GOOD DEEDS / PART FOUR
A short story
The first familiar figure Jonathan faced was his sister’s. She was holding a bucket filled with water which was predestinating for the goats but when she faced him back, she forgot all about it and as a result it landed to her feet. That didn’t seem to bother her much and when she reached him she hugged him with all her strength. They seemed like they wanted to say so many things about all the years they lived apart but all they managed to do was to observe each other’s face as if they could scrutiny every event of their separated lives by the changes of their face characteristics.
The same night Jonathan’s family gave a big supper to celebrate his return but his father unfortunately couldn’t participate. He was pretty old now and his health was in bad condition. After the supper Jonathan went to see him in his room. He found him resting in his bed and although he knew that his father was sick he found it difficult to believe it because he was looking almost as the day he had left him.
Old Joseph said to his son all about he wanted to know. He told him that only few months after the “big flee” things went unexpectedly well. The most of the men who had left came back quickly because as they said they couldn’t adjust to the new conditions of the outside world. Despite that, they brought along some “habits” that were pretty new for the Nolands who had never left the place. Jonathan said back that he had already discerned some changes in everybody’s behavior but when he mentioned it during the supper everybody refused it.
Only within a week after his arrival, Jonathan started feeling kind of disappointed by what he was seeing going on around and he wanted to talk about it with his father again, because as he believed, besides his bad physical condition he still was the healthiest “thinker” in the Hill. However he had second thoughts of that conversation for the reason that he didn’t want to trouble and upset his father any further, he knew that he had no alternative way to act.
It was a bright night, of the ones that are usual in Noland, and Jonathan decided to take a small walk. He was sure that he had to consult his father about if there was anything he should do for bringing back Nolands in their old condition and he thought of it as a chance to think about what he should mention to his father and what he should not.
Things weren’t as he had left them. The place was as before but people were by far different. He had the perception that in the past all his fellow peasants were united and caring. Now he thought that they had become more self-interested. The old days when they didn’t know what decision to take for any matter, they would vote and the minority would comply with the majority’s will. Now they would do the same of course, but afterwards you could see that the “opponents” of the decision would be disappointed and they would still talk about how things could be better and why the neglected decision should be chosen instead.
Jonathan looked at the bright sky of Noland like he may was able to find the solution there. Nothing seemed to work for him that night so he took the way back but then he saw an old friend of his, Frederick. He signed him to go closer and Jonathan found him relishing some tobacco and scotch as he was sitting comfortably in his doorsteps. He joined him, although he denied kindly the tobacco and the scotch offer. Frederick was too in the group which left Noland the time it was needed but he had came back too many years before as he found difficult to settle himself in anywhere outside that Hill.
They talked a lot and when he was asked Frederick said that he had discerned no difference in the local people stance. Their talking, although interesting, wasn’t getting to a constructive point. They were chiefly arguing about the way they were both seeing their co-townsmen but still they were remaining polite. They both had different opinions and they were unwilling to relinquish them, so Jonathan claimed sleepiness and said that it was time to go. Frederick didn’t make any effort to postpone him, mostly because he said he had a ceremonial thing to do. Jonathan didn’t quite understand what he was talking about and Frederick offered readily to explain himself. He told him that when he was in the City he got influenced by the people he met there. He told him that they were giving names to the separate divinities they believed in and they were following specific procedures to beg for their mercy or just to pleasure them. Of course Jonathan already knew that because that was happening in every City he visited, too. It was always the same devoted routines more or less, and only the names of the divinities were different. As Jonathan was watching Frederick doing his ritual routine he tried to explain Frederick’s and the other peoples urge to specify and personalize an indefinite concept. That night proved complicated enough, so he for the third time attempted to take the way back leaving his friend submerged in a -already seen in the past by Jonathan – kind of meditation detriment.
After the annoying ascent Jonathan desperately wanted to lie in his bed but he noticed something strange in the house next to his. It was his sister’s house. She was living there with her husband and even though the couple was still childless even after all those years they were married, he noticed that there was a noise which was probably coming from one of the back rooms of the house and it was sounding like a little baby’s cry.
He knocked the door twice but not a sign of response neither from his sister nor from her husband. The only noise he could hear was that crying. He knocked the hardest he could again and again but no one answered him. The crying was louder now but he couldn’t shout his sister’s name because he was afraid that he would awake the rest of his family who were all sleeping in the house besides.
He then remembered that even before his compulsory flee, when that house was just an abandoned property, there was a door in the back yard with its lock broken. He went to that door and to his surprise when he pushed it, it opened widely.
He walked into the house and he tried not to stumble anywhere because it was really dark and his eyes hadn’t yet got used of it. The only hint of light was coming through a crack in the door that the sound was coming from. Few more steps and he was next to the room, definite that the sound was a baby’s cry but now it was unbearably loud and uncontrollably uneven. The shadow of the two moving pair of legs he saw from the crack made him fell hesitant for a moment to open that door but his affectionate instincts were already alarmed by the desperate cry...
