…I squatted down. Beside me the water of a brook gurgled. Multiple different sounds merged into a single, a sonorous one, so the area around was filled with a beautiful spring melody. Mild, barely perceptible blows of a wind caressed my face. The serenity of the air intensified the brightness of the scenery.

All of a sudden, the tranquility of the place was disturbed by some sharp noises of somebody who beat his way through a thick layer of pale brown crispy leaves, which the trees had shed a long time ago. Instinctively, I froze. The steps came to a halt as if that “somebody” was aware of me being there and didn’t want to reveal himself, or herself, for that matter. To ease the awkwardness of the moment I turned my head back to the surface of the brook, trying to imitate a complete state of unconcern and indifference. The steps continued. Soon my eyes noticed a large bird with light brown plumage.

It walked like a royal person, lurching with every step it made. A narrow lane of transparent water separated us from each other. The bird came very close to me. I beckoned it with the movements of my hand, thinking that it would be spooked. On the contrary, it stopped, came even more closer, lifted up its head and cast the gaze of its round eyes right up to mine ones. I averted my eyes first… The creature wasn’t afraid of me. It became strolling back and forth, cackling quietly along the way.

…I looked up at my reflection in the water, and as I was looking, I recalled the time when I had handcrafted paper ships at springtime being a boy. Some of them were sturdy and well structured, some of them were not. Some of them floated graciously and swiftly, whereas some of them sank as soon as they touched the water. It seemed that each of those ships had soul and strived for its life. I wished that one day they would enter a fabulous harbor. I believed they would reach a parallel world where only hot summer days were only an option. I witnessed many times how my paper sailing vessels were hooked by a twig and then squeezed down by the fast stream of the brook. They became stuck, then unfolded and then the water turned them into a shapeless white mass. Quite a few of them nevertheless just became stuck. It was very fascinating scene. Half in water, half in the air, with its frame covered slightly under water by brownish yellow sand, a ship was concealed from others by a natural build-up of stones, twigs, branches and mud. Those places for me were sacred, I could gaze at them for an extended period of time, never founding myself bored. Maybe it was because I truly believed that no matter how a ship had been damaged it wasn’t giving up. It was just waiting, regaining its strength for the following adventures on the way. And when I saw that sparkle of the ripples in the water, I felt over the moon… “The best is yet to come,” I told myself then…

… Suddenly I focused my eyes, went back to reality; and when I gazed on the water I realized that the bird had been looking at my eyes since my mind was absent. The unbelievable boldness of the bird, its reassuring glance and its friendliness made me think that it wasn’t a coincidence, that our encounter wasn’t accidental. Maybe, it knew something and tried so convey a divine message to me…

…But maybe… Maybe I am lost and not yet found…