Man of Will

By Tzanis Koronaios

We are in the far future. Earth has revenged man with enormous disasters and the third world war has eliminated most of the population. Jonathan a rebellious dreamy teenager who was raised in the jungle decides that it’s time for him to make his dream come true and find his father and his identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9780244222420

Book preview

Man of Will

Man of Will

EARTH

It was Saturday night and it was raining furiously, as if heaven hated Earth and everything that lived in it. The clouds were so thick and black that the moonlight was lost. The trees bent from the wrath of the air and the hearing sound was as if the Earth moaned with pain. Two people came out of a deserted cafeteria located in the middle of nowhere between two hills full of green. The parking-lot outside had flooded and they quickly ran to their car to protect themselves from the pouring rain. «I feel awful but we had no choice» he told her in a trembling voice. She started crying. He hugged and kissed her tenderly on the cheek, whispering «We’ll get over it together but it will take us some time».  She stopped crying but she looked at him in a wild look! «You will get over it, not me! I will never forgive you! He told the car to head for the house and they left.

An hour later, the wind and the rain continued lashing everyone passing by. A car was going very slowly in the chaos of the water. There were trees on the right and a cliff on the left. A girl, with her baby at the back of her car, was driving back home. Suddenly, the console of the car started flashing. It seemed like a short circuit. The indications showed that the auto-pilot was out of order, the car was frozen and everything electronic was blocked. She had no visibility at all and she was overwhelmed with fear, realising that she had no control of the car. The expression on her face changed. She frowned, her eyes filled with terror and she opened her mouth ready to scream. Three seconds later, the car made a sound. It had identified an object right in front of it. In no time, in a sharp turn, her car overturned and started falling down the cliff. She turned around to protect her baby. The car was pinned to a tree. A huge branch pierced the car’s window and her belly. Her heart was beating fast and she was bleeding. She couldn’t breathe and she started crying, realising what was coming next. The only thing she could do, was hearing her baby crying. «It is alive» she thought. She turned her head and saw the baby bleeding a bit on the head but she believed that it was nothing serious. She tried to move her legs but in vain. She tried to scream «help». She was sweating and a few minutes later she started feeling dizzy. She touched her baby’s leg, looked at it, smiled at it and died. A couple of hours later, the storm stopped. The kid had hurt its head and was crying. A man with long white hair, who lived all alone in the woods in a small cottage, heard the baby’s crying. He started going up the mountain to see what had happened. He was old, the soil was wet and muddy and it was extremely difficult to climb up the mountain but the baby’s crying gave him the strength to carry on. After a lot of effort he managed to find the baby. He saw the dead mother looking at her child. He was shocked! He froze at this macabre sight for a while but the baby’s crying brought him back to reality. He tried to open the door but he couldn’t. Finally, he got into the car from the smashed window and pulled the baby out. As he was pulling the baby out, he cut himself. He took the baby, who continued crying, back to his cottage to wash the wound on its head. When he finished, he took care of his wound since it was bleeding. He thought that it was God’s will to find this baby after what he had gone through. He needed a friend, somebody to live with since he had decided to live isolated on the mountain away from any human contact. He lived on fruits and vegetables that he grew himself. He was lucky since it rained quite often there. Sometimes, urged from his inability to kill any animals, he had to walk to the nearby village of Ermionita to steal some meat from the butcher early in the morning. While the butcher carried the meat from the truck to his shop, the old man secretly stole some pieces and ran fast back to the woods. Those were his supplies for a whole month.

«My name is Alexandros, my little one, and I am going to be your new father, » he said to the kid.

The boy was staring at him with his big brown eyes.

«I will teach you everything about life. I have studied History, Philosophy, Psychology, human behaviour and I am going to make a very special young guy out of you. The only thing I am not capable of teaching you is money and technology. I have never been able to understand them. I detest them because everything depends on them. Human contact has been lost because of them and they seem silly and useless. Do you understand what I mean?

The kid was looking at him without saying anything since this deep but calm voice made him feel safe.  

«I have so many books here that I can teach you whatever you can imagine. My books are the only friends I have. They always have something to give me without asking anything in return. That’s why before giving up on everything and everyone, I spent all my money on buying books that I could read for years, » the old man mumbled thinking that the baby could understand him. «Now go to sleep and we’ll talk again in the morning. My hand hurts badly and it will leave a scar. »

That’s how this strange friendship started. The old man, sometimes, got tired with the baby’s naggings and crying but he was patient and almost every he couldn’t help smiling. He finally had somebody to care for.

THE TRAINING OF A YOUNG WARRIOR

Time went by really fast. It was a hot morning and spring was in the air when the little boy started crawling. Little by little he left the cottage without being seen by the old man. He managed to get a bit deeper into the jungle where they lived. He stopped under a tree and suddenly some butterflies sat on his hands, his head and his legs. When the old man realised that he was missing, he started running as fast as he could, looking for the boy. When he reached the spot where the boy was, he saw the butterflies and a few metres further a black panther. The boy smiled and crawled towards the panther as if it had been his friend. The old man ran to save the boy but the panther stood in front of the boy as if it was trying to protect the boy from the old man. Alexandros froze. He couldn’t utter a word. He couldn’t believe his own eyes and he didn’t know how to react. His heart was beating fast and the adrenaline made his right leg tremble. Suddenly, the boy started crawling again, passing beneath the panther’s legs. He stopped for a while and then he crawled towards the old man, leaving the animal behind. Alexandros picked him up and went cautiously back to the cottage without losing eye contact with the panther. When they reached the cottage, he put the boy on the mattress and looked at him really troubled.

«You have got something special which nature accepted in its own unique way, » he whispered.

As time went by, Alexandros started feeling weak.

«Hey, kid! Stop running around! Come here! Good. Did you study what I told you? Did you eat? »

«Yes father. »

«Good. Before I check what you have understood from what you studied, I want to tell you that I have told you plenty of stories but it’s time you started being trained seriously. I am old and soon be gone. It’s time you learnt the secrets of life. I must give you a name and prepare you for the real world out there. The only place you know is the woods, and I am your sole company. I don’t want you to lead the life I did. It was my choice. There are so many things out there that you must feel and live. Do you feel ready? »

«Yes, I do» he answered with a serious expression on his face.

«Well every day I’ll be teaching you for six hours. Three hours in the morning and three in the afternoon. Am I understood? »

«Yes, father. At last, the day that my real training is going to start, has finally came. »

«Let’s begin: the ancient Greeks said that there is nothing more pure that the dialogue among people who share information and exchange views in order to reach a conclusion from which they evolve. They said that we should respect other people’s opinion independently of their social class. They said that we should learn to hear them. When you achieve this, you will find out their fears, their insecurities and then you will learn to deal with them. It doesn’t sound pretty but life is cruel out there, especially on planet Earth where people try to l\kill each other. There is also another planet, called Scorpio, where only rich and educated people live. There are rules and laws and everything is fair. But it’s difficult to go to this planet. I hope that what I’m trying to teach you will enable you to survive here and also go to planet Scorpio if you decide to. Where were we? »

«You were saying that I must learn to hear people so that I will be able to deal with them later. »

«Yes. People are kind but they are still animals with instincts and now that hunger and difficulties exist, these instincts rule. »

«But you saved me. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have died. »

«Yes. Don’t forget that I was alone and I needed company. I considered you a gift from God. By saving