Short Stories

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Four men blind from birth walked the King's Highway. As they walked along, one thought he heard something from the side of the road. It sounded as if someone called his name. He paused to listen. Sure enough, a man with a quiet voice called his name. He turned to his right and followed the sound of the voice until at last he sensed he stood before the man.
"You called me? How do you know me?" he asked.
"I was sent by the King. He sent me to tell you you are blind." The quiet man stated simply.
"Blind? What is that?"
"You cannot see. This is why you constantly stumble on the stones in the middle of the road. If you could see, you would not bash your toes against the rocks."
The blind man considered, "I had often wondered why there are so many rocks in the King's road. Surely the King should send someone to clear them out."
The quiet man answered, "The King himself placed the rocks in the road so that when I came to tell you that you are blind that you would understand what it is to be blind. For you see, there is a greater danger than the stones. Just to the other side of the road is a great chasm. In your blind stumbling about, you will certainly stumble off the edge of this chasm one day and be killed."
The quiet man had spoken gently, but the blind man now quaked in fear imagining the deadly peril he had somehow avoided up till now. "Sir, what can I do?" his voice quavered.
"I have some salve here that will open your eyes, but you must understand, this salve belongs to the King himself. If you take the salve, you must also become his servant to do whatever he commands."
The blind man did not hesitate a moment, "Yes, of course! This will save my life. I will do whatever the King asks."
So the quiet voiced man applied the salve to the blind man's eyes and immediately scales fell from his eyes and he could see. Before him stood the quiet voiced man, clothed in the brightest of white, holding a small jar of the blood red salve. The blind man gave a shout of joy and hugged the man and began to jump about and to shout and thank the man profusely. He looked around him for the first time and was struck by the beauty of the countryside around him. As his gaze took in all that he saw, however, he saw for the first time the huge chasm just at the other side of the road. It was many hundred feet deep and jagged rocks lay at the bottom.
His eyes grew wide and he turned to the man all in white. "I should have died in that chasm many a time! Thank you for saving me!"
The man smiled and said, "It was the King who sent me, not I. And remember, now you too are the King's man."
"Yes, yes of course," the man no longer blind replied. "What does the King want me to do?"
"Only this, tell everyone you know about the danger and take this salve and give it to anyone who asks for it." He handed the man the small jar of salve.
"That's all? But of course, I'll do that! Only, this is such a small jar, won't I surely need more?"
The man only smiled sadly and walked away.
No longer blind, the man remembered the three he had been walking with and began to run down the road to catch up with them. He ran! He had never run before and the pure joy of running was enough to make him laugh. He no longer caught his feet on the stones in the road for he could easily see them and avoid them.
He caught up to one of the men he had walked with, a friend of his from childhood. He hollered to the man and when he had stopped, he explained to him about being blind and the chasm near the road and the salve he had been given that could make you see.
His friend only smiled a bit and replied, "Oh, I don't know. I don't stumble against the rocks too often and I don't know about this chasm you're talking about. Since you can't show it to me, how am I to know you're telling the truth? Perhaps you're wrong about this chasm. I don't know that I want to be the King's man anyway."
The man no longer blind tried earnestly to persuade him, but could not. Not knowing what else to do, he went on ahead to catch up with the other two men. Soon, he came upon one of the others he had walked with, a relative of his. Once again, he explained about being blind and the chasm and the salve. He told the man that in return for saving their lives, the King only asked that they take the news of the danger and the salve to anyone who wanted it.
His relative was likewise not convinced. "I'm doing the best I can to avoid stumbling on the stones. As long as I'm careful, I'm sure I won't fall into the chasm. After all, this is the King's Highway, he surely wouldn't let people fall into the chasm as long as they walk carefully."
The man no longer blind tried even harder to persuade his relative, but it was no use, he was convinced he did not need the salve and would not consent to become the King's man.
Discouraged and confused, the man no longer blind continued up the road till he caught up with the third man that he had walked with. The man was old and had walked with him for as long as he could remember. Often, he had called himself the Kings man and had told many people that the King wanted them to walk in a particular way and that as long as they walked in that way, that they would not stumble against the stones. The man no longer blind had tried for many years to walk as the old man described, but it was very difficult and no matter how hard he had tried, he had always stumbled on the rocks.
He described to the old man what had happened to him and how he could see now, certain that this man would gladly take the salve since he already claimed to be the King's man. As he told him what had happened, however, the old man smiled broadly and said, "Oh good! You can see now, too? That's wonderful!"
The man no longer blind was confused, was the old man saying that he wasn't blind? He explained some more and demonstrated how he could now easily walk the road without stumbling. The old man just nodded and said, "Yes, yes. I too received the salve when I was young. I've been able to see for many years. See, I told you if you just walked this particular way that you wouldn't stumble against the rocks. Isn't it wonderful." And he began again, as he often did, to complain that it was because people would not walk as he told them they must that there were so many stones in the road. As the man no longer blind looked at the blind old man, however, he could see that his feet were bruised and bloody just as his had been from stumbling against the rocks. He greatly respected the old man, however, and could not bring himself to disagree with him.
Greatly saddened, he knew there was a group of people on up ahead on the road. Surely he could find someone who would listen...

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