Cauldron Top

In the Empty Quarter desert a merchant and his son lost their way returning from a trade in Persia. For days, the merchant walked as his son followed behind in silence. It was a scorcher like most summer days in this land. The little boy had some water in his goatskin but the road had been long all the way to their land, and the sun had been cruel on their bare heads and their dry throats. The sand dunes went higher than their vision can go. Still, behind every dune the boy looked eagerly trying to find any signs of humans. Until at one point his father gave up and sat on a rock.

The little boy understood his father’s thirst and gave him the remaining water in the goatskin, but the expression on the father’s face did not ease. And the little boy knew that his father was worried about the Persian carpets and the beautiful clothes they just bought back, but he did not understand the silence that filled the air around them with despair. So the boy ran around the area, circling his father, climbing the waving sand dunes as the sand brushes over his face with the hot air and once his vision clears, he scans the horizon for signs of life.

And when he looked west, far in the horizon he spotted a brown little structure. The boy jumped up and down in joy with whatever energy left in him ‘’ look, father, a well’’

His father got off the rock, life back to his eyes. He sprinted to where his son was standing. It took him a while to see the dark brown figure in the distance, it was almost impossible to tell for sure if it’s a well or not, but for lack of brighter hope, the man allowed himself to cheer for the discovery and he carried his sacks to set journey to the alleged well.

After hours of walking to what seemed to be a much closer destination, it became clear to the merchant and his son that it’s a brown hut built in the middle of nowhere, made of mud and covered with dried palm leaves. No signs of a well, but at least it’s a place to shelter from the sun eating its way to their head until it made their vision ever more unclear. So unclear that they hardly noticed the woman dressed in black, her legs crossed on a rock and in front of her a black cauldron sitting on the fire. You can hardly see her face from the veil wrapped around it, and the sea of wrinkles drowning her features did not make it easier. Her eyes were focused on what’s inside the cauldron and her lips moved without a sound, meaningless muttering at most. In her hand tightly she held a thick wooden stick half dipped in the cauldron and the half outside covered with carvings in a language they did not recognize, and she stirred what was inside using it.

She did not seem to notice them either, so the old merchant huffed twice.

She raised her eyes slowly with her hand still stirring ‘’who are you?’’ she asked, her voice as old as she looks.

‘’ We are lost travellers from North Africa and we have no water, can you help us?’’

‘’We are sitting on a river.’’ the old woman said.

The man rubbed his head twice and looked around him, maybe the heat has already rendered his head unstable that he missed a nearby river, but there was nothing there. He felt disappointed already for it seemed that he will not be getting the water anytime soon, if there was any to start with, and if this crazy old witch gives it to him. But she was his only hope, and his other option was to find a rock to curl beside and die, so if she was a crazy witch his only hope was that she is good enough to help him so, ‘’what do you mean?’’ he asked.

‘’Where we are standing now, many thousands of years ago, ran a river and it had sunk in time. Just like every existence eventually does. It sinks and new worlds float on the top of the cauldron’’ she said looking absent-mindedly into the little spiral created by the liquid she’s stirring ‘’those which float do so for a reason. If you find the reason, then your thirst will be cured’’

‘’Do you expect me to believe this nonsense you are speaking?’’ the merchant laughed ‘’please, if you have just a scarce amount for us, we will be forever in your debt. Maybe just a sip of what’s in front of you, it will be enough.’’

‘’The Cauldron top does not satisfy but those who find the reason of its superiority. Walk the world and find out why it is the way it is and not the way you wish it to be’’

The man was losing his patience, but it was either holding on to it or losing this bleak flickering hope. Being scared for the life of his son, his own life and his goods, he decided to oblige to the old woman’s request. Even though he did not understand it. To walk the world seemed very meaningless now that he have been walking for days on his journey, but as hopeless as he had walked before, this time will not be the same. He will be finding the reason why a desert is a desert and not a river. How will that lead him to water, he did not understand.

‘’Come on, son.’’ He ordered.

‘’Father, if it’s ok, I’ll set wedge here until you come back’’ the boy said, his eyes back and forth between the woman and his father to see if either would mind, but her mind seemed to be elsewhere.

Overwhelmed by a wave of anger mixed with impatience and disorientation, the merchant told his son he can stay and stormed off, over the sand dunes and then out of sight.

A few hours into the seemingly endless day after silence mixed with the howls of wind and air from hell, the old woman said ‘’He found reason the moment he set off to find it’’ her voice was filled with satisfaction, as her mouth kinked in what seems to be the ruins of a smile. ‘’the colors of the cauldron top will surround him and sink.’’

She filled a cup from the liquid on the surface and handed it to the little boy.

‘’Drink it’’ she pushed it towards him ‘’your father will not be coming back, his journey ends by the setting of this sun and the colors of the cauldron will change and you will have to follow him into the world of the past if you don’t drown it inside you.’’

‘’What do you mean he’s not coming back? Is my father dead?’’ the boy asked, chocking on tears.

‘’Death, is to go up with those fumes, wasted.’’ She said, her fingers dancing around the colorful fumes emanating from the cauldron. She looked at him, for the first time, in her eyes there was a sparkle, like a tear held far inside. ‘’Your father sank, to give way to other souls to surface up, like yours. And if you drink this now, the black wings that carried him to the bottom that will be his new top, will wrap their wings around you to carry you back home’’

The boy did not understand everything the old woman was saying, but the sparkle that appeared in her raisin-like eyes and the tremble in her voice activated a fight or flight reflex that was not strong enough, something about the faith in her words was like a hand that reached out to him. And he knew that he should listen to her, even though it is not completely comprehensible.

 He jutted down the drink without thinking much, and it made him thirstier, in a moment of chocking followed by a moment of panic he thought he’s going to die of his dry throat. ‘’what have you done?’’ his voice came out hoarse and deformed. And just as he finished the question, he saw a wake of vultures fill the sky. They formed a circle around him and attached their claws to his worn out clothes, ready to carry him off. He started to feel an energy settling into his limbs, he was not tired anymore and he felt he could walk around the whole earth, but he was still thirsty.

As they lifted him, he looked at the woman with terrified eyes, his silence begging her to tell him what to do.

‘’If you find the reason, then your thirst will be cured’’ the old woman whispered before the vultures carried him back home.