DAR, 2020
After SJ left, it didn’t take a long time before everyone else left except Leo. Fabian asked him to stay. Leo sat in one of the gardens watching Fabian seeing off his guests. The weather was cool, he enjoyed the night breeze. After seeing off his guests, Fabian followed Leo. Fabian had already drunk two bottles of wine. He was carrying another one. Leo hoped he wasn’t drunk. Adult drunkards talk a lot. If you have a drinking father, then you will unquestionably remember those nights when your father came home drunk and kept on talking to you while your mother quarreled with him to let you go sleep. Leo prayed that not to happen.
“Sonia told me you were living alone, in a rent room.” Fabian said.
“It was a for short-term. Because I was helping them find the files. Now that I have nothing more, I’ll go home.”
“Aren’t you tired?” Fabian said, “You can sleep here and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
“It’s too early for me to sleep.”
“It’s 0200hrs.”
“I can’t sleep that much.”
“When did it start?”
“When I was 5.”
Fabian patted Leo’s shoulder. “Do you like stories?”
“I read them a lot.”
Fabian poured wine into a glass. “Two monks were near the end of a long grueling journey. The rain was pouring down and turned the road they were on into mud.
“As they came upon an intersection they encountered a beautiful woman in a silk kimono and sash. The mud had made it impossible for her to cross.
“The first monk watched the poor woman struggle and went to aid her. He picked her up and carried her over the mud.
“The second monk said nothing. He averted his eyes until the woman was gone. He stayed silent until they reached their lodging temple that night. Then he no longer could restrain himself.
“‘We monks don't go near females,’ he told the first monk, ‘especially not beautiful women. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?’
“‘I left the girl there,’ said the first monk. ‘Are you still carrying her?’”
Fabian sipped a glass of wine. “I like that story.”
“Why?” Leo said. He couldn’t drink more soda unless he wanted his stomach to split open.
“The second monk was presented with a valuable life lesson, the lesson of letting go. How often do we fail to let something go?”
Leo stared at the sky. He felt the story was for him.
“It is important to embrace the good and positive. It is just as important to let go of the pain before it turns to scars.”
Leo sighed. “It’s not that simple.”
“When I speak of letting go, I do not mean to forget. I believe you need to let go of the negative emotions and pain but hold on to the lesson that was learned.”
Leo nodded. If it wasn’t for his father, this country could still be under the deceitful leadership of Christos.
“You have to forgive your father, son.”
“I’ll, sir.”
“Now, what do you plan to do after today? I heard you were terminated from the school.”
“I don’t know. I’ll just go home.”
“Don’t you want to go back to TST? I can ask them to pardon you.”
“I don’t want to go back there.”
“Why?”
“I’m not a good person. I always cause troubles there.”
Fabian took another sip and then he exhaled deep. “Do you know why many people are not happy in life?”
Leo shook his head.
Fabian took another sip. “Most people today are not getting what they want. Not from their jobs, not from their families, not from their religion, not from their government, and most importantly, not from themselves. Something is missing in most of our lives.” He took another long sip. “In the world without purpose, without meaningful values, what have we to share but our emptiness, the needy fragments of our superficial selves?
“As a result, most of us scramble about hungrily seeking distraction, in music, in television, in people, in drugs. And most of all we seek things. Things to fill the emptiness.”
Leo sat well. The topic touched him.
“Most of us have no clue of what we want to do with our lives. Even after we finish school. Even after we get a job. Even after we’re making money.”
“Do you think if I go back to TST, I’ll be able to find what I want in life?”
Fabian smiled. He was nearly finishing the whole bottle. “Have you ever heard about the parable of the eagle and the rabbit?”
Leo shook his head.
“There once was a majestic eagle. Every day he could be seen on the highest branch of the tallest tree just sitting and doing nothing.
“One day a small rabbit noticed him and asked, ‘Can I sit and do nothing too?’
“The eagle replied, ‘Sure. Do whatever you want.’
“And so the young rabbit curled up on the ground next to the huge tree the eagle was perched on.
“But… All of a sudden a sly fox appeared from nowhere and ate the little rabbit. End of the story.”
Leo smiled. “What’s the moral of the story?”
Fabian poured the remaining wine into the glass. “Until you are at the very top you cannot afford to be lazy. If you want to sit and do nothing, you better have already earned that privilege.”
The smile on Leo’s face disappeared. It was another emotive message to him.
“If you do not have the life you want, then you do not get to be lazy. You have to work for your success. Acting like you are successful before you are will only get you in deep trouble.”
The wise words from Fabian touched Leo’s heart. He knew he had to change. He knew he had to do something.
Leo saw Fabian’s wife coming. He knew what was going to happen. And it happened.
“It’s too late now, let the kid go sleep.” She said.
Leo waved goodbye and went to the room he was shown earlier. Deep in his mind, Fabian’s words ringed again.