiled, ‘you will find water there’ he said pointing to the light. Quickly he raced to the light and almost immediately he saw a pool of sparkling water, forgetting the old man completely, he jumped in. but there was something odd with the water he thought; it made him happy and very soon he was chuckling and then laughing out loud, he told himself he was never going back to that filth he called home. He would live in this water for the rest of his life. But then the water turned to blood. Blinking rapidly, he swam as fast as he could to the edge and climbed out, looking down at himself, he realized that he was cleaner than he had ever been and there was not a hint of blood on him. But there in front of him was the blood he just swam out of, the blood that made him clean. Remembering the old man, he turned to look for him and there he was right before him dressed in his own former clothes ‘but how come you are wearing my filthy clothes he asked?’ then it hit him that he didn’t strip before entering the pool but he was dressed in the best apparel he ever saw, finally, he knew the old man had some answers, so he asked ‘tell me, what is happening?’ to which the old man replied, ‘ I traded places with you, you don’t have to live in filth and death anymore. You can now live in this light. ‘Just like that?’ he whispered fearing he was about to awaken from a dream. ‘Yes just like that’ the old man replied ‘why not take a walk?’ he didn’t need to be told twice ‘why shouldn’t he enjoy the dream he wondered.
As he walked on, he saw several houses, several people all clean, they must have washed in the blood too he thought to himself. Then he noticed that the houses had names on them not numbers, thinking it funny, he wondered what manner of city this was, he had a smile on his face until he saw a house with his name on it. STEVE PAUL ‘that’s my name!’ he screamed. The old man who had been by his side replied, ‘yes it is your house’.
‘But what did I ever do to deserve this?’ ‘Nothing’ the old man replied. ‘Nobody can ever do anything to deserve any of these” he said with a sweeping gesture. ‘It is mine and I give it to you’.
To be continued.
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