After days of rambling, in the mid-day heat the brothers came
upon another traveler resting on the side of the road. He was dust covered
wearing a very wide brimmed hat, a brown leather poncho, and had a piece of
long grass hanging out of his mouth. He was clean-shaven, but had a little bit
of stubble starting to show through the dirt on his face. He looked to be in
his early twenties.
“Oh hi.” Shamus called to the traveler.
“Ello,” the man called back.
“Where are you headed to?” Darbish asked.
“Going north,” he said back and pointed in the direction the
brothers were heading, “I hear there is great wealth to be made there. My
cousin sent me a letter recently describing how wonderful the abundance of
fortune to be made is. I plan to go there and retire with some help from him.”
“Oh wow!” Shamus breathed out excitedly. He had chosen a good
direction to go, he was sure of it now.
“Sounds astonishing. Would you like to travel with us?”
Darbish asked, traveling is always better with more company, he believed.
“What me?” The man inquired. “Nah, I think I’ll rest here a
while and pick up in a day or two, I passed a lough a little ways back, I think
I’ll catch some fish and enjoy the good weather while I can.” He smiled a
crooked smile with the grass in his mouth nearly falling out.
The brothers nodded and continued on their way up the road.
Renewed with vigor of knowing that great wealth could be a reality ahead for
them they both find they have a new bounce in their steps.
“Brother, what would you do with plenty of money?” Shamus
queried his brother.
“Oh, I don’t know. Find a nice woman, make her my wife, have
children and live out my days watching them grow up. What about yourself, Shamus?”
“I would see the world. I would meet as many people as I
possibly could. I would learn as much as my head could hold. The possibilities
feel limitless.” Shamus felt that he might need to calm himself down a little
and not detract from his brother’s dream, “Or you know I could build a family
and be really happy with that as well.”
Darbish knew that his brother was only saying the latter to
appease his own views on what he felt was the proper life to have. Darbish knew
that each person has his or her own future to follow, to each their destiny in
their own hands. This didn’t bother him that his brother was a big dreamer.
Every society needs to have idealists and dreamers among them to keep the
people moving forward.
In the distance a girl sat in a field crying. The brothers
both saw her at the same time. Unsure what was happening, they both
automatically picked up their pace to see what was going on. As they got closer
they could audibly hear her wails.
-V-
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