They Say the Man Just Didn't Know
They say the man just didn’t know.
I heard that it happened quickly, under the clouds of a thunderstorm in the middle of a strange ally somewhere on the other side of town.
Lightning flashed in the distance, beyond shops and stores that had long been closed. They say it flashed repeatedly in the same spot, like no lightning before it, as if the gods were replaying the image with their remote lightning control.
See, the lightning was what brought the man through the gates, into this strange ally way. He followed it long and hard, until the lightning was directly before him, flashing in the same way it had been flashing his entire journey.
To the left of the man, who they say just didn’t know, stood a horse. Like the lightning, this was no ordinary horse, but rather a horse of gigantic proportions. Standing four times the height of the man, the horse was expressionless, defeated by the thunder of the storm. But it was this horse, this gigantic horse, who would ultimately give the man his answers.
The rain stopped.
In the moonlit darkness of the ally way the man shook the rain from his top hat, and brought his eyes back to where the lightning had been flashing. It flashed no more.
‘They must have pressed stop,’ thought the man, but he didn’t really know.
The horse responded, expressing for the first time his telepathic abilities.
“Man, do you know not why you have come to this place?”
At first the man was confused. ‘Who could have said that?’ He thought. ‘There is not a soul in sight nor a whisper in the air.’
“Are you to tell me horses have no soul?” asked the horse. “Or that we are incapable of such whispers?”
The man turned to see that the horse was no longer gigantic, but had somehow shrunk to the size of an average horse. His eyes pierced the night and found their way to the face of the visiting man.
“You speak, but beasts do not speak. It is man who speaks, not horse, and yet your tongue…your tongue seems human.”
“My tongue is neither horse nor human, it is the tongue of God,” spoke the horse, and his height suddenly grew slightly, now looking down at the man. His voice bellowed as he spoke. “You sir have come for a reason, to this stormy ally way. Please, reveal yourself.”
“I beg your pardon, but it was curiosity of this strange lightning flash that brought me to this place, nothing more.”
The lightning suddenly returned in its original place.
And the horse returned to its original size, four times the height of the man.
“Stranger, this lightning is yours. Take it. Breathe it. Hold it in your heart. Then release it to all you know. This is the energy which brings you the tongue of God. This is the light which glows in the halls of Heaven. This is your gift. Now seize it, and go!”
The man’s eyes opened wider as he approached the lightning. He shivered in the cold of the night, but slowly extended his hand forward. As his fingers wrapped around the base of the lightning, he felt a surge of energy run through his body. He felt alive. He screamed to the clouds and moon and stars above him. He shouted all the words he knew at once and shouted nothing at the same time, as if the film had snapped. As if life was suddenly a gigantic burst of love.
“Do you feel it?” Asked the horse, who had once again returned to a smaller size. “Do you feel it?”
“I feel it!!!!!!!!!” Cried the man. “It’s wonderful! I don’t ever want to let go! What is this wonderful light?”
The man just didn’t know.
“Sir, you do not recognize this?” Asked the horse.
“I’m afraid I do not…”
At that the horse grew to be ten times the size of the man.
“I who speak with the tongue of God demand that you release that light immediately! He who does not know the power of his own soul has no right to such a thing!”
And at that the horse lifted his hoof, positioned it above the man, and lowered it to the ground with great force, ending the man’s life.
They say the man just didn’t know.
He didn’t know.
by David B. King (2005)
