Mark and Deena

at The Station

by

Per Jespersen

Mark and Deena woke up a very early morning. It was summer, and the sun got up very early. There was a chorus of birds’ songs, and the smell of summer came in from the open windows.

The children were sitting at their beds, rubbing their eyes and wondering why they woke up so early.

“It’s because it’s unnatural for human beings to sleep when the weather is nice,” Deena said.

“Is there anything natural about what human beings do at all, “ Mark asked.

“Oh yes. We eat, we sleep, we get children, we talk to each other.”

“Talking might not be natural. I’m not so sure, but there must have been times, when human beings couldn’t talk and tell each other things.”

“No, they could. Animals communicate, too. Birds do. I have read somewhere that even trees and flowers are able to communicate.”

“Well, reading is not natural, Deena. Do you know any bird, who can read?”

“No, not personally. But they read the stars, when they fly south in the fall and when they fly north at spring. That’s a kind of reading.”

“Take the story about Adam and Eve,” Mark continued. ”They could talk, and God could talk to them. But there was no reading. There was only one thing: Do as I tell you, and don’t eat the fruit of the Tree of Wisdom.”

“Because God didn’t want human beings to have his wisdom.”

Mark thought for a while. “Imagine that this story is true, although I consider it a legend. God should not want human beings to be wise. He didn’t want us to have insight in anything, but hoped that we would live a simple, ignorant life.”

“Yes, of course – that’s the only way to gain wisdom and happiness. As it is now : the more you know, the unhappier you get. So maybe the legend was right. We do try to know more and more, but as we get new answers we get new questions. We’ll never get on this way. Let’s go down to take some food.”

They went downstairs and met Mom in the kitchen. “Are you not asleep,” Deena said.

“I could say the same. I had a dream about Fa --- . I had a terrible dream.”

“You were about to say Father. You have never told us anything. I guess you need to talk about him.”

“No way,” Mom said, weeping a little. “But in the dream he was killed, and I didn’t like that. So I woke up, screaming.”

“So you woke us up,” said Mark. “I heard a scream. Why won’t you tell us who our father is or was?”

Mom had tears in her eyes. “Don’t you know that every human being has a right to have his or her secrets? You have, too. You don’t tell me everything, I know that. And I don’t ask you to. A human being without secrets is not a mature person.”

“That’s what the legend about Adam and Eve forgot,” Mark said triumphantly. “I’m beginning to believe in that legend from the Bible.”

“Oh yes, boys are not normal,” Deena teased. “I’ve always got that feeling.”

And Mom said. “I’ll try to get some sleep. Would you be nice, my very best children!”

“We’re the only children, you’ve got,” Deena said.

“Exactly. That’s why.”

Mom went to bed, and ten minutes later they tiptoed to her bedroom door and could hear her sleep. “It’s not always fun to be Mom,” Deena whispered.

“But she has so marvellous children,” Mark whispered back, and Deena could not stop laughing.

They went back to the kitchen and finished their breakfast. They were thinking deeply about their father, but realized that they would never get the answer.

“So, what do we do, Mark?”

“Don’t know. I’m not in the mood for playing games at the computer, and I guess you don’t play with dolls anymore!”

“So?”

“Let’s take a stroll down the street. I’m in the mood for meeting lots of people.”

“What kind of mood is that?”

“Just a desire to see that the world is still there with all its people doing things. Let’s go to the station.”

“The station?”

“Sure. The station is always a busy place. I want to sit down there, looking at all the people travelling and hurrying to catch the train. It’s human life.”

“Yes, and very far from your legend with Adam and Eve. They had no stations and no burgerbars.”

“They must have been bored.”

“No Mark, you can’t miss anything which is not yet invented.”

“I guess you’re right.”

They took their bicycles and drove towards the station. Deena could feel Mark’s feelings grow in her. She too wanted to see the rushing life on a station. That was the way it was with the two children: they very often felt and did the same things, although they did not always agree with each other.

