7

02:34

From what he remembered he had always been alone. Nights and winters were cold, summers and springs were warm, water was fresh, berries he picked were ripe and tasty. He would sleep outside on tree benches in the summer and hide in caves in the winter. There was no particular day he remembered on which he was born or a particular moment he started to be conscious of his being. All his past days blended into one. He remembered that he was hungry and he ate everything he found on his way. He remembered that one day he fell sick and threw up, and afterwards he learned not to eat the things he ate that day anymore. He started to recognize what was good for him and what could kill him easily, if he overdosed. When his smell started to be unbearable, he would wash himself in the river. When he was tired, he would sleep on the ground and cover his body with leaves, whenever it was cold.

He never cried. He wasn't scared of anything. Ever. He saw people killed in the forest, he saw little ones dying of hunger, but if they weren't suppose to survive, there was nothing to cry about for long. He had scars and bruises but years outside made his skin hard and his bones thick.

At some point of his life he met a group of children similar to him. They were wandering around in a pack and they found him a friendly and useful boy to be around, worth both their time and attention. From then on he would be running along with them through fields, forests and bushes, far away from the unfriendly civilization of the towns and cities of K., and even further away from N.. It was advantageous for him as the children had mastered the language. Two boys still remembered it after years they spent living with adults and could speak and teach each other the difficult art of communication. They called him Adam.

So he was Adam and he had company. All of the children were as hopeless and as fearless as he had been all his life but the difference was that they were stronger in a group than as individuals. That is why they stayed together. Sometimes everybody did the same thing: looked for food, built a shelter, cared about the usual occupations; sometimes they divided their chores and some of them were taking care of picking berries, others - of making fire, which made things easier and faster.

One time they found a dead man and used his skin to make bags and coats. They took his teeth and made necklaces for themselves to make them look prettier. Dead man's meat was too stale so they didn't eat him. And even if it hadn't been stale, they wouldn't resort to such a thing. They had plenty of berries and mushrooms. Besides, once in a while they could even catch a rat and cook it over the fire. Adam would eat flies and mice, and sometimes, even though very very rarely they would find a fish. They ate all of it, with the head, eyes, and tail. Bones, which were left, they used for jewelry as they did with the dead man's teeth. Every source of food was valuable and there was no place for wasting it.

One day Adam had a fight with one of the group members about the shelter. Adam wanted to build it from sticks, the other boy decided to use leaves. They couldn't agree on anything. The group knew the other boy longer than Adam, so it was Adam who was made to leave. They didn't cry for him as they didn't cry at all. Adam grew sad and lonely in his heart but not even one tear dropped from his eyes on that occasion.

And again he was alone. He would wander for days along the forest and talk to himself because there was no one else to talk to. He would sleep soundly on the ground, unafraid of anything or anyone. Boys had said that centuries ago there were big beasts in the forest, beasts which could catch you, bite you and eat you but as no one was really afraid of rats, which, if anything, you were most likely to come across, you could sleep soundly wherever you went.

One day he saw a bird in the sky and waved to him but the bird didn't wave back. It was the only bird he saw in his life. The first lonely winged being appeared before his eyes out of nowhere and he was amazed. He didn't know that there were beings which could fly over the ground and do it in such a graceful and beautiful way.

Adam was growing up. He noticed hair on his chest and face, on his penis and testicles. His legs got really hairy, even his back did so, and, even though, he could not see it, he definitely could feel it when he was washing himself in the river. He didn't like the hair. The fact that he was getting bigger and stronger made him proud and more self-confident as he managed to be alive for such a long time. He enjoyed the timbre of his changed voice and the fact that his chest grew larger and his arms were more muscular. Still he didn't like the hair. One day he found a sharp piece of stone and shaved himself all over, leaving only a few scars, this time, self-inflicted. But the hair grew back, so he decided to shave it only on special occasions, and on ordinary days he resorted to staying his natural self.

