I like magic! Early next morning I was dreaming. That is I believed I was dreaming. As on the previous days, some early morning birds were chirping so I am not sure. When I turned around in bed, the small box was there once again. Nothing rattled inside. I opened the box. There were some sheets of paper. I wanted to read chapter 19.
19. THE ROAD TO MIDGARD
The time traveller appeared from nowhere in the morning mist undulating over the grassy field. He walked towards a signpost, which was barely visible in the haze.
As Jill and John moved into the field, water droplets fell from the grass, wetting their boots. When the two of them met close to the signpost, they saw that the time traveller was not wet at all.
MIDGARD they read. Capital letters.
- Where are we, Jill asked,
- We are in the past and future home of people before anyone arrived here.
- What a beautiful place! So quiet that we can hear the fluttering of butterfly wings. The air so fresh. However, where is the road to Midgard, or the road from Midgard?
- In this time, there are no roads, and no trails except those of animals.
John’s eyes fell on the scabbard hanging in the belt of the time traveller. There was a dagger with rich ornaments of gold and glimmering jewels.
- What is that, he pointed.
The time traveller had to use some force pulling out the dagger. Drops of blood fell from the tip of the blade.
- This is Stalin’s dagger. The dagger of doom and gloom, which were and are to harass humans in all times.
- Why not throw it away or bury it in the earth somewhere and forget about gloom and doom?
- Destiny is not ours to change. Destiny is a bloody thing, as you can see from the blood droplets.
- We know some of the atrocities in human history, John said, clenching his fists. - As we are here now, we should be able to change this chain of events?
- Should be, but is not. The road to and from Midgard is what it is. You are young, and do not know the ways of people. I have witnessed the rise and fall of countless empires and states. As an individual, you can act and react in responsible ways. When there are millions, and thousands of millions of individuals, that is not possible. Just think of an enormous school of herring, how the fish move in one, and then in another direction, or a black cloud of starlings in the sky. All of a sudden, they move here and there just by chance. These are similes of how people act.
- There must be ways to change that sinister chain of events, Jill exclaimed. - This is such a pristine place. I want it to stay like this forever.
- Not only you. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe let Faust open his heart some hundred years ago and say “Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen: Verweile doch! du bist so schön! Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen, Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!” However, to freeze the moment is not possible. Life has to go on. You have a fistful of sand, water, or anything. You try to hold onto it, and the more power you use, the less is left.
- You mean I have to keep this moment as a sanctuary in my mind?
- Yes, life has to go on. You cannot stop the chain of events. That is what Stalin’s dagger can and will do over and over again. It is here to remind us that life, happiness and disaster are brittle things.
The time traveller brandished the dagger in the air. The morning sun reflections from the blade made Jill and John squint and close their eyes. When they looked around no one was there.
End of chapter 19. To be continued in chapter 20.
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