So the clouds did no longer create any
music. Maybe the wind was taking them to another city; perhaps, bloodless, they
didn’t have any more tears to downpour that night. In that silent peace of
fatigued returns, legs end up finding their accommodation, but that first time I
didn't know how to place myself at ease in my tent, soaked clothes, feet pierced
by a thousand merciless needles. I thought that it was going to be hard for me
to sleep; it’s what always happens the days that I go to bed tired. Not wanting
to read a while, I did not open the book that John had lent me and I was, on
the other hand, remembering all the episodes of that strange day that had
changed my life. Forever? Whether it was or wasn’t in my hands, I was going to
make an effort. I knew well that returning, everything would be a desert. To stay
there... but how had I behaved? What did Luke think of my first steps?
Just ten minutes away and I saw his crying smile
again. He had brought me two blankets, one light green and another brown, like
his eyes. Then he looked at me serene, touched my shoulders and talked to me
with the aroma of a few words, a lullaby that wrapped me all night as a third
blanket.
− "What dignity
and what beauty, my beggar."
How you started the day and how you have
finished it.
What dignity...
Hunger has not defeated you or even shame
has not.
What beauty...
You have been gilding the streets with the strands
of your pure heart.
What dignity and what beauty, my mate.
And what an honor that you have allowed me
to live it with you."
Since that time, Luke for Nike and Nike
for Luke, had to pronounce the words my beggar and my mate with musicality,
with emphasis on the first letter, only one for the other, always in capital
letters. Nike hugged him, so as not to kiss him, among tears and cuddles.
Finally they separated for that day. Now he knew the opinion of his mate. Luke
had brought him some blankets, a lullaby, a mirror in which you could see his
throbbing heart. "Don't worry, my mate, I will wake you up before 5
o'clock. If tomorrow you don't find yourself able to walk, we'll see what we
can do. But now sleep in the peace that you have won." And the eighth
beggar, despite hunger and fatigue, did not hesitate to bring his eyes to the
abandonment of the serenity of rest.
Luke returned to his tent not knowing which
words to say to his wife that could express what he felt. Lucy was dining with
them the same hunger. Paul, now that he already felt that no one was missing,
slept the first night of true peace of his existence, in his first cradle,
wrapped in dreams, perhaps as small as his eyes.
− "What could I
tell you, my darling? I am speechless."
− "I see in your
eyes a strange happiness. You are shocked." −it was Lucy’s final judgment.
− "Tomorrow with
more time I will tell you all his steps. What a worthy way, wanting this one to
be his horizon, to move towards it. He has found it all: defeat, hunger, cold,
fatigue. But nothing has overcome him. Friendship was always his compass, and
in his last steps, to which beautiful north they have pointed. There have been
a couple of moments in which I preferred to cry not to hug him shaken and lose
myself in words for him that would not be mature enough yet. Tomorrow let him decide
which road he prefers to travel but let him sleep in peace this evening. He has
deserved it."
− "Love that
man." said Lucy finally, looking at her husband.
−
"I assure you that I already love him, my darling." –he answered.
-“It
is not enough. Love him more.
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