(Everything changes. Nothing perishes.)
- Ovid
„The sailing trip was only the first step in our leaving Leviathan“, Mr Tuniak said. „But there was also another reason. We were, with one exception, the first children who wanted to leave the island. There were a few children older than us, but they liked the life on Leviathan so much, that they didn't want to leave. They didn't have anyone or anything they could go to.“ The “we” he mentioned included Sarina, Alice, Mowgli and himself. „But the event that really got us going was the death of Ricardo. In many ways it was the first time we had been confronted with death.“
„But you did visit at least one historical battle, didn't you?“, I asked.
„Yes, but I didn't know the people who died there“, Mr Tuniak explained. „It was less personal.“
„And your time travels?“, I continued. „Weren't you meeting people all the time, who, from your point of view, were already dead.“
„But for me, a time traveller, they were always alive“, he insisted. „Nobody could really die, because I could just travel to an earlier point in their lifes.“ He leaned back in his chair. „Ricardo had always been there for us, while we were growing up. We could always talk to him, even... or especially if we were angry at the grown-ups for one reason or another.“
„How did he come to the island?“
The path twisted and turned as it made its way down the mountain. It was difficult to even see it in some places. Ricardo took his donkeys by their reins and led them down. Normally, the animals would have an easier time with this terrain than him, but today they were carrying heavy loads. Hidden in big bales of grass, they were transporting blocks of ice. Yesterday the ice had still been near the top of the mountain, today, if everything went right, he would deliver it at the coast.
Ricardo was hoping that he wasn't walking into a trap. The man, who had ordered the ice, had not been from his country, which had made many of the other ice traders suspicious. Then, when he offered an unusually large sum of money for the ice, some more had withdrawn their offer. Something was not right, they had said, why would anyone pay more than he absolutely had to? But there had still been one other trader, besides Ricardo, willing to take the job and Ricardo had barely dared to hope that he would get it. But then the stranger had revealed the final part of the deal. He wanted the ice to be delivered to an uninhabited part of the coast. Suddenly only Ricardo was willing to deliver. All the other traders either suspected a bad joke by the stranger or, in the worst case, a trap by the guerilla warriors that were known to roam the forests.
But Ricardo didn't really have a choice. He was still very young and didn't get as many orders as the others. He had to take whatever was left. And until now, the journey had been uneventful. He knew the part of the coast the stranger had described very well. He knew that...
He stopped so suddenly that the donkeys nearly walked into him, before they could stop. The coast was right in front of him, as he had expected. But off the coast there was an island he had never seen before. And he was sure that the last time he visited this place – about a month or so ago – it hadn't been here. And islands didn't just appear from one day to the other, did they? Ricardo felt a cold shiver running down his back, but at the same time there was something else too: curiosity.
„Ricardo arrived at Leviathan around the same time I did, maybe a bit earlier“, Mr Tuniak said. „Estevan had ordered ice...“
„About that“, I interrupted him. „I take it, it was ice for a cooling room on the island?“
„No, to eat“, Mr Tuniak corrected. „In some parts of the Andes you can find ice that tastes surprisingly sweet. If you ever happen to go to South America, you should definitely try it. Estevan had bought it as a surprise for the children. Now I remember: It was their reward for being quiet and putting up with a little baby. Me. Estevan then invited Ricardo to stay over night. And in the short time he spent on Leviathan he came up with several ideas to improve the life on the island and make it saver. He found ways, for instance, to make the temple withstand tropic storms. Estevan was so impressed he asked him to stay.“
„Didn't he have any family?“, I asked.
„He had broken any contact with them several years before that“, Mr Tuniak said. „When he was ten, he ran away from home and since then he had taken of himself.“ He continued to explain that Ricardo was responsible for many changes on Leviathan. Contrary to Estevan, who had grown up in a city, Ricardo knew about life „under an open sky“ (as he called it). He had always lived in small villages and had often moved from one place to another, always looking for a job, a place to sleep or something to eat. He had picked up a lot of tricks and he adopted them for the island. Several things that had become common place on Leviathan, were first introduced by Ricardo. „But, sadly, he was very ill“, Mr Tuniak said. „And it took us a long time to figure that out.“
Estevan was waiting impatiently for the return of the time machine. The children were playing at the other side of the temple and knew nothing of his worries. They didn't even know that Miriam and Helen had taken Ricardo in their time machine for a trip to the future.
It had started several days ago, when Minh and Manh had noticed a bump on Ricardo's brow. He couldn't remember hitting his head or find any other explanation about how it got there. Two days later, when the bump still hadn't disappeared or even changed its size, Helen had taken him to a hospital. They had brought back bad news. A fungus was growing inside Ricardo. The doctors hadn't been able to explain how that was possible or how it got there and they couldn't do anything to remove it.
It had taken only a short discussion before it was decided that Miriam and Helen would take Ricardo to the future, hoping to find technology there that would be able to remove the fungus.
