The box

[Nexev]

On 16 South Avenue there lived an old man, this man did much in his life but age has took the vigor from his step, he now sits in a rocking chair, watching the world unfold, waiting for someone who truly needed the little energy he had left. Across the weathered street lived a young girl with a family, it was a lovely family from what he heard and the girl loved it very much, in time that girl aged and as she grew in age she began to learn about the vastness of the world, it’s beauty lay not in its trees or birds but that there was always more trees and always more birds, and as she aged she learned more and more how much she could still know. How she loved to take her violin and play songs she wrote to this beautiful unknown. In time she got to experience her first day of high school and walked to school with a bounce in her step and a twinkle in her eye.

The old man however, noticed she walked more slowly on her way back, the spring gone from her step, her eyes, glistening with a far more somber sparkle. The man sighed as he lit a pipe, the world was vast, and yet what darkness lies in simply the first few steps outside. Still he sat, humanity was endurable, it was hasty to assume this would not past.

But it stayed, each step she took seemed to be heavier and heavier, as if her body began to resent its life. Eventually the man heard a crack n the girls room and the remains of her violin were thrown from the window, landing on the front porch. The man fiddled with his pipe, regretting not acting earlier, but this, this was worth the energy. With a cracking of bones and a groan the man rose from his chair.

 

Near the mailbox outside on her way back from school the next day the girl found a box outside waiting for her, inside was a book and a box, the book was full of photos of a man in places of wonder, where trees rose to meet the sky, to places where sands vaster then knowledge greeted waters deeper than time, of ships that long succomded to rot and ocean. Of people who laughed with him, people who shook his hands and made enjoyable mistakes with him, pictures of all that she doesn’t know but still can. In the box was a old violin weathered with use and age but still capable of the most beautiful of sounds, of being able to make sounds that transcend thought despite its age, next to it was a note that said simply “There is so much still to know” as well as a return envelope, the girl smiled for the first time for a long while. Every day after a new box would appear, some with items, some simply with stories but these were all treasured.

 

One day the old man knew his time was up, the Bound Man hovered behind him waiting to collect what was long overdue, but there was still more work to be done, one last work to be done. The Bound was patient, he gave the man his time and he made his last box to place outside the girls door. She may have been alone but he knows she would prosper, he gave her all she could ever need and showed her so much she could want. When the Bound Man lead him away it was with a smile.

 

And that girl did prosper and she lived in all senses of the word until she became a old woman, sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch on 16 South Avenue, watching the world unfold, waiting for someone who truly needed the little energy she had left.

[Fusion X. Denver]

Heh, this is one of those things that shows how we can learn a lot from older people.

That was a good light read; I like short stories with positive messages like that.