Millennia

2

Michael started his story with a low, soft voice. In the beginning, he was very slow, as if trying to remember those long forgotten events with all the details of joy and sorrow, tears and laughter, moaning and dancing, as if in the process of recalling, in his heart he was living it again. Eventually his speed became smooth and regular, his description was very vivid.

Catherine listened with all her attention. She focused her two wide open eyes on Michael’s dreamy blue eyes. She rested her elbow on the table and kept her chin on the back of her wrist. She was very quiet, she sat there like a marble statue as if any little vibration would mess up the spell of that sacred moment of Michael’s recalling.

Michael wasn’t aware of anything around him, he was totally submerged in his youthful days when he ran from one place to another, learned many skills from many people, roamed from place to place like a restless storm. For several years he was never settled down anywhere, his life was like a lonely nomad-going from one village to another with his little bundle of clothes, old books, dried herbs and dry food. He didn’t have his parents, they died years ago. Michael didn’t know if any of his close or distant relative was alive, he was all by himself. For several years he studied medicine and got his degree. But unlike his fellow students, he didn’t start his practice or didn’t join any organization where he could be used as a skilled physician. There was an inner storm in his heart, he was looking for the remedy of that cruel epidemic which took the lives of thousands of people-young and old, strong and weak- wiped out the villages after villages completely.

In those whirlwind days, he met Aron, the old man with wonderful medical skill. Aron taught Michael many useful and secret things which turned out to be very precious in Michael’s later years. Besides those, Aron, that ninety year old man taught him optimism, how to live a life with hope, even if the problems are very hard to overcome, even if circumstances are very dark and depressing. Michael tried to accept that as much as he could but he knew his heart was too full with grief to believe in it.

Aron loved him just like his own grandchild. Aron gave him his own collection of medicinal herbs and all of his important books. He took Michael's words that Michael will not leave him before his death. So, Michael stayed with Aron for a couple of years. Serving Aron was one of the happiest parts of his life. He had lively memories of those summer afternoons and evenings when he and Aron used to take a long walk along the bank of the river and along the green beauty of the valley and the hills. Aron used to tell the tales of those hills and valley and the river-the days and nights of the past- the invisible flow of time-just like the flow of waves along the river.

*****