The time machine returned. As the door opened and the travellers came out, Estevan was able to tell from their faces that they hadn't been successful.
„What did they say?“, he asked, meaning, of course, the doctors.
„They couldn't do anything“, Miriam said. „The fungus is in his whole body. It has grown in and through most of his vital organs and replaced parts of them. It's not deadly, not at the moment, but they can't remove it. It's too connected with... everything.“
„Apparently I swallowed a spore when I was a child and it has grown in me ever since“, Ricardo added. „On the plus side: As far as I can remember I have never been ill and the doctor said that maybe my immune system was not weakened by this fungus but actually strengthened.“
Estevan didn't want to ask the next question he had on his mind.
„I will live for several years more“, Ricardo said, who had seen the question written on Estevan's face anyway. „Theoretically I should already be dead. So: Let's never talk about this again, ok?“
And until his death, they never talked about it again.
„He lived for another three years after his visit to the future“, Mr Tuniak said. „And apart from a new bump here and there, you couldn't tell what was growing inside him. We children joked about these bumps, we said that, like Minh and Manh he was trying to grow another head.“ He sighed. „His funeral took place on Leviathan. He didn't want to return to Peru and he didn't want to be buried at sea. So we buried him on Leviathan. Even now, he is the only person who has ever been buried there.“ He looked thoughtfully. „Thinking back, it probably wasn't the death itself that shocked us so much, but what it signified: Change. Until then Leviathan had seemed frozen in time. A place where, no matter what was happening in the rest of the world, tomorrow would basically be the same as today. But with Ricardo's death our belief in this had been destroyed. We realized we couldn't stay there forever, we couldn't stay children forever... If you want to be poetic: We had been kicked out of Neverland.“
„You grew up.“
„Yes, that we did.“
But nothing is truly lost.
Several months had passed since the funeral, when Minh and Manh, during their gardening work, came to the spot where Ricardo had been buried.
“What is that?”, Minh asked and pointed at something neither of the brothers had ever seen before. They went and showed it to Estevan who couldn't identify it either. The children were the first to recognize it for what it was.
“It's Ricardo”, Sarina said.
Helen, who had taken over the biology courses, had to agree with her to a certain degree. “It's definitely a fungus and very probably the one that was growing inside him.”
When I went to the island several weeks ago, Minh and Manh were showing me the fungus. It had grown to the size of a small bush and they took care of it and made sure that it would grow no larger.
“What is that?”, I had asked.
“Our very own nat spirit”, they had answered and only now I understand how true that was.
„But you did visit at least one historical battle, didn't you?“, I asked.
„Yes, but I didn't know the people who died there“, Mr Tuniak explained. „It was less personal.“
„And your time travels?“, I continued. „Weren't you meeting people all the time, who, from your point of view, were already dead.“
„But for me, a time traveller, they were always alive“, he insisted. „Nobody could really die, because I could just travel to an earlier point in their lifes.“ He leaned back in his chair. „Ricardo had always been there for us, while we were growing up. We could always talk to him, even... or especially if we were angry at the grown-ups for one reason or another.“
„How did he come to the island?“
The path twisted and turned as it made its way down the mountain. It was difficult to even see it in some places. Ricardo took his donkeys by their reins and led them down. Normally, the animals would have an easier time with this terrain than him, but today they were carrying heavy loads. Hidden in big bales of grass, they were transporting blocks of ice. Yesterday the ice had still been near the top of the mountain, today, if everything went right, he would deliver it at the coast.
Ricardo was hoping that he wasn't walking into a trap. The man, who had ordered the ice, had not been from his country, which had made many of the other ice traders suspicious. Then, when he offered an unusually large sum of money for the ice, some more had withdrawn their offer. Something was not right, they had said, why would anyone pay more than he absolutely had to? But there had still been one other trader, besides Ricardo, willing to take the job and Ricardo had barely dared to hope that he would get it. But then the stranger had revealed the final part of the deal. He wanted the ice to be delivered to an uninhabited part of the coast. Suddenly only Ricardo was willing to deliver. All the other traders either suspected a bad joke by the stranger or, in the worst case, a trap by the guerilla warriors that were known to roam the forests.
But Ricardo didn't really have a choice. He was still very young and didn't get as many orders as the others. He had to take whatever was left. And until now, the journey had been uneventful. He knew the part of the coast the stranger had described very well. He knew that...
He stopped so suddenly that the donkeys nearly walked into him, before they could stop. The coast was right in front of him, as he had expected. But off the coast there was an island he had never seen before. And he was sure that the last time he visited this place – about a month or so ago – it hadn't been here. And islands didn't just appear from one day to the other, did they? Ricardo felt a cold shiver running down his back, but at the same time there was something else too: curiosity.
