Chapter 17

The Tales of that Old Man

(If your not interested in his backstory, feel free to skip. Might be 1500 words plus.)

"Dad! Dad look! I did it!"

"Good job son! I'm so proud of you."

Far away, you could see a kid, a lost kid, sitting on a bench. He was not lost in the sense that he did not know where he was, he was lost with his sense of reality.

Love was dead to the kid, who lost his mother and father within 6 months of each other. The kid would be often found laying on a bench, curled in a ball, crying to himself. He would often be asking himself, 'why?'

Reality was a maze, and he was stuck in the middle of it, going in endless circles. His 8 year old mind could not comprehend the world, so he would often blame himself. "If I had only been a better son." "If I had helped out more." "I'm so useless." Where among the things he thought.

Jirobo, this kid's name, was sitting on a bench, watching another kid, whom was similar to his age, getting the love and affection from his father. He saw the raw, unadulterated emotion the father showed to his child.

Jirobo so longed for that. He wanted to feel love. Unfortunately, he came to find out, that humans aren't so kind to their own. Frustrated by this, Jirobo felt resentment, he resented the very fact that the very people around him would not even look at him. They thought of him as trash, or something of a lower status.

He wanted love, but rejected everyone. This was Jirobo's folly.

After months and months of self guilt and blame, Jirobo made a conviction. "If humanity has turned their back on me, then I'll make my own path. I'll become a ninja, and I'll show the world what my pain is."

Misguided and full of anger, Jirobo left the village. The sad thing was that no one attempted to stop him.

He wandered aimlessly for days, searching desperately for water. Finding none, Jirobo felt betrayed, betrayed by everything. As he was laying on some leaves, shivering, thirsting for some kind of water, he felt a hand on his back.

"Little one, what are you doing here all by yourself?"

The man looked at the child with pity. A shame, he thought, for a child to die out here alone. After getting no response, he picked the child up. This old man led an ascetic lifestyle, who rejected material goods. He left his clan, much the same way Jirobo did the village, but for a different reason. In his mind, money and possessions where the root of all evil.

So the old man brought Jirobo back to his little cabin in the middle of the woods. He layed the kid on his bed, while he heated up some soup. It was nothing fancy, just some chicken soup. In his mind, chicken soup is best for the body and soul. It makes one feel all warm inside.

After 5 minutes, he brought the soup to the Jirobo. "Here, drink up. It will warm your body up."

Jirobo barely nodded in response. Severely dehydrated, the only thing he could think about was food and water. He weakly picked up the bowl of soup that was sitting on the nightstand beside him. Warm to the touch, but there was steady steam coming out from the top.

Without waiting another second, Jirobo took a sip from the soup. His eyes widened in amazement. He had not eaten something of this nature in a very long time, well before his late father left for the war.

He started to cry. He felt his soul be nourished by the soup. Emotions such as love, joy, and happiness were very strong. Crying, he managed to say, "Thank you sir."

The man looked at the kid and smiled. Now was not the time for talk, the man thought. Let the kid figure out his own emotions.

Morning soon came and Jirobo was still sound asleep. "Wake up, little one. It's time to start the day."

Jirobo arose from his slumber, and got up slowly. "Good morning mister. Thanks for last night. May I know your name?" He said, while yawning.

"I don't go by any name now, but you can call me whatever you'd like."

"Ok old man." Jirobo said with a huge smile on his face. He was finally feeling positive emotion, after feeling so much grief and pain.

"Let's eat breakfast. I have 5 chickens so I usually eat eggs in the morning. Would you care for some?"

Jirobo nodded in response.

"Ok let's go to the coop and grab some."

They walked out to the coop slowly. Even though they walked in silence, Jirobo was content with that. He just wanted to stay with this old man for as long as possible.

"Go inside the coop, and you'll see a shelf partitioned into 5 parts. Go grab the eggs that you see."

Jirobo nodded in response. He walked into the chicken coop. Breathing in the air, it smelt like hay and chicken feathers. He looked at the shelf for some eggs. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5!"

"Old man! Look! There's 5 eggs!"

"Wow! What a haul! Good job little one. Let's go cook these eggs, why don't we?"

They walked back in side. The old man boiled all 5 eggs.

"It is easiest to cook it this way. Frying or scrambling is too messy."

Jirobo had a sad look on his face. "My mom rarely cooked some eggs. I've forgotten what they tasted like."

The old man noticing Jirobos sudden change in emotion, tried to cheer him up.

"Well in my opinion they have the best taste in the whole wide world!"

"Really?" Jirobo responded.

"Indeed."

Jirobo waited excitedly for the eggs.

"Now your going to have to be careful when your eating them, ok?" The old man said.

"What will I have to do?"

"Make sure you get off all the egg shell before eating."

The old man took the eggs out since they were done being cooked.

"They don't look very good." Jirobo said with a frown.

"Looks can be deceiving, young one."

The old man took off the egg shell on one of the eggs. "Here, eat."

Jirobo picked up the egg. He then took a big bite out of it. "Dry! It's so dry! You lied to me, old man!"

He laughed. "It's good, isn't it?"

"No!"

"You'll get used to it. Hurry up, finish the other one, we have work to do today."

Jirobo reluctantly stuffed that one and another egg into his mouth. They then went out to a garden area.

"This is my garden area. There's not much, just enough to get by. Every day, I'll come out here and take out any weeds I see. Do you want to help?"

"Umm yeah, I'll help."

The old man found that these small day to day activities gave his life full of meaning. They walked up and down the rows of vegetables and fruit. Seeing no weeds, they then moved to his fire wood area.

"So this is where I chop my fire wood. If you could, could you grab me a piece of lumber?"

"Yeah, sure."

Jirobo grabbed a medium sized piece. "Is this good?" He asked, while presenting the wood.

"Yes little one, that's perfect."

They did small chores for a couple of hours. They ate chicken soup for lunch, and then sat down for 30 minutes to chill out.

"Would you ever like to learn ninjutsu?" The old man asked, wondering if that would interest Jirobo.

"YES!" Jirobo responded, excitedly.

The man chuckled. "Alright, we can start now"

They continued this schedule for well over 2 years. As Jirobo started to get older, he became more mature. He learnt a lot from the old man, how to garden, how to cook, and other useful things. He also learnt what human nature was.

The old man learnt about Jirobo's tragic background. He was filled with sadness upon first hearing the story.

But the old man was deteriorating well before he met Jirobo. His old age made him susceptible to disease and injuries. Knowing this, he told Jirobo to leave. He did not want him to experience more loss. Jirobo refused, saying that he was the only person after his parents who showed him true love.

2 weeks later, the old man died in his sleep. Upon Jirobo finding this, it made him cry uncontrollably for the rest of the day. He buried the old man in the back yard and went along his journey of life. He went on many more adventures, meeting friends, finding love, and ultimately, finding wisdom in the world.

It was now his turn to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This, was the story of Jirobo.