The Spring (story)

A search takes place for two sons one greedy, one conceited, and the father winds up missing also as love overtakes differences of opinion.

 (story

As he spoke he stood on the shore looking out at the F’qusa Rau, the so called Grate Sea, ‘I remember standing where a small lake’s single spring bubbled to the surface.  Two men, my sons, stood with me.  The one stood among the great pines and splendiferous display of the entire wilderness, our only home since before he was born and said, “I am your first son.  The entire river from here to the sea is mine, and any lakes along the way.  But all I desire is a drink of fresh, cold water now and again when the future comes to me as it has this day.  Therefore I say that I will only take this river and this lake though the river is barely a foot wide by the time it runs into the lake.”   And the other said, “Before I wanted the river property for my own you never gave it a thought.  And though he is the rightful heir have you not shared everything with me instead of this ingrate?  I will be you one day, my father, and my brother will be drunk or telling the horny women in town about all the property he will possess one day.”  And, they put it to me to be an arbiter between them.  I am not an arbiter but their father.  It was not my wish or my desire for either of them to own any land whatsoever.  For on the one hand, everything that they say I own they may share at any time and as much of it as they desire, and will I not be dead one day and even one who shares even my innermost thoughts, will they mean to him what they mean to me?  One cannot truly own anything.  It belongs to no one, and is overseen by his spirit and by his brother spirit the overseer of all else.  For as far as I can see I also see his face in every direction I look.  And my body which cannot see him looks out at the world and thinks it is his place like a tadpole in the ocean looking out into the murky water and says, “There is no limit to what I see.  I am like the one that made me, and I will be him one day,” when what is true is that notion is strictly fiction, and his dream nothing but the powerful delusion of a selfish little tadpole gone mad with greed.’

I turned by face to the wind and I said, “I do not speak.  They accuse me of speaking, but I do not.  All of these things and even this place you have made.  You own it.  If anyone owns anything the one who put it there surely owns it.  For to whom did you say, ‘This is yours, I leave it as my gift; enjoy it.”?  I have never heard of anyone owning it.  And, I believe that it is best to leave whatever does not belong to a man be as it was when one found it.  That means I or anyone else may use it if their need shouts at them they must have it, but they must never even start to believe it is theirs.  Such things, are they not born of the mad ones who believe everything is theirs for the taking?  And is it not true that when you say you own that you do not really own, you are a liar and a thief?  And, also it is true that such is the way of an enemy and not a friend.  “I will have no part of owning anything, not the sky, not the forest, not the lake, nor the river or rivers, not the spring, and not even this cumbersome body I carry around and tend to as if it were a baby I loved with all my heart when it speaks to me of misuse and fails me time and again, more and more, and I appreciate the one who caused you to be so moved as to give my body a chill on such a warm day.  Thank you.’

For that it was a very warm day I should imagine since I never knew him to lie. 

“Would you care to look at the big boat you have bought?  It is sea worthy in every way.  It is the best of its class, and its class is the best of the fleet, and the fleet the best in the world,” I said.

“What do I know about boats?” he said, “I have never even ridden in a speed boat not to mention a war ship as this one is equipped to do I am sure.  But I come in peace where I go.  Should it sink as any ship may, I alone will bear the expense.  If it is the best in its class that class did not take into account its beauty for it is ugly and obtrusive, an imposing structure obviously designed to intimidate and to offend.  And as for the fleet which is always at war, it leaves me to think we have been imprisoned here in this place we call the world and it is probably better understood as a penal colony.  I have no interest in wars.  They are matters for the criminals to consider and those who would control the rest of the them by any criminal means whatsoever.  So long as they leave me alone I will ignore them.  Their fights or lack thereof was never my doing.  I disapprove.”

“Why then have you bought such a formidable ship then my good man, if I may ask?”

“What you say, that is your business.  Even what you ask says more about you than your silence.  Every man must carry a certain burden of ignorance to his grave.  But to answer your question, my son set out to survey his property one day, and has never returned.  Then my other son took it upon himself to make sure the first one was okay, and I have never heard a word from either of them.  I have tried to put them out of my mind.  Both are a disappointment to me.  But then the other day a piece of driftwood with both of my sons’ names carved on it in the second son’s handwriting washed up upon shore if the man’s word who delivered the driftwood to me can be trusted.  If not however, just those two names shout at my memory and I feel responsible for what has brought them to the small island where such trees are known to grow and the only trees like it in this area which is where the driftwood was found by the way.  They may or may not be alive.  But it is also an ignorance I cannot let lay idly by while I go about my business with my memory shouting at me that I brought them here.  I may be responsible for what has happened to them or the others they have offended.”

“You seem to be a very wise man, and a very good man,” I said as the gulls came ashore splattering the beach as they came, barely ceasing before they reached us at the inside edge of the sea. 

He looked up as a splattering came very close to him but did not hit him.  “They are very much like my sons.  They do not regard others.”

“May I ask you a question I cannot help but wonder about?” I asked.

“I would have preferred you asked that question first before you asked this one also.”

“I apologize,” I said sincerely enough I think.

“If you must know, I stole every penny my two very greedy sons amassed with their many impositions on others and their other forms of less admirable thievery.”

Then seeing the captain and crew were already aboard waiting for him, he made is way aboard indeed.  “This is not my ship.  It is theirs.  It cost me all they had.  I bring it to them as just one more of their needless impositions on a very weary parent.  I wish you well.  I have no reason not to.  Float to the island or not, the ship was improperly gained out of that you have similarly amassed Experience has taught me, how then can I ignore a fellow thief the business of a thief.  Good day,” he said.

Asking a shipmate who was dispatched for the service I imagine; he then followed where the cabin was they intended to be his cell.  Then he disappeared into the hull. 

That was the last I saw of him.