Just Another Poor Boy

Inspired by the songs by Chris De Burgh: Just Another Poor Boy and The Girl With April In Her Eyes.

Mary walked home through the cold concrete streets, she had to entertain with her fellow nurses to keep the soldiers happy.

They paid well, and it was never easy to make money, being a nurse never paid enough at this time.

Mary was 26, black long hair, green eyes and slim, she knew she wasn't big breasted at 34 B because the soldiers always preferred the bigger girls.

It was 2075AD, religion had been abolished all over the world after the big war of 2062AD which nearly ended it all.

America had only recently started rebuilding and now the soldiers ruled, any one practising religion was shot as an enemy of the state, this was now it was in Great Britain, Russia, India.....everywhere.

There was a curfew and she was already two hours past it, she knew she should had stayed but sometimes the soldiers could disgust her, with the things they wanted to do so she had left to walk home.

That is when she saw him, in the gutter, dressed in rags, a long scruffy brown beard and long dirty hair.

He was just laying there, she could see him breathing, his forehead showed many cuts, he wore no shoes on his feet.

The palms of his hands had open wounds and so did his feet as if some thing had been stabbed into them, but nothing was in the wounds now.

If the soldiers found him they would shoot him as a vagrant, she shouldn't, but she felt she had to help him for she only lived at the corner one bedroomed house now.

She helped him up, he hardly weighed a thing, he was half starved and she put an arm of his around her shoulder.

She carried him to her home and brought him inside

She lay him on her on bed, she spent most of the night bathing his wounds and mopped his head to keep him cool.

She destroyed the dirty rags he had worned and dressed him in a long white bed gown, one that been left behind when she had to entertain the soldiers at home.

She tended to him for two days, days she had rest from working, and each night he talked in his sleep about the strangest things, things she had never heard before.

About an almight being, that shone love through out the world, forgiving any wrong doing and taking the worthy under its protection.

He was awake when she came home after the third day, she was late because a General had requested her company, she felt disgusted at the things he had made her do.

"Thank you" he said as she entered her home.

She couldn't help to smile, something about this man made her feel so relaxed, at peace.

"I can not pay you for your kindess, I only have stories to tell" is all he said.

" A story will be fine" she said.

And he began, and his story would change her life forever

He told a story, of a king that was a nasty man, he ruled with cruelty and would give no thought for anyone but himself.

It was the worst winter, snow covered the land, and this King had one love, he loved beauty in his garden but the winter had killed off every winter flower and now nothing would grow in the cold soil.

The king had tried everything, ordered servants to work 24 hours to try and give him a beautiful garden, he refused to feed or pay them until something grew.

He only believed in himself, he would not believe in anything else.

Meanwhile a young girl, no more than eighteen, rode on a snow white horse, she was cold and hungry and no one knew fron where she had come.

She had eyes that glowed, they called her the girl with April in her eyes, with long blond hair and fairest skin.

She knocked and the castle door, there was a snow storm beginning, and as a servant opened she pleaded just for a little food and a room just for thr night.

The king refused her request and told to servant to tell her to go away.

So the girl with April in her eyes rode through the night storm and she found a cabin but collapsed into the snow.

A local hunter lived alone in this cabin, sixty years old, and he had seen her fall from her horse from his window.

He came out into the storm and picked up the girl, he brought her into the cabin and placed her by the log fire, covered her with a blanket and then saw to her horse.

But he could not save her nad the girl died, in the storm he buried her at the back of his cabin, and marked the grave with a single cross.

In the morning he awoke, the storm had ceased and he expected snow to have covered deeper on the already snow laddened ground.

He would have to uncovered the grave of the girl with April in her eyes so he went to do this duty, but he was in awe at what lay on the grave.

Everywhere was beautiful flowers of every colour and they grew from the grave, not one snow flake disturbed this grave and it was as if spring had arrived.

...........................................................................................................................................



This was the first story he would tell to Mary, and explained that the girl now belonged to a better kingdom, and had left the hunter a parting gift.

Mary wondered who was this stranger that could tell a beautiful story that had her crying with feelings she had never felt before.

Some how she believed in this man and she did not know why.

There would be more stories and Mary knew she had to share this gift with others

Three months passed and Mary had found twelve good friends to help her as the stories had grown and the amount of people just grew every day.

They would take the man to different places and every one would come to hear his stories and he filled them with so much hope.

Unfortunately there would come a day where they would be betrayed by one of the twelve called Jude.

The soldiers came, Jude had been paid for the information about this so called story teller that was giving people to believe again.

The soldiers took him away for trail and one of them commented "Who does he think he is, anyway" ?

He was accused of being a Terrorist and the Jury of Generals branded him as an enemy of the state and decided on a punishment they considered a warning.

They took him to a hill that over looked the town and nailed his hands and feet to a wooden cross, crucified him as an example of what would happen to any one who would help the people believe.

It took him three days to die and thousands came to mourn him, the soldiers were powerless to stop them and an old woman was heard to call out to her "sweet Lord".

Years passed and the World changed, one man had come and died for his fellow men and women and once again belief came to the World and the soldiers lost their power.

Churches were rebuild and the poor boy was never forgot, he died and would never be remembered as just another poor man.







Mary was ninety three, she had lived a good life and she had been made into a saint, people came to her because they believed in her for she had been the one who found him in the beginning.

A bright light appeared out of no where and she saw a man, a man who she had seen die so many years ago on a cross on a hill.

He never spoke, he smiled and held out his hand and she knew her time was ended and he would lead her into the light, to a place that would be called Paradise.





       The End




copyright Chris Smith 2009

Inspired by the song of the same title by Chris De Burgh