BOY SAMURAI #2

With his mind racing lying in his bed still wide-awake, the boy recalled the story the village elder told of the foreigners from the sailing ships so many years ago. This made the boy's heartbeat like a drum. He wondered what his father would decide in the morning, as there was not much time to weigh out the possibilities. With no real idea who and what these sailors may want or if they came in peace or were looking for war, the choices needed to keep the village safe. Soon with all these thoughts swimming in the young boy's head, he found himself drift off to sleep only to rise early in the morning. 

That morning the boy found his father outside meditating. He watched him from a window still, quiet, with his eyes closed. His mother soon came out to serve breakfast to which the boy asked his mother what his father had decided to do, to which the mother, fearful of what may happen told the boy in due time the answers will come. The boy ate his breakfast, and as he finished, his father came in with a reassuring smile that seemed to say he had found a solution. Remembering what his mother told him the boy let his father be and ran off with some of the other local boys his age to play. As he was leaving his parents embraced. 

One of the island children's favorite past times was to run through the village ending up at the temple and race paper cranes down the creek that ran behind it. This past time could be very lucrative if you were part of the group of older boys who had learned the art of the gamble. With so much tension in the air, the older boys were there when the boy and his friends arrived. The older boys were on a hot streak against a derelict man who was betting his last warm bun on his crane losing three times previous. 

Ready, set, go, and the cranes were released drifting neck and neck down the stream. The man's crane pushed ahead only to catch a bit of turbulence in the water and was overtaken by the older boy's crane and never to relinquish the lead again. A cheer went up within the group of older boys. The boy and his friends watched as the man handed over his last hot bun and walked off disgusted. Lunchtime came soon as the boy and his friends had ventured through the village seeking mischief and running with a few girls their age. 

Making his way back home, the boy wondered if his father had made a decision on how to direct the island on how to deal with the soon to arrive foreign ships. To his surprise, his father was not there he and a few other men had gone to the lookout point to observe the vessel a bit more. The boy wanted to be there pleading with his mother to let him take his lunch on the road and meet with them there. She eventually ok'd his request and the boy was off a sack of food in his hand and excitement in his body that fueled his sprint out to the lookout point. 

His mother told him the men and his father were there discussing the point of views on the solution? Each man had valid points. Many based on fear, but without an already in place set of samurai to help protect the island if the foreign ships did not come in peace, the island may indeed be in danger. The boy's father continued to speak on being diplomatic and making friends with the foreigners, but only until they actually meet them and find out what they were looking for, all choices seemed short-sighted. 

The men soon dispersed and yet no clear decision the draft would have to come quickly if it was to happen. Nearly now dinnertime the father and the boy talked their way back to their home. At one point, the boy asked his father if he was scared, to which the father told him a story about how sometimes fear isn't real. We may think what we see or are said beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is, but if we take our time to question what is happening and try to understand and look at it in a new way we can eventually see that what we were afraid of was nothing at all.