The first familiar figure Jonathan faced was his sister’s. She was holding a bucket filled with water which was predestinating for the goats but when she faced him back, she forgot all about it and as a result it landed to her feet. That didn’t seem to bother her much and when she reached him she hugged him with all her strength. They seemed like they wanted to say so many things about all the years they lived apart but all they managed to do was to observe each other’s face as if they could scrutiny every event of their separated lives by the changes of their face characteristics.
The same night Jonathan’s family gave a big supper to celebrate his return but his father unfortunately couldn’t participate. He was pretty old now and his health was in bad condition. After the supper Jonathan went to see him in his room. He found him resting in his bed and although he knew that his father was sick he found it difficult to believe it because he was looking almost as the day he had left him.
Old Joseph said to his son all about he wanted to know. He told him that only few months after the “big flee” things went unexpectedly well. The most of the men who had left came back quickly because as they said they couldn’t adjust to the new conditions of the outside world. Despite that, they brought along some “habits” that were pretty new for the Nolands who had never left the place. Jonathan said back that he had already discerned some changes in everybody’s behavior but when he mentioned it during the supper everybody refused it.
Only within a week after his arrival, Jonathan started feeling kind of disappointed by what he was seeing going on around and he wanted to talk about it with his father again, because as he believed, besides his bad physical condition he still was the healthiest “thinker” in the Hill. However he had second thoughts of that conversation for the reason that he didn’t want to trouble and upset his father any further, he knew that he had no alternative way to act.
It was a bright night, of the ones that are usual in Noland, and Jonathan decided to take a small walk. He was sure that he had to consult his father about if there was anything he should do for bringing back Nolands in their old condition and he thought of it as a chance to think about what he should mention to his father and what he should not.
Things weren’t as he had left them. The place was as before but people were by far different. He had the perception that in the past all his fellow peasants were united and caring. Now he thought that they had become more self-interested. The old days when they didn’t know what decision to take for any matter, they would vote and the minority would comply with the majority’s will. Now they would do the same of course, but afterwards you could see that the “opponents” of the decision would be disappointed and they would still talk about how things could be better and why the neglected decision should be chosen instead.
Jonathan looked at the bright sky of Noland like he may was able to find the solution there. Nothing seemed to work for him that night so he took the way back but then he saw an old friend of his, Frederick. He signed him to go closer and Jonathan found him relishing some tobacco and scotch as he was sitting comfortably in his doorsteps. He joined him, although he denied kindly the tobacco and the scotch offer. Frederick was too in the group which left Noland the time it was needed but he had came back too many years before as he found difficult to settle himself in anywhere outside that Hill.
They talked a lot and when he was asked Frederick said that he had discerned no difference in the local people stance. Their talking, although interesting, wasn’t getting to a constructive point. They were chiefly arguing about the way they were both seeing their co-townsmen but still they were remaining polite. They both had different opinions and they were unwilling to relinquish them, so Jonathan claimed sleepiness and said that it was time to go. Frederick didn’t make any effort to postpone him, mostly because he said he had a ceremonial thing to do. Jonathan didn’t quite understand what he was talking about and Frederick offered readily to explain himself. He told him that when he was in the City he got influenced by the people he met there. He told him that they were giving names to the separate divinities they believed in and they were following specific procedures to beg for their mercy or just to pleasure them. Of course Jonathan already knew that because that was happening in every City he visited, too. It was always the same devoted routines more or less, and only the names of the divinities were different. As Jonathan was watching Frederick doing his ritual routine he tried to explain Frederick’s and the other peoples urge to specify and personalize an indefinite concept. That night proved complicated enough, so he for the third time attempted to take the way back leaving his friend submerged in a -already seen in the past by Jonathan – kind of meditation detriment.
After the annoying ascent Jonathan desperately wanted to lie in his bed but he noticed something strange in the house next to his. It was his sister’s house. She was living there with her husband and even though the couple was still childless even after all those years they were married, he noticed that there was a noise which was probably coming from one of the back rooms of the house and it was sounding like a little baby’s cry.
He knocked the door twice but not a sign of response neither from his sister nor from her husband. The only noise he could hear was that crying. He knocked the hardest he could again and again but no one answered him. The crying was louder now but he couldn’t shout his sister’s name because he was afraid that he would awake the rest of his family who were all sleeping in the house besides.
He then remembered that even before his compulsory flee, when that house was just an abandoned property, there was a door in the back yard with its lock broken. He went to that door and to his surprise when he pushed it, it opened widely.
He walked into the house and he tried not to stumble anywhere because it was really dark and his eyes hadn’t yet got used of it. The only hint of light was coming through a crack in the door that the sound was coming from. Few more steps and he was next to the room, definite that the sound was a baby’s cry but now it was unbearably loud and uncontrollably uneven. The shadow of the two moving pair of legs he saw from the crack made him fell hesitant for a moment to open that door but his affectionate instincts were already alarmed by the desperate cry...
posted by yioeng @ 9:28 PM
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