The Word According To Sleepy Lestat

      In a town so small yet prospered, tells a story of a man who owns the land. We shall call him the "land owner". The land owner likes his ale and likes it most in the company of others who share this, shall we say "need". So it is no surprise that we find him in a pub in the middle of the town that prospered.

"My cup is empty! Barkeep! Why is my cup empty?! Bellowed the land owner.

"A fish would drown if it drank as much as you sir!" the barkeep replied.

"Oh shut up! Just fill my cup! It is my patronage that keeps you in business and my benevolence that lets you keep this place!" said the land owner.

"Oh! but it is my wonderful ale that keeps me in business and my benevolence that keeps me from letting you drink yourself to death!" answered the barkeep. " Go home sir, tomorrow is another day to drown yourself in my ale."

"I will not leave! I own this plot where your stupid pub sits on!

"Sigh… suit yourself, but i will not serve you anymore ale for that you do not own sir! Just sit there and maybe you’ll sober enough to go home without my servant’s aid."

So the land owner sat there for awhile pondering his options. Stay or leave, there is all the ale he could drink in his house however, he feels he should be here like a fly who stays on top of excrements, it is disgusting but the fly stays there and only the fly itself understands why, or maybe it doesn’t understands at all but does it anyway.

Just then a man came in and searched for a quiet spot. After awhile he thought there is no such spot in this place, he acquiesced and sat next to the land owner. He ordered a drink.

The land owner studied the man next to him. His clothes suggest that he could only afford a pint or two. There were dirt on the back of his neck and the same dirt in the insides of his nails. He had a powerful smell of sweat even the land owner could notice that, drunk as he is. He stared at the mans drink and spoke.

"Lucky you my friend! The first pint to quench the thirst is always the best!" said the land owner who tried his best to appear sober.

"Oh bugger off! you old fart! I know who you are! Lucky you say! I spend a whole week down the mines, all i could think of is this wonderful ale down my throat and all that work, i could only afford a few pints then my wages goes to the missus! The good fortune is yours! You who spend the whole of days in this pub, drinking till you drop and not a worry in the world because you can afford to do nothing till the day they bury you to the ground!"

With this retort a smile crossed the land owners face.

"Why i asked are you grinning?"

"Oh irony i guess… Let me tell you how fortunate a man i am. Can you spare a moment for my tale?"

The miner considered this and thought "it’s a better way to kill the time than having to listen to the missus complain all night." "Go ahead then, but i plan to share no ale to you tonight, old man!"

"Understood, so let me tell you the story of my fortunate life…"

   The story begins with my father, who fought in the last war. He was in command of a thousand men and with this regiment, he killed ten thousand of the enemy. After the war was won, the king rewarded him with land. The land was near a great town but a river separated them. He hired some men to build a bridge over the running water. He thought if he did this, people will come and the land could be leased. However, after the war, people had little or no money at all and noone came.

Then one autumn night the answer came to him and the next day he went to town. There he announced that he is leasing his land for free for the first hundred to come and for a period of ten years, after that they either pay or leave. This appealed to lot of folks and soon his land was busy with people building houses and shops. Soon his land which became a town, was the most prospered in the region and the first hundred settlers didn’t leave but stayed and payed.

By the time i was born, my father was a very rich man and when he died, the whole town mourned, for they believed that he was the most generous man who ever lived.

When i grew up, i followed my fathers footsteps, even got drafted but a war never came. Finally at the age of nineteen i did my fathers work, which is to say " i did almost nothing."

Like a real romantic play, i met Sarah, the woman who i knew even then i would love forever. "She seems slightly beautiful", people would say. But when she smiles, she becomes so beautiful that anything you can say to compliment her would be an understatement. We got married a year later.

She gave birth to our daughter Ellen, who was blessed with a striking resemblance to her mother. We were happy then, i was happy and rich at that! But only in children’s book do we have stories with only happy thoughts and happy enddings in them. This is not a story i would tell a child, so things became bad and all of a sudden at that!

