Jubdl, the Alone.

     Jubdl tilled the ground as the cow chews the grass.  It was hot.  Too hot.  The air was dry unhelped by the great Nile.  He was having a horrible day.  He came across boulders in the dirt and snapped his shinning new hoe.  Jubdl wiped sweat from his low jutting eyebrow and grunted as he began to discover another rock.

     “What a day,” he muttered under his breath.  Looking up at the glaring white dot.  He began to ponder what made it so hot when out of the corner of his eye he saw sand trail being kicked up by horses.  Jubdl realized that no one owned horses but the God-Kings men.  No one traveled this trail either.

     “Great, what did I do this time?” Jubdl questioned the far off riders.  He could remember the slice of the whips against his flesh.  He'd missed the God-Kings morning speech and had been whipped ferociously for it.

     Jubdl dropped his ancient hoe and began to walk toward the sand clouds.  “They're moving like the sand storms,” he thought.  Thinking now something was horribly urgent he began to think of running.  Running back to his hut.  “And then what?” he questioned himself.  If he ran, the horses would just run him down, and running means death.  Jubdl stumbled backwards, it wasn't a group of horses, it was one man.  He didn't have a horse.  Before Jubdl could sprint away for his dear life the short man was upon him.  Letting the dust settle around them the creature stood there besides Jubdl.

     “Little creepy about all that dust,” the thing said, “it just gets everywhere, it's even in my britches.”  The sand beneath the man moved as if worshipping a great good or escaping something so evil.

     “Wha-,” was all Jubdl could manage.  The figure let its hood drop away around its shoulders.

     “I saw your whipping today,”  the now short man stated blankly.  “and I,” he didn't even have a speck of dust on him, “shall grant you one wish because of this injustice.”  The man let this settle in before he continued.  “This wish may be anything you want.  A cow, Money, gold, fish, wives,” the man leaned closer and winked.

     Jubdl stood there blankly.  “What could I ever want?” echoed in his mind.  Jubdl had never wanted anything, he just wanted to be alone.  ‘Money’ echoed in his brain.  ‘Money’ would be taken by the God-King, and he would be proclaimed a traitor.  Everyone knows what happens to ‘traitors.’ Farmers don't just suddenly have wealth of any kind.  “Anything?” Jubdl muttered to himself.  He had always wanted to be left alone.  ‘Alone’ sounded so peaceful to him.  No people, no guards to push him around, no god-king and those thoughts he relished.  But he could use something else to his advantage.  If he knew everything, he'd be able to have power, and with power comes money.  Greed encompassed his mind.  He could turn his fellow man against them.  Yes, he would do that.

     “You already know you can't have wealth, don't you?” the man said, “your ‘money’ would be taken by the God-King, and he, referring to you, would be proclaimed a traitor.” The man said grinning demonically.  Turning the old calm into a twisted spike of goodness.

     Jubdl didn't hear him.  Jubdl thought deeply.  “Its time, grant me my wish,” Jubdl said, “Anything that walks as fast as you old man will have these powers you say you do,”  he began to sweat, his tunic began to sag under the weight, “I want to know all, old man.”

     “You have to say it in the phrase,” the old man smirked his evil line, “and whatever you wish for, it cant be changed back.”  The wrinkled bag of flesh grinned even harder.

     Jubdl's eyebrows formed a sharp “V,”  “I bore of this old man- I wish I knew everything," -and pain flooded his mind.  His arms and legs began to burn.  He was on fire, but he was laying in the sand, totally unscathed.  There must be seventy spears within his flesh.  Yet he knew there wasn't.  He felt more whips than he could ever imagine, lashing, biting his skin.  “This isn't what I wanted,” Jubdl gasped from underneath the weight of the pain.

     “The best is yet to come,” the old man laughed, still grinning.

     Rage flooded Jubdl mind, blind rage, his heart began to pound within his chest, it was going to explode if he didn't do something soon.  Jubdl pushed himself up in one great heave.  “Change me back!” the rage-filled farmer screamed, “Do it!” Jubdl gripped the fragile old man in his strong clamp like claws.  The old man laughed, he couldn't hold it in any longer, he laughed in Jubdl's face.  Jubdl's eyes were squinting under the mans saliva.  Jubdl's hands began to shake violently.  “I'll kill you old man,”  Jubdl slumped to his knees and began to weep uncontrollably.  So many feelings, feelings of loss, gain, anger, panic, fear, love, greed, hatred, pity, happiness, sadness, an unfillable hole of sadness was suddenly carved into his very soul.  He didn't care about the thoughts that were coming to him, the emotions were overwhelming.  Jubdl's face met the sandy ground.

     “Oh! Isn't it wonderful Jubdl!” the old man said, standing up suddenly, talking slowly to hold in his laughter.  His evil grin covered all but his darkened eyes.  His darker-than-black cloak absorbed the sand that diseased it, It swirled in a kaleidoscope of color.  “And so I leave you here to suffer the consequences,” the old man planted his foot in Jubdl's back and pushed him back to the ground, “Have fun with knowing all, Jubdl.”  Its hood retook its position on top of its head with the slight of his hand.  His face relaxed once again to its original position but broke back into a uncontrollable mocking.  “Ill come back a little later to see if you died yet,”  the ancient face looked once more upon Jubdl, giggled insanely, and began walking the old way it was going . . .

Jon Collette

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