„Ricardo arrived at Leviathan around the same time I did, maybe a bit earlier“, Mr Tuniak said. „Estevan had ordered ice...“
„About that“, I interrupted him. „I take it, it was ice for a cooling room on the island?“
„No, to eat“, Mr Tuniak corrected. „In some parts of the Andes you can find ice that tastes surprisingly sweet. If you ever happen to go to South America, you should definitely try it. Estevan had bought it as a surprise for the children. Now I remember: It was their reward for being quiet and putting up with a little baby. Me. Estevan then invited Ricardo to stay over night. And in the short time he spent on Leviathan he came up with several ideas to improve the life on the island and make it saver. He found ways, for instance, to make the temple withstand tropic storms. Estevan was so impressed he asked him to stay.“
„Didn't he have any family?“, I asked.
„He had broken any contact with them several years before that“, Mr Tuniak said. „When he was ten, he ran away from home and since then he had taken of himself.“ He continued to explain that Ricardo was responsible for many changes on Leviathan. Contrary to Estevan, who had grown up in a city, Ricardo knew about life „under an open sky“ (as he called it). He had always lived in small villages and had often moved from one place to another, always looking for a job, a place to sleep or something to eat. He had picked up a lot of tricks and he adopted them for the island. Several things that had become common place on Leviathan, were first introduced by Ricardo. „But, sadly, he was very ill“, Mr Tuniak said. „And it took us a long time to figure that out.“
Estevan was waiting impatiently for the return of the time machine. The children were playing at the other side of the temple and knew nothing of his worries. They didn't even know that Miriam and Helen had taken Ricardo in their time machine for a trip to the future.
It had started several days ago, when Minh and Manh had noticed a bump on Ricardo's brow. He couldn't remember hitting his head or find any other explanation about how it got there. Two days later, when the bump still hadn't disappeared or even changed its size, Helen had taken him to a hospital. They had brought back bad news. A fungus was growing inside Ricardo. The doctors hadn't been able to explain how that was possible or how it got there and they couldn't do anything to remove it.
It had taken only a short discussion before it was decided that Miriam and Helen would take Ricardo to the future, hoping to find technology there that would be able to remove the fungus.
The time machine returned. As the door opened and the travellers came out, Estevan was able to tell from their faces that they hadn't been successful.
„What did they say?“, he asked, meaning, of course, the doctors.
„They couldn't do anything“, Miriam said. „The fungus is in his whole body. It has grown in and through most of his vital organs and replaced parts of them. It's not deadly, not at the moment, but they can't remove it. It's too connected with... everything.“
„Apparently I swallowed a spore when I was a child and it has grown in me ever since“, Ricardo added. „On the plus side: As far as I can remember I have never been ill and the doctor said that maybe my immune system was not weakened by this fungus but actually strengthened.“
Estevan didn't want to ask the next question he had on his mind.
„I will live for several years more“, Ricardo said, who had seen the question written on Estevan's face anyway. „Theoretically I should already be dead. So: Let's never talk about this again, ok?“
And until his death, they never talked about it again.
„He lived for another three years after his visit to the future“, Mr Tuniak said. „And apart from a new bump here and there, you couldn't tell what was growing inside him. We children joked about these bumps, we said that, like Minh and Manh he was trying to grow another head.“ He sighed. „His funeral took place on Leviathan. He didn't want to return to Peru and he didn't want to be buried at sea. So we buried him on Leviathan. Even now, he is the only person who has ever been buried there.“ He looked thoughtfully. „Thinking back, it probably wasn't the death itself that shocked us so much, but what it signified: Change. Until then Leviathan had seemed frozen in time. A place where, no matter what was happening in the rest of the world, tomorrow would basically be the same as today. But with Ricardo's death our belief in this had been destroyed. We realized we couldn't stay there forever, we couldn't stay children forever... If you want to be poetic: We had been kicked out of Neverland.“
„You grew up.“
„Yes, that we did.“
But nothing is truly lost.
Several months had passed since the funeral, when Minh and Manh, during their gardening work, came to the spot where Ricardo had been buried.
“What is that?”, Minh asked and pointed at something neither of the brothers had ever seen before. They went and showed it to Estevan who couldn't identify it either. The children were the first to recognize it for what it was.
“It's Ricardo”, Sarina said.
Helen, who had taken over the biology courses, had to agree with her to a certain degree. “It's definitely a fungus and very probably the one that was growing inside him.”
When I went to the island several weeks ago, Minh and Manh were showing me the fungus. It had grown to the size of a small bush and they took care of it and made sure that it would grow no larger.
“What is that?”, I had asked.
“Our very own nat spirit”, they had answered and only now I understand how true that was.
NEXT WEEK:
Har du sett min villa, min Villa Villekullavilla? Vill å vill du veta, varför villan heter så?
Har du sett min villa, min Villa Villekullavilla? Vill å vill du veta, varför villan heter så?
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