In Pursuit of Reflection

In Pursuit of Reflection by Victor D. Sandiego

For years Yegor the man went from town to town asking of the boy who had been in his life for so long and who had disappeared one night when a great wind arose and blew down all the trees. Yegor walked into the north where stars refused to linger and to the southern deserts where rain was cautious to reveal itself.

We don’t know him, people said. We don’t know a boy.

How tall is he? some asked and Yegor answered: the height of a youth.

How wide is he? some asked and Yegor answered: that of a brook in April before summer shrinks it to a damp strand of yarn.

Can you write him a letter? some asked and Yegor answered that words had never taken root in his fingers, plus he had nowhere to send it.

In one town a woman asked Yegor the boy’s name and he replied: I called him boy. Boy was innocent and free from strife. We sat in meadows to count bees. We looked up to birds and wondered if one day we too would fly.

I am Agnessa, the woman said. She invited Yegor the man inside and they ate porridge at an scarred wooden table with only two chairs.

I had a girl, said Agnessa. She was simple and free. But one night a wind came and I saw her no more.

What did you do? asked Yegor. The porridge warmed his tongue and made it limber.

I went after her. For years I chased shadows and rumors. I consumed potions that promised me wisdom.

One day I came to a village, Agnessa continued. And there I met a woman who looked like me when seen in reflection but like my mother when I saw her direct. She was large and had a face that changed from lumpy to light as the hours changed from morning to afternoon.

The woman in reflection told me that the girl I looked for was also a reflection and that to find her I only needed the right mirror.

Maybe I too need a mirror, said Yegor.

Maybe so, said Agnessa.

They finished their meal and Agnessa spread a blanket on the floor. You can stay here, she said.

What of my quest? asked Yegor.

We will go together tomorrow, said Agnessa.

In the morning they packed a horse and rode west for several days over a large set of hills to the sea. They left the horse with a boy and a girl who promised to cherish it, and boarded a ship that sailed for several weeks over a large set of waves that reflected their faith in their faces when the water glistened. They arrived on another shore.

For months that birthed years Yegor the man and Agnessa walked inland and asked inhabitants of towns they passed if they had seen a boy the height of a youth or a girl who was simple and free. They collected no answer however, for their tongues were carved of different words and the people they encountered only quickened their step.

They made a fire on a prairie one night and asked the stars if they were wrong, if to search for youth they had lost to a wind that blows decades into scattered sand was a task for those who denied difficult truths. But the stars had no answer either for they were only distant points of light that reflected a universe out of reach.

Agnessa the woman looked at Yegor the man and saw mirrored in the firelight of his eyes a girl looking back at her, as if his eyes could behold an inexistent past.

Do you see what I see? Agnessa asked.

I see a boy reflected on your face in sparks, said Yegor. He swirls with them to higher skies as a bird with red wings does to escape the earth.

We should go home now, said Agnessa.

And which way is that?

I’m no longer sure.

Neither was sure for they had long traveled over many roads. But an instinct that neither could name kept compass. They would find their way. And though, through journey, they would never find what they had sought, it was never a futile quest. They finally saw reflected in the truth of their own hearts the importance of things that had always been there. Things that had never been lost.

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Greetings

from the high desert where I thank you for reading Dynamic Creed and petition, if you have not already, to subscribe or leave your thoughts on the comment partition, or both, for these days I reach out through fiber optics more than in person although I grew up walking the world in person and prefer that but it’s not always possible, feasible, or a viable means of communication, and therefore, as a creature of the distant past and the present as future, I adopt and embrace the technologies we so fully embrace through the miracle of networks and the spirit of our human connections, whether over a virtual or real coffee in our café of the living. Yours in solidarity, Victor David