| "What
really tickles me, though, is that none of you young men think of the woman,"
the wizard remarked.
"Excuse me?" I said.
"The woman might already love
the man." Both the man and woman might pay, he explained, or two men might
both want the love of the same woman. There was one instance where two
men came back nine times for the same woman. After giving up all their
fingers (the price included a sacrifice of a finger as well as gold after
all), one of them even gave up his arm.
"What of HER free will?" I
asked the wizard.
He paused in honing his blade.
"You don't know much about love."
"I want my gold back."
And got it, less the consulting
fee.
"...when you fell in love
with her, where was your free will?" he remarked as I rose. "I'll always
be here, boy. You won't be the first to come back a second time."
He was wrong. He hadn't seen
that extra instant when our eyes met that afternoon. He was wrong!?
Sam Marsh (Colorado
Blue Spruce Children's Award) |
