![]() ![]() When she asked him "Where are you from?" and "Will you tell me some stories?" with her childish pronunciation and innocent smile, Kaim felt a soft glow in his chest.Īt the time, he was returning from a battle. Hanna was still a tiny girl when Kaim first visited the inn. He says nothing about the violent sea battle that stained the ocean red. Even if she cannot speak or see, her ears are still alive.īelieving and hoping this to be true, Kaim continues with the story of his travels.Īs always with Hanna, Kaim smiles with a special gentleness he has never shown to anyone else, and he goes on telling his tales with a bright voice, sometimes even accompanying his story with exaggerated gestures. Kaim chuckles to himself, and it seems to him that Hanna’s pale white cheek moves slightly. Can you imagine it, Hanna? You’ve never seen the ocean, but I’m sure people have told you about it. There was nothing but ocean as far as the eye could see. I took a boat from the harbor way way way far beyond the mountains you can see from this window, and I was on the sea from the time the moon was perfectly round till it got smaller and smaller then bigger and bigger until it was full again. "The ocean on the side where the sun comes up. "I went far across the ocean this time," he tells her. Her little chest, still without the swelling of a grown woman, rises and falls almost imperceptibly. Kaim sits down in the chair next to the bed and says with a smile. No one else is in the room, perhaps an indication that she has long since passed the stage when the doctors can do anything for her. She would stand there waving until the person disappeared far down the highway, give one lonely sigh, and go back to bed. She would sit and listen to their stories with sparkling eyes, urging them on to new episodes with "And then? And then?" When they left the inn, she would beg them, "Please come back, and tell me lots and lots of stories about faraway countries!" "Where are you from?" "Where are you going?" Whenever new guests arrived at the inn, Hanna would ask them, Hanna was unable to go anywhere, but the guests who stayed at her parents' inn would tell her stories of the countries and towns and landscapes and people that she would never know. ![]() That they had allowed her to be born the only daughter of the keepers of a small inn by the highway was perhaps one small act of atonement for such iniquity. This tiny girl, with extraordinarily beautiful doll-like features, the gods had dealt an all-too-sad destiny. This child will probably not live to adulthood, the doctor told her parents. Far from enjoying the opportunity to travel, she rarely left the town or even the neighborhood in which she was born and raised. Kaim lowers his pack to the floor and quietly opens the door to Hanna's room. Hanna, the only daughter of the innkeeper and his wife, will probably breathe her last before the sun comes up. Kaim interrupts his apologies, "Of course I'll see her right away." The innkeeper says, "I wish I could urge you to rest up from your travels before you see her, but." Instead of smiling, the woman releases another large tear and nods to Kaim, "And Hanna was so looking forward to hearing your stories." I've been looking forward to this my whole time on the road." Kaim puts his arm around the woman's shoulder and says, "I have lots of travel stories to tell her. Even though the person has lost consciousness, it is by no means unusual for the voices of the family to bring forth smiles or tears. What remains alive to the very end, however, is the power to hear. He has been present at innumerable deaths, and his experience has taught him much.ĭeath takes away the power of speech first of all. I know you made a special point to come here for her."Īnother tear glides down the wife's cheek. You can tell from the slight movement of her chest that she is clinging to a frail thread of life, but it could snap at any moment. "She hasn't opened her eyes since last night," he warns Kaim. The innkeeper gives him a tiny nod and says, "I don't think she'll know who you are, though." "I might never see you again," she said to him with a sad smile when he left on this journey, her smiling face almost transparent in its whiteness, so fragile-and therefore indescribably beautiful-as she lay in bed. ![]() He understands the situation immediately.īut still, he knows, this day would have come sometime, and not in the distant future. Transcript The family members have tears in their eyes when they welcome Kaim back to the inn from his long journey. Uhra - Tolsan's Inn - Talk to the Inn Keeper. ![]()
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