Fall of the Wise Man

    “Stupid Bugger!” said a voice, it wasn’t the voice that had been expected. It didn’t sound deep enough, or old enough, but then no voice on the planet sounded as old as the voice that had been expected. In fact the voice that was expected couldn’t even really be described as a voice, voices tended to have more…sound. Voices used ears to get to the brain, the voice he had expected didn’t bother with the middle-man.

    LUEZ-DONG? said a new voice, the old man that had heard the other voice relaxed, which few people tended to do on meeting the owner.

    Luez-dong shifted his legs a little, he was starting to get cramp in his legs. He never felt comfortable folding his legs when he sat but he was a wise man. Wise men always folded their legs when people were around, it was rather expected of them. Not that he had many visitors, especially this time of year. He lived at the top of a mountain, natural living site for wise men of course, but not a nice place thing to hike up during winter. He kept his eyes on the sun-rise, it was a beautiful site and the first    time he had seen it, it had brought tears to his eyes. Of course he had just climbed a mountain, had no sleep, hardly any food, it was very high, very cold and not to mention very dark, when suddenly a bloody great big sun had exploded into his           eyes.

    Oh it had been beautiful when he had first seen it, but it had also been ridiculously bright. Since about a week after first getting up here the novelty had worn off, now it was just a bloody great bright thing that strained his eyesight. Not that he had much eyesight left since the 5 years since he got up here. Still he couldn’t not look at it, not with being a wise man, especially not when visitors were there. And especially this visitor.

    “Good morning,” he said to his guest before turning from the sun.

    GOOD MORNING, said the visitor, he was tall, dark robed, thin, and very white. Although the whiteness wasn’t because of skin complexion, if he had had a skin complexion at any time, it was no longer a problem. Neither was any flesh problems he might have had, if he had ever had flesh problems they had gone not long after the skin problems had, although if this man had any bone problems they might become a serious problem. He was also carrying a very sharp, well-used scythe. It looked a fearsome weapon which was spoilt slightly by a parrot that was perched on the blade.

    “So, it has become my time then, has it?” said Luez-dong, there was no fear in his voice, only calm acceptance.

    WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? said Death calmly YOU ARE, FORGIVE ME, AN OL…RICH IN YEARS, GENTLEMAN. AND STAYING OUTSIDE AT THE TOP OF A VERY COLD MOUNTAIN FOR FIVE YEARS WITHOUT A GREAT DEAL OF FOOD TO SUSTAIN YOU, ISN’T REALLY GOOD FOR THE HUMAN BODY, DISPITE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE READ ABOUT.

    “Stupid bugger!” said the bird quite happily. Death reached out a bony hand and transported the bird from the scythe to his shoulder.

    ARE YOU READY? said Death raising the scythe.

    “Would it make a great deal of difference if I said no?” asked Luez-dong with a slight smile.

    NONE WHATSOEVER said Death, matching Luez-dong’s grin, with one of his own, he of course didn’t have much choice in the matter, grins were pretty much the only facial feature he could truly pull off. He brought the scythe down on Luez-dong, the old man didn’t even blink. If the scythe cut anything, there wasn’t any sign of it, except for Luez-dong’s eyes that seemed to lose something in their depths. A light had gone out somewhere, a light that no one knew was turned on.

    Well, some people would say that the light never went out but instead went somewhere else. It was a good bet that they would have felt very smug if they would be able to see what happened next. Luez-dong’s body didn’t move from the position he had decided to be discovered in, with his eyes staring at where the sun rose every morning. But, something moved, stood up and walked away from Luez-dong’s body and gave it a critical look. As a sculptor might look at a statue that had taken him all his life to carve and wasn’t exactly satisfied with the result.

    Death watched him with interest, the parrot, Stupid Bugger by name as well as favourite phrase, didn’t watch but decided to pick at Death’s robe.

    “Your parrot is right,” said Luez-dong “I have been a stupid bugger, I thought that I would be wise climbing a mountain, watching the sun rise and set everyday. All I became though was bored. Yes being up here cleared my mind. I thought about everything that occurred to me, but there is only so much that can occur to someone when there aren’t any distractions.”

    WHAT KIND OF THINGS DID YOU THINK ABOUT? said Death.

    “A great many things,” said Luez-dong bitterly “is there life beyond this world, past the moon, past this accursed sun, this galaxy? I thought this for five years, but not once did it occur to me that there is plenty of life on this world. I thought about whether there was life after death, but not once did I realise that sooner or later everyone gets the answer to that question eventually. I never had to climb a mountain to discover it, although climbing this mountain has helped me to discover it sooner then I would have done. I have thought about the greatest questions that have bothered mankind since the dawn of creation.”

