Читать книгу Sun Rays - Joshua Livingston - Страница 20

The Light of Man is Darkness

There once stood a wall that divided men. Tall, grey, and monstrous, it cast a shadow so large it was as if the sun only rose on one side. On the brighter side, there lived those that knew freedom. From morning to night, men played like children, either singing together to color the air around them, or simply sprawling about to gaze at the shapes of the clouds up above. Men were free to be as they pleased. But on the other side of this wall, darkness reigned over the people like a devilish sheet, suffocating them slowly, stamping out any signs of light and life. Men could not speak, let alone sing.

It happened one day that a man from the lighter side walked along the wall, joy welling up within that was hardly containable. Until, that is, he began to hear some faint murmurs and gurgles coming from the other side. Putting his ear to the cold cement seared the wails of misery in his mind and solidified the suffering of flesh in his chest. These sounds struck to the heart and it was a mere moment before the man began to scale the wall. Onlookers observed, faces displayed dismay, and horror was heard in gasps of breaths and clicks of the tongue.

Nobody of the lighter side ever heard from the man again, but nonetheless, a strange thing happened that day. The man’s light, upon entering the darkness, was ne’er snuffed out. Rather, beams of new Light from the dark side began to break through the wall, a Light so bright that the previous light seemed like darkness. Every couple of minutes another piece of stone would shoot from the wall and a ray of light would penetrate and burst forth, transforming all that men thought was real.

(For R.P.)