Tonight I’ll be on that hill ‘cause I can’t stop,
I’ll be on that hill with everything I’ve got,
Where life’s on the line, where dreams are found and lost,
I’ll be there on time and I’ll pay the cost.
Darkness on the Edge of Town.
-Bruce Springsteen 1978
quiet yet persistent knocking woke
me from yet another dreamless sleep. Forcing my old, aching joints out of bed I
pulled my robes around me and started out of my bed chamber and as quickly as I
could manage towards my chamber door.
"Yes, yes, I’m coming. Be patient
with an old man." Aged fingers struggled with the door mechanism until
eventually I was met with a young girl with elfin features and short dark hair.
"Are you ready for our walk,
Grandfather?" Phrased as a question the glint in her eyes told me that she
would only accept one particular answer.
"Do you enjoy bothering an old
man at this time of the day, hmm?" Just what time of the day was it? I’d lost
all sense of time recently and I used to place so much importance in it.
"It’s nearly midday, Grandfather
and you promised me a walk outside the city." There was going to be no putting
her off it would seem.
"Very well, child, wait here will I gather myself
together." So persistent, just like her Grandmother. My eyes lingered on a
single white flower in the corner of my chambers as I slowly changed into my
walking robes and walked back over to the door to collect my walking staff as
quickly as my aching legs would allow. The door opened easier this time to
reveal my visitor exactly where I had left her, I offered her
my arm and we set off
through the
sterile and polished corridors. How claustrophobic they seemed now.
We walked in a comfortable
silence at first, although I could tell from the way she kept glancing at me
that she had a question she could barely contain. "Well, child, what is it you
wish to ask?"
"When were you last outside,
Grandfather?"
"Not for many years. There is
hardly any call these days for many of us dwelling