My wife became ill and i called for the the doctor. He said that he could not do anything for her and it’s best to make her remaining time in his care at the hospital. I said "No! I would let her enjoy life to what little time she has left and give her anything she desires snd needs!"  I asked her what she desires and she said "I have you and Ellen, i don’t need anything else."  " But there must be something you always wanted!" I said. After a while she said "Well… when i was a child i used to have piano lessons, i always loved the music it made. Then oneday my father decided to stop my lessons and when i asked why, he said that there are more important things in life than music and in five years time i would be old enough to marry and it was important to him that i marry well… I did not marry you to follow my father’s wishes but i married you because i love you! Remember that!"

I hired the best pianist i could find and bought the best piano i could afford and that meant the best! My wife began her lessons and soon the house was full of music the whole of everyday. I busied myself with work and when i could not find anything to do, i went to town and see how the people are doing. I did all this to forget my wife’s condition.

The third happiest day of my life came! (first was when Sarah said yes to marry me and second when Ellen was born) Sarah’s illness suddenly disappeared! It was the greatest of all miracles! I was so happy, the town celebrated with my family and had the greatest party in the regions history of parties! She looked more beautiful and radiant than the day i first saw her…

One day i decided to come home early from a fox hunt. I wanted to be with Sarah more than ever because i almost lost her. I came and heard the piano playing, so i knew Sarah was in the piano room. When i got closer to the room, i found it odd that the notes didn’t make any sense, like a child was pounding on the keys. When i entered the room, I saw Sarah and the pianist naked. She was sitting on the ivory keys while he was all over her. There and then my soul died and left me in this body. I knew this because i have never felt such unbearable pain and yet my body could not feel it. In the end, i felt numb. That is how i knew my soul is dead and i left the room.

We got separated and she left with the pianist. We had another problem, Ellen. I would have taken her but she looked exactly  like her mother and that is something i could not take. Ellen went with Sarah and the pianist. If you think that hiring the pianist was my biggest mistake then i’ll tell you now, this was worse.

Years past and i became the best customer of this pub. One fine morning( always a fine morning if you were so drunk the night before that you couldn’t remember anything.) News came of a bad sort, Sarah, her illness came back and it was much worse than before. I visited her in her house and she looked worse than she did before. She said all sorts of things and almost everything incoherent. She was dying.

I saw my daughter, she had grown and looked like Sarah did during the first time we met. Ellen had become so beautiful and seeing Sarah next to her, it is like all the life in her was sucked away and given to Ellen. Sarah died the following summer.

After that i came to the pub almost everyday. Again, one fine day Ellen came to the pub through those doors. At the slightest of moments i thought she came to save me from my sorrow but it was not, she came to ask for money. It seems that Sarah’s doctor’s fees has not been paid and Ellen came to me for the money. I told her to come to the pub the next day and i would give her the money. She said she’ll be here. The next day, the pianist came! Oh how i hated seeing his face! He said that Ellen is not well and asked him to come for the money. I panicked thinking my daughter is ill but the pianist assured me she was only under the weather. I gave him the money and he left saying Ellen promises to come here soon when she is ready. I never saw both of them again.

A few months later i found out that the doctor never got his money and came to collect his fees from me. He told me the worst thing, far worse than the news of Sarah’s illness. He told me that Ellen and the pianist eloped to who knows where. They were together… Somehow Sarah’s death made them fall inlove. They had mistaken their grief for love! But i heard Ellen is ill? To this question the doctor looked more apprehensive to what he was about to say, "Is it possible to have worse news than this?" i thought. It was possible, for he told me that Ellen was only suffering from discomforts brought by her pregnancy. My soul died a second time that day…

The land owner stopped talking and closed his eyes and opened them again like he thought he was asleep and such a gesture would force him to wake. He tried again but it was no use, this is his life.

The miner suddenly felt like going home, he misses his wife and all her complaints. He bid the land owner goodbye but the land owner was staring in the distance, to the doors, like he’s waiting for someone to come, " his servant perhaps?" thought the miner. He got out of the pub and went straight home, he left his cup still full.

The land owner did not notice the departure of the miner but a cup full of ale is something he would notice with one eye! He looked at the cup and thought to himself "would this be enough to make the pain go away?" And he said almost aloud "Maybe for the slightest of moments.. The slightest of moments…" then he smiled.

Copyright 2005 sleepy lestat