Part II
“It is alright son. It won’t fall on us or the sheep. I have already controlled and made it change its direction” he said to me. I figured he was talking about the lightning. He was looking at me in silence. I would say “How is that possible sir?”
There are so many wisdoms given to a mankind. One could use them for good and the other for evil interests. I cannot have you thought. How to stop rain or change the courses of thunder and lightning, you are smart lad on your innocent age of time and life. You seem very comfortable and intimate with your sheep. “He looked at me in silence.” “Yes sir they are my friends and all that I have next to my family,” I said.
“Sheep’s are the most fascinating creatures though everything made by the hands of God is wonderful and perfect. They are good breeders. This vast grassland is always wet and green. But I am sure that it won’t last for too long. It is only a matter of time when this small town stretches and residential homes will swallow this grassland. That time you won’t be able to find a grazing land for your sheep. What will you do then?” He paused and kept looking at me in silence. The light skin on his face is shiny. Except his white hair and the long beard, he looked like he stopped aging on his fifties. But I was certain that he is on his early nineties.
“I don’t know, but I know that I can’t live without my sheep” I said.
“You would think so. How come your grandfather didn’t give you a book to read while you’re herding your sheep’s?” “He gave me different books so many times. But I don’t like reading. I only love to watch the sheep’s grazing on the fresh green pasture. I would also talk to them when they sleep under the shadow of the trees as they regurgitate what they already swallowed.”
“What do you talk to them?”
“Anything that crosses my mind, I would talk to them about my joy of being with them, my sorrow of having no friends of my age. But what I talk about would not make sense to them. So I would rejoice with the things they do as I was talking to them. For instance that young Male sheep with grey fur over there is not castrated yet. So it always disturb the females while they are sleeping under the shadow of the trees in the afternoon as the sun turned scorching hot. I would tell it to stop and show a good manner,” “would he stop?”
“No it won’t listen. It even gets more aggressive on the female sheep.”
“What do you do to him when he is on such mood?”
“I would separate him from the herd and tie it legs with a rope around a small tree. It will scream ‘baaaaaaa’ for a long time because it feels lonely. When I feel petty on it and untie it, it would desperately run to them and start disturbing.”
By that time the herd was already done resting and is grazing. So I won’t try to stop it because some sheep are on their heat period. They may need it. I have to allow them to breed. Thus I would help it by holding up the tail of the fertile female sheep. I also hold fast their neck between my legs. I make sure it cannot miss its target. I would say to it “go for it papi enjoy yourself come on go higher stay strong.”
But most of the time it would miss the spot and struggle standing with its hind legs and it stickles dashing on the wrong part of the female’s backside. Then it would get tired and take its front legs down for time out.
He would sniff on the female sheep’s behind and mumble to get it in the mating mood by making a groaning sound. I will wait for it to muster its strength back while I was holding on the female sheep’s neck between my legs. He may miss on the second shot. But at the third one he will assure me that a new baby sheep will be born after five months. I would say “Good boy, very good boy, thank you.” Then I would let go of the female sheep saying “thank you beautiful mama. Go grazing. I know you will deliver me a nice baby sheep.”
When I see the whole heard grazing on the fresh green grass I feel so delighted. I would say to them “oh look how beautiful you are I would also feel like I want to kneel down on my knees and graze with them. The most amazing thing that delights me is the fact that they grow fast and fat within a couple of months.” The old knight was listening to all this childish things of mine in silence. But it was not childish to him as I observed the expression on his face while he was listening to me quietly. “Oh now I understand that it is not the type of intimacy that I thought you have with your sheep. It is more passionate.”
This time the rain had already stopped, the dark cloud retreated, and the afternoon sun returned and became shiny. The sheep were grazing. The young Male sheep is not disturbing the females. It had own mouth to feed too.
The old knight got up from the flat stone that he was sitting on under the big tree.
“Well I have to leave now. I have a battle to fight. Traitors and fascists must go down. I want you to hold on to this!” He took some kind of smooth oval shaped black stone from his pocket and handed it to me saying “it will protect you from evil thunder and lightning.” He hopped on the back of his giant black horse. I screamed “thank you” as he was riding on his horse receding from me to the North. He didn’t turn around. He just lifted up his fisted hand and kept on riding well ensconced on his horse.
BY HENOK TIBEBU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 27 FEBRUARY 2022