One day, after weeks of walking and sleeping, the forest ended and he walked into a field. It was summer and the wheat grew up high, bordering fields with corn and barley. He saw a big tree and spent the night there. Only when he woke up at the first rays of sunlight, he noticed a house. He had seen such houses earlier at the other end of the forest. There were usually many people in them, sleeping on the floors, eating from the same bowls, quarreling and fighting over women. He didn't want to go in there as at that time he was glad that he could live alone. He wasn't afraid of people. He was only careful, as human nature could be tricky and rarely straightforward, whether it was about good or evil. Adam liked to observe those living in the houses and quickly picked up their habits. He even learned how to cook since other children were made to do this in the yards and gardens, probably out of security reasons, and unintentionally they showed him how it was done. They put stoves outside, boiled stews, grilled pepper and fried potatoes. Adam would sometimes eat what they had left, or he took some food ingredients they left outside and prepared the meal over the fire.

And now he encountered this house. Adam hid behind a tree. Suddenly, a boy came out. A fair-haired, tall, skinny boy, wearing trousers and a white shirt, with a hat on his head. Adam looked at him with interest. He was a beautiful boy, far more beautiful than all those boys who were in his former group. And from the moment he saw him, he started watching him with greed and he would come closer to see what he was doing. He had long hair and very nice teeth. His unbuttoned shirt rolled and showed his stomach, protruding from his trousers. Adam felt a strong pang of desire in the lower part of his belly. His penis hardened and he started breathing sharply and couldn't take his eyes off the boy, growing more and more greedy. He decided to stay there for longer, look at him, and get to know him better.

The boy walked out of the house about once a day, hung out his clothes, played in the garden, ate his meal. Once he left a half full bowl of some dish made from corn and potatoes and came back inside. Adam run quickly and ate what was left and ran back quickly, retreating to his forest hideout.

The next day the boy walked out again and looked at his finished meal. He noticed that something was wrong. From that time he would leave something to eat on the same spot every day, and Adam didn't have to run through the forest in search of food. He was even more attached to the house. And to the boy.

'I see you,' the boy said when he was eating beans from the bowl, and Adam wanted to hide away.

'Don't run. You come here everyday. What's your name?'

Adam didn't answer. He was afraid of speaking in front of a stranger. In fact he was afraid of speaking at all.

'Come back tomorrow.'

Adam nodded and ran to the fields, not turning back.

The following day he would find a pair of shoes, a shirt and a pair of trousers next to the bowl of rice, and he would dress just like the boy did, as imitation is the greatest flattery, and he wanted the boy to feel flattered.

He came there everyday, but the boy stopped coming out, and Adam was worried he was dead.

Adam, on the other hand, kept coming back to the house, but walking inside and out of it was an old man in a gray coat. Sometimes another twenty or so other elderly men rushed inside and stayed there for hours and Adam didn't like the feeling in his stomach at the thought that so many men were spending time with that boy and he was deprived of such a pleasure. Or at the thought that they might have killed his young favorite and disposed of his body. Or used it as his mates did with that dead man found in the forest.

He decided to stay in his hideout for some time and wait until the elderly stopped coming in. He didn't like to be seen by so many people.

It was after a week of his hiding in the forest, perhaps not hiding but staying as usual with his own means and own methods of obtaining food, of being one with nature, when he saw the boy coming to him. Adam was glad to see him again and jumped off the tree.

'I thought you're dead,' he said honestly 'I thought they killed you, the old people.'

The boy laughed. Adam was surprised that he spoke out of his own initiative, not being asked to, and not being made to. He usually spoke to himself, not to forget the art of speech.

'No, they didn't kill me. They're not here to kill. Are you hungry? I brought you some food.'

Adam wasn't as hungry as sometimes he was in his life but he didn't think twice about the food the boy brought him. He ate it quickly and sat, beaming, content with himself, with his stomach full, and happy that he could see the boy again.

'Do you like swimming?' he asked, pleased that it was the boy who came to his place, if you could call it his place, and not the other way round.

'Swimming where?'

Adam grabbed the boy's hand and took him to the riverside. Then he undressed him and noticed that the boy wasn't really a boy.

'You're a girl' he gasped, chuckling under his nose.

The girl didn't get the joke.

'I am. I have always been a girl as a matter of fact. Why did you think differently?'

Adam pointed at her clothes. The girl nodded.

'What's your name?'

'Gemma. And yours?'

'Adam'.

So they introduced. And saw themselves naked for the first time. And it actually made no difference for them. For Adam not even the slightest. And then they swam in the river as kids, whom they were, playfully and happily, until the sun set and Gemma had to come back home.

They would do that for the rest of the summer, cheerfully and happily, glad that they had each other and they didn't have to compete neither for space nor for food.