Stay!

… inbetween incessant coughing, he managed to string together a short sentence pleading with me to stay. ‘How can I stay?’, I wondered. This is not a cough that responds to prescription drugs or over the counter drugs. There is a very short remiss and the cough starts again. I can’t sleep and it is a matter of time before I catch the cough as well.

The elders gathered to beseech me to stay. They shared their wisdom and gave their reasons. I sat down quietly to listen and ponder what was being said. Soon, I heard a faint sound from the back, so I raised my head to see where it was coming from, I thought the ‘cougher’ was joining in. I looked closely and realised it wasn’t the ‘cougher’! One of the elders was doing the coughing, he had the affliction as well! Almost as if planned, one after the other, from the back all the way to the front, they all started coughing, slowly at first but it worked it’s way all the way to the front and the whole congregation was now coughing. Conversation became difficult as every sentence was interjected with a cough.

With boldness, I stood up and addressed the group. “You are all coughers, I must go into the forest, there are herbs that can cure this affliction, if I stay, it is only a matter of time before I become a cougher and our children will be afflicted likewise, I must get the cure, I must leave” And so I left!