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Near the end of his life, the old man recited the poem “Old Man with a Cane” every night after midnight. And when he suffered from insomnia, he recited the poem until dawn. It was his eternal companion and friend, soothing and shielding him from the wall of loneliness surrounding him.
Old man with a cane,
Nomad of the night,
A fading vestige of the past shall die.
Lost child of life,
Withered,
No love to feed,
Sad, piteous man,
Lonely heart must cry,
Never to waken, just a dormant seed.
Farewell sweet life,
Kind face he never saw,
For now old man is dead,
Heart beats no more.
A few days before his death, the old man with a cane came to the fortune teller. The fortune teller read the Tarot Cards and searched the Crystal Ball. She revealed the old man’s past to him. And perhaps, her revelations were more accurate than his broken memory.
“But tell me my future!”
“I can’t.”
“Please...”
“I see things. Still...”
“I must know!”
Her dark potent eyes swept across his face and captured him.
“You must go to the Caves and discover your future!”
“Please, I am an old man.”
“Follow my directions!”
“Yes,” he said obediently.
For a moment, he wanted to lean over and kiss the dominant woman who possessed beauty and youth and infinite wisdom. But he was afraid. He waited for the fortune teller to give him instructions. Then he sauntered off.
Inside the Caves, he followed the infinite path that led to the Future Room. At the center of the room, was the Crystal Ball. He approached it and gazed into its circular universe. At the center of this universe, he saw the last three days of his life.
Now, his azure eyes leaped into the Crystal Ball and captured the faces of the old man and the fortune teller. His desperate eyes followed them across the Eternal Now on the infinite path that led to the Future Room. There-he experienced the anguished moments of his last three days. He felt hopeless and craved instant death. He longed to commit suicide but he was not a courageous or impulsive man. Just once, he wanted to take charge of his life. Yet he couldn’t. He was a little man, a frightened man, a lonely man, an old man with a cane, a man three days short of death, lost in life and unprepared for the end.
He lifted his unholy eyes from the Crystal Ball and drifted into a room adjacent to the Future Room. At the center of the room was the fortune teller who read the Tarot Cards and searched the Crystal Ball.
Inside the Caves, he followed the infinite path that led to the Future Room. But one eternal path is a million infinite paths. One old man-a million old men. One fortune teller-a million fortune tellers. Indeed, the Future Room is a circular mirror of infinite realities. The old man with a cane exists simultaneously in all futures. He exists and co-exists and is duplicated in all the mirrored realities. And he dies forever in all futures. Until...
A few days before the end of his life, the old man with a cane came to the fortune teller. The fortune teller read the Tarot Cards and searched the Crystal Ball. Her dark potent eyes swept across his face and captured him.
“You must go to the Caves and discover your future!”
“Yes,” he said obediently.
But impulsively, he leaned over and kissed the dominant woman who possessed beauty and youth and infinite wisdom. She kissed him back. And the kiss was eternal, sprawled across the Eternal Now and more potent than all the simultaneous realities co-existing in duplicate universes, and the kiss contained the old man, his life and his death.
Now, he would no longer die forever but only once-properly, compassionately, passionately, peacefully, and blissfully in holy union with Death, a Fortune Teller who possessed beauty and youth, infinite wisdom, and a gentle kiss.