    DID YOU DISCOVER ANY ANSWERS? said Death getting slightly more interested. Luez-dong spun round to face him.

    “Not many, no. And even if I had answered them all, what would it have mattered now?”

    Death nodded, he had taken many so called wise men over the millennia. And a few of the true ones had spoken like this. Of course most of them was full of their own importance, talking about how they had been right all along. That death was just the start of a new journey, not paying a great deal of attention on the journey they’ve just completed, Death often wondered what they were doing on the spectral plane now, they were probably deep in thought about what was going to come next. But these wise men who realised just what it was they had missed seemed the most wise to him. If only they had realised it years before. Death was fascinated by humans, and how some people could do the wisest thing without even thinking about it like going out a finding someone to share the years with, or how some one could sit down, think a thing through thoroughly and yet decide to do the stupidest thing imaginable. Climbing up a giant mountain a living there for five years all alone, for instance.

    “Look around,” said Luez-dong gesturing with his hand “a freezing cold mountain, a tiny freezing cold hut. And that’s it! No wife, no children, because I was too stupid to see wisdom in other people. Hah, oh yes, but I have a lovely view, aren’t I lucky?”

    “What’s up with y…” Stupid Bugger began, Death brought his hand to the birds beak and held it closed, Stupid Bugger still hadn’t mastered tactful silences.

    “No distractions,” continued Luez-dong, ignoring Stupid Bugger “but the distractions are what makes life worth living. Having children, and drink, and trinkets, and that box that has pictures…TELEVISION! That’s what its called, great distraction that, or music and art, and books. And a million other things that I wish I had done and seen.” He sighed, then laughed.

    “Listen to me, going on about this stuff, to you of all people. How many times have you head the same things, and from how many different voices?”

    MORE THEN YOU CAN IMAGINE, BUT NOT JUST FROM THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED AS YOU HAVE, said Death

    “No?”

    NO, I HAVE HEARD IT FROM MANY; I HAVE HEARD IT FROM GREAT ARTISTS, COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PAINTINGS THEY WILL NEVER PAINT. FROM SINGERS ABOUT THE SONGS THEY WILL NEVER SING AND FROM WRITERS ABOUT THE NOVELS THEY WILL NEVER WRITE. I HAVE HEARD IT FROM THOSE WHO HAVE CLIMBED THE HIGHEST OF MOUNTAINS, AND EVEN SEEN THE WORLD FROM ORBIT, A SIGHT EVEN I HAVE YET TO SEE. THERE IS ALWAYS MORE THINGS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE, AND FOREVER WILL THERE ALWAYS BE MORE THINGS THAT CAN BE DONE. YOUR SPECIES ARE RARELY SATISFIED WHEN THEY LOOK BACK. CONQUERERS WEEP AT THE THOUGHT THAT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE PLACES LEFT TO CONQUER. YOUR SPECIES ARE TOO DEEP IN THOUGHT AT THE THINGS THEY HAVEN’T DONE TO TRULY RECOGNISE THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE THINGS THEY HAVE DONE.

    Luez-dong was silent. Death was silent, the wind had gone quiet and even Stupid Bugger was keeping his beak shut.

    “I know nothing,” said Luez-dong looking solemn “you’re not being a great comfort you know, pointing out how little I have learned about my own race.”

    THERE IS LITTLE ABOUT YOUR RACE THAT CAN BE LEARNED IN A SINGLE LIFETIME, TAKE COMFORT THAT AT LEAST HERE, AT THE END, YOU UNDERSTAND MORE THEN YOU DID.

    Luez-dong nodded, without saying another word, his essence rippled in the air for a second, then faded from sight.

    “Stupid bugger,” said Stupid Bugger, looking at where Luez-dong had just vanished. Although Stupid Bugger had a very limited vocabulary, he did manage to make it work well for him. At times like this though the words stupid bugger seemed to cover everything Stupid Bugger thought about Luez-dong. Death noticed this.

    NO MY FRIEND, NOT STUPID. HE MERELY FAILED TO GRASP SOMETHING THAT HAS SERVED MANY AND MYSELF WELL OVER THE MILLENIUM

    “What’s up with you then?” asked Stupid Bugger sincerely interested.

    HE SHOULD HAVE LEARNT TO TAKE LIFE AS IT COMES said Death with his trademark grin.