Little friend Piri

A Chapter by Atarun

Keenan was a very weak child who could barely get out of bed. He didn't have any friend before the day he heard the voice for the first time.

A group of soldiers noticed him, standing alone on a bridge, sight lost in the horizon. But they were too drunk to care. He seemed nothing more than a man who wandered out for a bit of fresh air and got lost in his thoughts. Yet, he was standing there for a very specific reason.

“Preparations are over, Master”, whispered a shadow that just appeared behind him.

Keenan silently lifted his right hand in a precise gesture and the shadow disappeared. He then resumed his seemingly thoughtful position. The resigned sadness of his eyes contrasted with his madman’s smirk. But no one could see his face at that moment…

***

Keenan was born a few centuries ahead of time. He could have been a happy child in an entirely different era, but his was one where men were useless if not strong enough to work the fields. Not only did his weak body prevent him from earning the respect of his elders, it also bed rid him through most of his early childhood.

Few can understand the basic need for friendship as well as a child who can’t get out of his room to play with others his own age. Whenever his parents came to see him, they found him kneeling on a little chair and looking through the window. For his sake, his father built a veranda and an armchair so that he could stay outside and watch the clouds, the birds, the trees and sometimes the other kids of the village.

A sunny afternoon, Keenan was taking a nap on his armchair when he suddenly heard “Watch out!” He woke up and looked everywhere around him but saw no one. He thought he dreamt it, but when he drifted back to sleep, he heard the voice again.

“Won’t you please take care of that little one?” asked the voice.

It was a very strange voice. It felt old and young, neither female nor male. Its very soft tone somehow moved Keenan. He looked everywhere around him again and then heard a tiny baby bird that had fell from his nest and was screaming for help from under the nearest tree.

Without thinking, Keenan got up and went to the little bird, but his legs failed him. He had to crawl to reach the helpless baby bird. He took it in his hands and preciously held it against his fast-beating heart. When he tried to stand up, his legs failed him again.

He somehow got back to his house, half-crawling, half-kneeling, careful not to hurt the bird. He saw his mother coming back with the laundry. She started running when she saw him, but his vision faded when what little energy he had completely left him.

“Thank you, young one” said the voice, just before everything went black.

***

Keenan called the bird Piri because it sounded like the tiny sounds it made. He did all he could to fix Piri’s leg that had broke during the fall. He even fed him worms that he found in the garden himself. But one morning, Keenan woke up to find next to his head a cold Piri that wouldn’t move.

Keenan was inconsolable. Not only wasPiri was the friend he had always wished for, it also felt like a reflection of himself, and as such its death felt like the end of the world. He wouldn’t let go of Piri’s corpse and kept lying on his bed crying. He refused to eat and cried himself to sleep when night fell.

The next morning, Keenan was awoken by the sound of a shovel used right under his window. He felt too numb to think about what it could be. His father then came in his room and spoke to him, but his mind would not process his father’s words and soon tears blurred his vision again.

He felt big hands, hardened by years of hard manual work, grabbing him and laying him on his father’s powerful shoulders. When his vision cleared, he was standing in the garden. His father showed him the hole he had shoved right below his window but Keenan didn’t want to understand what it was for. He kept shaking his head, holding Piri tighter than ever.

His father suddenly got angry and started shaking him forcefully. Keenan felt his strength leaving him and when his father let go of him, he collapsed and heard the voice again.

“You have to let go of the dead, young one” said the voice, full of sadness this time.

When Keenan came back to his senses, he saw his father was sitting on the ground next to him, face in his hands. His father had always seemed invincible, a man totally exempt of weakness. Yet, like this, he seemed old, tired and wary.

Keenan mustered all his courage and with all the care in the world, he put Piri’s body in the tiny hole, then stared at it through tears he couldn’t hold back.

He felt the hand of his father on his shoulder and when he was told “You are brave, Keenan”, he saw in his father’s expression and heard in his voice something he never dreamt of ever deserving: pride.

“Piri is gone father” he said when the lump in his throat shrank enough to allow it.

“Yes, son, he is gone.”

“But where did he go?”

Keenan’s father was left speechless by this simple question. He looked back helplessly at his own offspring and couldn’t find any worthy answer.

“Nowhere, dear”, said Keenan’s mother who had watched everything from afar. “See, Piri will stay here forever”, she said.

Keenan looked at his mother, puzzled. She handed him a tiny bag. He looked inside and found one seed.

“He cannot be a bird anymore, but he can still live on”, she told him, winking.

Keenan planted the seed just above Piri’s body and took care of it, watering it a little every day, building a tiny roof to protect it from heavy rains.

One morning, when Keenan opened his window and looked down at his beloved seed, it was one no longer: a tiny tree shoot had emerged from the ground and seemed to enjoy the sunlight.

Keenan hurried out, not even bothering to dress, to meet the new Piri. It was such a tiny plant, it was hard to believe it could grow into a tree.

“Hello Piri! You had me wait for a long time, there. Can we be friends again?” he asked out loud.

Of course it was silly to expect an answer, so Keenan decided it was a “Yes” and started talking with his little tree the same way he used to with his little bird. He was so absorbed in the little tree shoot that he fell asleep next to it without noticing. That’s when he heard the voice again.

“You’ll have to wait some years before it can talk back to you, you know?” said the voice, more than a little amused this time.