Five

 

The old man and his wife looked forward to the evenings because of the children. Hearing their laughter and seeing them enjoy made the old couple so very happy, especially because they did not have any children of their own. They had always longed for a child, but it was not to be. Could it be, they wondered, that among these children was The Awaited One the flute player had told them about, in the mysterious dream they had two years ago? How, in God’s name, they asked themselves every night, would an innocent girl child fight a double-headed serpent? The mystery would, however, need to be seen through, they told each other, just like any complicated detective story.

The old man sighed, as he looked at the sky. After all these long months of balloon-making, he felt he was finally ready to accomplish what the flute player had requested him to do.

‘It would, however, need to be done quickly,’ the old man told himself, for he realised he was growing old and that his eyesight was getting weaker.

His wife, who loved him very much, knew what he was thinking. She looked up from her knitting and said, ‘Why don’t you make the biggest balloon in the whole world? That is what you need to do, isn’t it?’

The old man wasn’t startled one bit because he knew by now that his wife could read his thoughts. But, when he looked at the small place he had to work in, he wondered how he was going to make such a balloon.

‘Fill the living room. Then the dining room, and if necessary, don’t hesitate to use the bedroom. I think it would be a good idea to leave the kitchen alone, or I would find it very difficult to cook,’ the old man’s wife smiled and said indulgently.

The old man got up, kissed his wife and said, ‘You are such a dear. I don’t know what I would do without you.’

Then, he went to work.

For over a month he worked, knowing neither day nor night. He used every bit of nylon cloth there was in the house. He used bed sheets, tablecloths, curtains, napkins and his wife’s favourite petticoat too! When he put the final stitch, the balloon had filled up the entire house, and it was getting more and more difficult to move around.

‘It’s done,’ he told his wife, wiping his brow, ‘finally over.’

‘And it’s high time too!’ said his wife, smiling.

They both then dragged the enormous balloon and spread it outside. The balloon was so beautiful that for a while the old couple just stood and stared at it in wonder. It was an extraordinary melange of colours, with patches of red and green and yellow and blue all over. The old man and his wife knew that once it went up in the sky, it would look magnificent.

‘It’s big enough to go higher than any other balloon, and the nylon has made it so very light,’ the old man’s wife said. ‘You truly are a genius, dear,’ she concluded proudly.

The old man sighed in relief as he remembered his dream. ‘This,’ he told himself, ‘will surely help the girl child to fly. Higher and higher, she and the balloon will go. How high, who knows! Perhaps…perhaps, she will even see God.’

And, of course, the balloon would take her to that strange and faraway land that the flute player had called the Land of the Blue Jasmine.