The fabulouse adventure of little Buddy Gaunt The fabulouse adventure of little Buddy Gaunt

Once upon a time there was a boy named Buddy. He lived in a large, glamoureous house in South Indiana with his mother, his father, and a great amount of cousins. He had a hometutor, many friends who lived on his block, and he lead a marvellous life. Everyday, after his lessons, Buddy would play with his friends, who were all very nice to him. When they had wrestling-fun Buddy would allways win, for he was the biggest, strongest and heaviest of all the boys in his neighbourhood. Later in the afternoon, when they sat around his hometutor in the warm, breezy fruitgarden and listened to the stories the wise man told them, little Buddy allways understood them best, for he was also the cleverest little boy on the block. Amongst his other graces, little Buddy was also very rich and pretty, and the girls would allways fight over him.

One day, when little Buddy took a walk around his grounds he heard a strange sound. The sound filled him with an incredible sensetion of which he had never experienced before. He followed the sound, and soon he found a girl, playing a rare instrument.

- What are you playing, girl? he asked her. She looked up at him with a fright, got to her feet very quickly and attempted to escape little Buddy, but being the biggest, strongest and heaviest of all the young men he knew, he easily got in her way.

- I asked you what you were playing. She looked at him through thick eyelashes, her eyes strangely wet. Buddy wondered if something had got stuck in her eye and she couldn’t get it out.

- It was a song from my homecountry, the girl answered, her voice all weak.

- It felt very strange. What is wrong with it? Buddy wanted to know. The girl looked puzzled.

- It’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a sad song. Since I miss my country so much. And my family. Buddy didn’t understand this, but he wasn’t going to let her know that.

- Well, go see them then, he answered smartly. The girl was apperently not very clever.

- I can’t. It’s too far away, and I haven’t got the money to go there. Now this was something else Buddy did not understand. And Buddy was not used to not understanding.

- What do you mean too far away? The fluids in the girls eyes started sipping over the egde, and Buddy quickly came to the conclusion that something wasn’t right with this poor creature.

- It would take me months to get there. Now, Buddy was clearly the one to get puzzled. How could it take months to go anywhere? It never took him more than a couple of minutes when he wanted to go somewhere. He decided that the girl didn’t know what she was talking about, and that he could probably make her happy by marrying her. She looked scared at first, but then accepted his proposal. Buddy was very satisfied that he had solved this tricky situation, but yet he was not surprised. He was, after all, the cleverest young man on the block.

After a couple of months of little Buddys marriage, his wife was carrying his child and he was prouder than ever of his beautiful and very fertile wife. But he kept imageing the moment when she said that she could never go home, since it would take her months. He decided to ask his old tutor why anyone would say something like that. His answer was preposterous.

- There is a whole world outside your gates, little Buddy, sir. Now this was something little Buddy was not ready to accept. He locked himself inside his room and thought about this for days. When he got out, he had realized many things. That if there was a world outside of his gates, there were no reason for why it wouldn’t be as lovely as everything inside the gates. Naturally there was nothing to be afraid of. But, being the worlds future leader, of course, he had also realized that it must be his duty to present himself to his people. Therefore, little Buddy went to confront his father.

- Father, he said, I wish to see the world. His father nodded patiently.

- Very well, this can be arranged. But it will take a couple of weeks. Buddy decided that he would have to be satisfied with this decision, and went happily back to his business. Buddys father, on the other hand, was not very pleased. He had long ago decided that his son Buddy would not have to be confronted with the pain of living, as he himself had. Therefore, Buddys father spent three weeks arranging for his sons debut into the world. He had the streets cleaned up. All the poor, sick people were transferred to another part of the town, all the beggars and the sons and daughters of beggars were removed, and facades and cobblestones were cleaned and polished. When the day of little Buddys debut arrived, he got to sit in a golden chair, which had the height of ten men, and which was carried by thirty servants out on the streets. When the gates opened, all the young, pretty and healthy people of the city saluted him by throwing flowers and shouting hurrays. Little Buddy could not have been more satisfied.

- So this is my world, he said. I love it very much. And I shall love the people in it as if they were my own children. Then something caught his eye. A small child, dressed in a cloth not worthy to clean his floors with, were standing by the border of the street Buddy was carried through, and it was violently removed by a couple of guards.

