Tree of Life Book III

Part II - Chapter 09

TREE OF LIFE BOOK III – PART II

CHAPTER 09

I remained where I was for a bit, resting. My eyes were heavy. They felt like they weighed a ton. I did my best to keep them open, however, and peered out ahead into the yard.

Malchus and his kin were taking a break from their training. They had wandered over to the far side of the court and were chatting among themselves, guzzling down water for refreshment. Some of them were laughing, play fighting and teasing each other about their adeptness with powers or lack thereof in some cases.

I smiled. I went to sigh, but the breath caught me so I coughed a little.

I heard a noise. Turning my head to the corner of the square behind me, I noticed someone just making their way into it. It was a young man.

Trudging along, with a heave and a grunt, the young man, a teenager, was struggling his way through the square with a wheelbarrow full of animal feed and some garden tools and other mishmash piled on top. He was struggling with the load and rightly so, because he was only using his right arm. And not to say that his left one was busy doing something else, but that he only had the one on his right to work with. The other arm was completely missing, with just a stump on the left shoulder where the arm should have been. A congenital deformity perhaps, or some tragic accident with a large machine.

Normally, given the circumstances, it would not be possible for someone like that to use a wheelbarrow at all, except that in this case, the young man had modified the contraption so the left handle of it was attached to his torso by a series of straps, like a harness, so it could be lifted from that side also, while the right handle was being worked by his right arm in the usual fashion.

It was taking a good deal of effort on his part. The young man was drenched with sweat and wheezing, but in spite of it all and with much wobbling and teetering, he was managing to get through his task all right, transporting his load of earth and equipment down the full length of the square, from one end to the other, heading out to whatever his final destination was beyond that.

My heart went out to him as he went by me. I rooted for him and cheered him on, though I said nothing aloud.

When he passed by the young trainees, one of them sniggered behind the teenager's back and the whole group broke off into laughter. Except for Malchus, who gave the others a stern look and made them stop.

The teenager never gave it a thought. It was like he never heard them. With his head bent to his task all the while, laughter or no laughter, he had struggled along past the courtyard, and now was working his way down the long, narrow corridor beyond it. He was just about to turn the corner.

I got up. I began to follow him at a distance.

Minutes later, the young man had come to a stop in front of a building. A barn, near the edge of town. He laid down his load by the barn doors.

The stables, I thought to myself. Of course.

I could see the stalls for the horses through the wide-open doorway. There were other animals there too, though I could only hear them for the moment and not see them.

Unhitching himself from the harness, the boy went and picked up a satchel from the pile of things lying on top of the wheelbarrow and slung it over his shoulder. There was a bucket of water by the door. He took this up too and began making his way into the stable toward one of the stalls for the horses in particular.

I slid over and came to stand by the doorway. I hid myself on the near side of it and peered around the frame to watch him. He did not know I was there.