A small boy was playing in his back
yard. He had a tent fort of old blankets normally kept in the garage.
A fenced in yard. And a large tree in the middle of that yard. He
often imagined that tree reaching up into the heavens, into other
worlds.
He had played many games in that yard.
Often the tree would be a center piece in those games; a tower, a
giant, a monster.
On this day, with the blanket fort and
the sunlit sky, the tree was a ladder. Not because of the game he
was playing that day. He was a knight defending a fort. The stick in
his hand was his mighty sword. The plastic chairs and blankets were
his castle.
No the tree was a ladder because
someone was climbing down it. They had climbed down from the heavens.
The small boy had not seen where they had come from. But here they
were, descending from the tree and standing before him.
The figure was robed, with a hood over
its head covering its face. It held out its hand to the boy holding a
glass orb.
The boy stared at it for a moment as it
seemed to swirl and change in color.
“It can show you anything you can
imagine,” the figure said.
“I can already do that,” the boy
replied.
“How?” the figure asked.
“Up here,” the boy replied,
pointing to his head.
The figure nodded.
“I will return when you are older. I
will show you the orb again, and again I will offer you its power,”
the figure said, then it climbed the tree and disappeared into the
heavens.
Years later the boy sat beneath the
tree, writing. The tree had become a place of solace, a constant in a
sometimes turbulent world. As he wrote out the scene of streaming
banners and feats of glory in his head, he heard something above him.
He looked up to see the robed figure
descending the tree once again.
The figure stood before him, and held
out the orb. Various places shown beneath the surface of the glass;
palaces, mountains, worlds.
“Anything you can imagine, this orb
can create,” the figure said.
“I can already do that,” the boy
replied.
“How?” the figure asked.
“With this,” the boy said,
gesturing with his note pad.
The robed figure nodded.
“I will return when you are older. I
will show you the orb again, and again I will offer you its power,”
the figure said, then it climbed the tree and disappeared into the
heavens.
Years later, the boy was grown. He read
a paper and sat beneath the tree with a cup of coffee. A wedding band
caught the light of the sun on a particularly bright day. On that
day, the figure descended the tree again. The figure held the orb out
before the boy again. Rainfalls of diamonds, rubies and sapphires
could be seen beneath the surface.
“Anything you desire, this orb can
give you,” the figure said.
“I already have that,” the boy
replied.
“How?” the figure asked.
A woman came to the back door and
looked out. Her smile matched the brilliannce and warmth of the sun
on that pleasant day. She wore a wedding band as well.
“Because of her,” he said.
The figure turned, seeing the woman,
and nodded.
“I've been meaning to ask you,” the
boy began. “Why do you keep returning here and offering me this
orb?”
The figure was silent for a few
moments.
“I have been told that everyone in
this world only focused on desire, and what they can be given. I had
found that to be true until I met you. I wanted to return and see if
your answer would change. What makes you different?” the robed
figure replied.
“I don't know. I'm just happy with
what I have,” the boy replied.
The figure nodded and regarded the boy
for a moment longer. Then the figure placed the orb on the ground and
climbed the tree, disappearing into the sky.
The boy stared at it for a moment when
his wife walked over. He held out his hand and she took it. They
smiled at each other. Then she saw the orb.
“Where'd that glass orb come from?”
she asked.
“Turns out I always had it,” the
boy replied.