- Hey! Buddy shouted. What are you doing?! He quickly jumped off his chair, and started running through the crowd. When he came close to the people, he could see that their faces of unconditional joy were nothing but masks, plastered onto faces of fear. He hurried after the little boy, wrestled the guards, and ran through a dark alley. Now this was nothing like the world that had been given him. Everywhere lay strange people, wrinkely people, people singing out there woe, weak people. He walked up to a young man, looking no more than a skeleton, who was stretched out on the ground with a scrappy blanket barely covering his thin frame. A woman cowered beside the man, and she quickly bowed her head in awe of little Buddys royal approach. The same strange sensation he had experienced when he first heard his wifes sad song started welling up inside of him, water fell from his eyes and it felt as if his chest was tearing apart.

- What is wrong with him? Buddy asked the woman.

- He is sick, she answered. Buddy had never seen anyone being sick before, and it scared him.

- What is that in his eyes? he asked the woman again. This time she waited for a second before she answered.

- Pain. Buddy ran away. Then he saw a woman, with papery-like skin that seemed all to big for har very small body. Her movements were weak when she streched out for her bottle of water, and she quickly fell back against the wall which she was leaning towards. She shiviered from some sort of cold, even though it was a warm day.

- What is wrong with you? Buddy asked. She laughed, a horrific laugh that made the hairs in the back of Buddys neck prickle.

- I’m old, young sir. This was also odd to him.

- What does that feel like? The old woman shrugged.

- It’s painful. Once again, Buddy ran. That thing about pain scared him so much that he could hardly breath. Suddenly his sprint was stopped by a group of people walking in a line, carrying a stretcher with a man on it. Buddy tugged on the sleeve of one of them.

- What are you doing? he asked the man.

- We’re mourning, the man answered in a quiet voice.

- Why? Buddy wanted to know.

- Because our father is dead, the man said.

- What do you mean? The man looked at Buddy as if he was a crazy person.

- He is gone, finished. He will be no more. He was in a lot of pain, anyway.

There it was again, the pain.

- Well, you know, the man continued, it’s all a part of living anyway.

That was Buddys que to run home.

Once he got home, he found that he was not allowed to enter his and his wifes shared dorms.

- Your wife is in labour, one of the guards informed him. Buddy cared little for what the guard thought of him, pushed him aside, and entered his room. Once he was in there, he could se his wife stretched out on the bed, screaming in pain, her whole upper body heaving up and down. There was sweat all over her forehead and upper lip, and tears were running from her eyes as the horrific shrieks escaped her throat.

- NO!! Buddy yelled, and ran up to her, but was stopped by the nurse.

- Calm down, sir, please, this is completely normal. Buddy looked apalled at the little nurse.

- What do you mean, normal? She is in so much… pain. The nurse nodded knowingly.

- Giving birth is one of the most painful things in life. As is being born, actually. With these words, Buddy sat down next to his wife, his heart crashing down to little pieces everytime she screamed. He was shaking with fear, fear for his wife losing her life, fear for the life of his son to be spilled before it had even begun, but most of all, fear for pain and fear for fear itself. Tears fell from his eyes and sweat broke out on his forehead, yet he held the hand of his beloved and tried to calm her down, while he watched the painful process of being born. The spirit of his son, which had once been part of everything, had now landed on this wee body, and its first experience would be existential pain.

The next morning Buddy left his large, glamoureous house in south Indiana. He mourned having to leave his beloved wife, and his newly born son, but he told them that it was necessary, and that he would come back eventually. He was going to travel many places in search for illumination of the pain of living. And many places he traveled. Three years on the day after his son had been born, Buddy was travelling through a forrest. He walked along a small path, his feet tired from hiking, and his back sore from the huge trunk of possessions he was carrying. After a little while, he came to a glade, and faced a peculiar sight. Beside a rippling river that was slowly traveling down from a mountain, glittering in the clear sunshine, a group of men were seated on the grass. They were clearly in deep medidation, since none of them were facing eachother, or conversating, and they were all positioned in a classic lotus-posture. None of them seemed to have an inch of fat on their bodies.

Buddy figured that meditation seemed like a good idea at the moment and sat down with the men. He slowly breathed in and out, and felt his mind clearing…

Later that evening, the skeleton-like men had made a fire, and started boiling rice. One of them walked up to Buddy and introduced himself.

