I Will Not Leave or Forsake You

Chapter Two: You Shall Not

His name was Alastor.  He originally stayed quite timid and reticent.  He would only speak if he was spoken to and would rarely ask for things unless he needed them.  Yet, as the months went by he began to get more comfortable and started to open up.  Although he started to act more as a child did, he never would tell about his past or about where he had come from.  Regarding that, he stayed taciturn.  On the second year anniversary that I had found Alastor he smiled for the first time, and within the year after that he laughed.  I grew fond of his company, although his tendencies and behaviors were occasionally a little outlandish.

I had never had any children myself and had never expected to have to take care of them so I had never made an effort to study them.  I was unprepared for how to deal with the needs of a child, and much less for a child with a traumatic past.  Even still, I did my best to accommodate for him and taught him regularly about the lord.  When Alastor became a teenager his behaviors became more erratic, but I guessed that was something that happened to everyone as they came to a certain age.  Yet, occasionally he would become very calculative.  He never interacted much with the people in the village, and for the most part he stayed in our home to study and tend to the many chores.

We lived in a brick shack that had a bell tower attached to it that was on the edge of the village next to the creek that provided most of the village water.  There was a decent size cellar attached to the abode, and in that area we stored food that we canned and preserved for the colder months.  It was a modest dwelling that required a lot of work to tend to, and each day it was the job of my home to ring the bell right before the sun went down.  The village was superstitious, and often people speculated that demons kidnapped villagers and children after the sun went down.  I had never heard of such a thing, but it was a condition that they had for me living on the land and in the tower without paying anything to the village.  For all the time that I had been a holy man and resided in the bell tower, each night without fail I rang the bell.  I never missed a day, and never intended to.  It went along with my daily routine.

Each day I would rise before the sun to pray and come back as the sun was just coming up over the horizon.  From that point, I would tend to the small garden that sits alongside the tower where I grew a variety of vegetables and whatever fruits would sprout.  About mid morning I would check on Alastor to greet him and make sure that he was up and tending to the house which he never failed to do.  I would have a cup of tea and read my religious texts, and right after that I would study with Alastor before opening up the rest of the afternoon for free time.  Alastor chose a favorite verse during one of the countless sessions we had, and the verse was Isaiah 41:10-13.  We meditated on the phrase many a time.  It didn't take him long to memorize the verse, and we would repeat it regularly.  "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I am the one who helps you.'"

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"Good morning, Alastor," I chimed.

Alastor glimpsed up at me smirked. He was on his hands and knees in the dirt working on some of the gardening around the house.  We both enjoyed flowers, and in the summer they required more caring for.  He had just passed his 16th birthday and his voice had deepened and his chin had become more  pronounced as his body grew.  He was nearly as tall as myself and he reminded me of it often.  His smile was evident amidst his face paint, and even with his face painted black and white his teeth were still white as could be.  As he became a teenager he became more aware of his appearance, and he started painting his face as a mime would.  It started as about once a week, and then it became a more regular occurrence until it just happened every day.  At first I was taken aback as I had never known someone to paint their face every day, but I got used to it quickly.