- I’m Zimba M’Beh, and these are my brothers. Welcome to our party. Zimba M’Beh was very dark, and his skin had dried from the lack of nutrition. He walked with a crooked back, balancing his rather non-existing weight on two legs that looked as if they could snap like twigs any minute now. He was the living opposite of Buddys rather intimidating frame, healthy flesh and shiny, honeyglazed skin.

- My name is Buddy Gaunt. I walk the earth to be illuminated. I question the pain of living, Buddy told him. Zimba M’Beh sat down with him and told him that he and his brothers spent their lives trying to understand the emptiness and pain of living by forcing themselves into a constant state of pain and emtiness.

- Hence all the meditation. And hence the starvation, he said, and gestured towards his mistreated body. You are welcome to join us, Buddy, he finished. And so Buddy did. He sat by the river for months, almost constantly in meditation. He had three corns of rice, and some mouthfuls of water everyday, and in the evenings he talked to his brothers and discussed emptiness, pain and other things that came to his mind. He gave up all of his possessions, and entered a state of complete poverty. He never moved from the glade. If it was raining, he would still stay put, quietly meditating. If it was freezingly cold, he would still stay put, and not make up a fire exept for boiling the evening rice. And if it was unbearably hot, he still would not move to take a refreshing swim in the river. He lived in peace with his suffering brothers, trying to get to the core of pain, and why it was necessary. For months he sat there, quietly, calm, steady.

One day a little canalboat floated by the brothers, carried by the river. This was nothing unusual, and none of the men took any notice of the event, exept for Buddy who had found it hard to sink into meditation after the morning rice. On the little boat sat a musician, a master of the art of rahga-playing. He was lecturing his rather impatient student about playing the very worthy rahga-instrument, and at the moment he was talking about strings.

- You see, my young friend, the rahga-master said, you must never tie the rahga-strings too loosely, because then all you will have is a foul tone and a blurry sound. But yet, he continued, you can not tie the rahga-strings too tight, for then they will burst, and you will not be able to play at all. It is a form of the art to find the perfect balance between the two, not too loose and not too tight. That is the key to find the perfect sound.

At this, Buddy opened his eyes, and watched as the canalboat drifted off. He thought about what the master had said for while, and then he got up. His legs were unused to the action, and his muscles had withered away, but he managed to go to a nearby village, where he asked for a bowl of rice and some soup. He ate very slowly, and felt a strange rush of strength flow trough his body. He had forgot what it felt like, not to be hungry.

”Not too loose, and not too tight. That is the key to the perfect sound”. The rahga-masters words echoed trough his head. Perhaps it is the same with everything, he thought. One can not possibly avoid pain by exposing oneself to it. It might help you understand the pain, but it will not help you get rid of it. While living in his large, glamoureous house in south Indiana, so completely shielded from pain, did not protect you either. Not too loose, and not too tight.

After his strengthening meal, he went back to his brothers to tell them about this amazing new thought, but the brothers were not pleased. They saw how some of Buddys former glow had returned to his skin, they saw how straight he walked after having filled his stomach, and they all felt betrayed. They wanted nothing to do with him, and they were not interested in hearing about Buddys new philosphy. Buddy were not the one to force his own thoughts on to anyone else, so he sat himself down on the other side of the river to meditate himself into the core of this new way of thinking.

That night, when Buddy was deep in meditation, it started to rain heavily. Buddy was very close to come to a conclusion about his new thought, and did not wish to move. That was when a giant snake came up from the river, a huge cobra, and it slithered itself up behind Buddy, raised its long, scaly, muscular neck, and stretched out its large hood to shield Buddy from the rain. And for the first time, Buddy saw everything clear. He found a way to live in between his loose life in the large, glamoureous house, and his tight life with the brothers. He let go of his emotions, let go of all of his former belives, let go of his wife and son, his family, his friends and brothers. He let go of everything that tied him to this life, everything that would cause him pain eventually, when he finally lost it, and released his spirit into the world. Life was painful, but only because of the things you lost. Only when he had let go of everything dear of his, which was a painful psocess, could he be liberated and go of to live a life of calm satisfaction. He would sit down and think, and meditate his way into the core of what he wanted to do. Then he would wait for a good opportunity to do it. When he had no place to sleep, he would walk, and when he had nothing to eat he would be fasting. And he would walk the earth, and continue to spread his message to those who asked for it.