When they reached the station they saw hundreds of people rushing in and out of the doors. But on the bench just beside the main door was a very poorly dressed man. He was very dirty and had a very old bike with a big suitcase. He looked very lonely, and Mark and Deena knew that he was a vagabond.

They sat down and started to talk. “Good morning, sir,” Mark said.

“I’m not a sir, as you see.”

“No, but that’s the way you are supposed to express yourself when you start talking to a stranger.”

“I know. But I’m still not a sir. Why don’t you just say “Hello” or “Hi there”?”

“That would be to indicate what we think about you,” Deena said.

“Oh, you are wise children. What are you doing here so early?”

“We could say the same,” Mark said. “But let me guess. “You have been sleeping in the forest and woke up at sunrise.”

“Exactly,” the vagabond said. “My bed is the whole wide world.”

“So you must have more freedom than we have,” Deen said.

“That depends. What is freedom? When I wake up in a wonderful forest, I feel free. But I don’t feel free, sitting here.”

“So why are you sitting here?”

“I needed to see that there are other people than me in this world.”

The childen wondered. Apparently the same need as they had.

“Are you hungry,” Mark said.

“Sure. I’m always hungry. I’m about to go begging in this city.”

“Don’t do that,” Deena said. “People would talk.”

“I don’t care. People talk about so many things, and still they don’t know a thing.”

“You might be right.” Deena took her brother’s hand. “We’ll invite you to follow us inside. We’re going to have a burger, and we want you to join us.”

“I can’t go in there.”

“You sure can. Come on, take your suitcase and follow us.”

Hesitatingly he got up and followed the children, and after five minutes the three of them were sitting at a table in the burger bar, eating and drinking. People were looking a great deal, but they did not care. They were in deep talk.

“What do you think about the story about Adam and Eve,” Mark asked.

“It’s a good story,” the vagabond answered. “It’s a fairy tale, and I like it.”

“But it’s only a story,” Deena said.

“Sure. But stories and legends and true events are in a way the same. Once upon a time there were two children meeting a poor vagabond. As they pitied him they took him for dinner at a very fine place.”

Mark and Deena gazed. “That’s a true story. How can you do that?”

“I used to be a writer, until everything went wrong.”

“And you won’t tell us?”

“No, it’s my secret.”

“There we go again,” Deena said. “To be human is to bear secrets in your heart, which you won’t tell anybody.”

“Clever girl,” the vagabond said. “You see, the story about Adam and Eve is going on in every single human being each day. Having thoughts about doing things, you are not allowed to. Trying to get wisdom. Trying to gain knowledge. That’s destroying oneself. So this story goes on and on again.”

“That’s not the way priests are talking about that story. They talk about sins.”

“I know – but we are all sinners, and God knew that from the very beginning. Because through your sinning you see the other side of Life, and he gives you the choice to sin on or go the right way for your soul.”

“How can you be so wise, when you live your life in the streets and sleep in parks and woods?”

He laughed. “Don’t you see? I have tried to escape the choice we were given, and it doesn’t work.”

“So you are very unhappy,” Mark said, almost with tears in his eyes.

“No, not really. But I’m not happy either. I’m nothing “

“I’ll get you another burger,” Mark said.

“Oh no, I can’t eat anymore.”

“Would you promise us one thing,” Deena asked.

“That depends.”

“We know a forester with his own private forest. If we help you building a cottage there, we ---“

“Oh, it wouldn’t work. The forester would never allow that.”

“Oh, he will,” Mark said. “He owes us a favour. Now he’s got his chance.”

“Do you want me to live there from now on?”

“Sure, if you promise us that you will start writing again. We’ll find paper and everything for you, and you start writing legends about mankind.”

The vagabond almost flushed. “I’m not used to that kindness. I don’t know how to handle it.”

“No”, said Mark. “Because when God gave us the ability to choose between good and evil, he also gave us the challenge. The Tree of Wisdom was the eternal challenge for Adam and Eve. Now you have your challenge. We’ll visit you every day to see what you have been writing.”

Now the vagabond was weeping. “You’re so nice. I’ll do it.“

“This is our day,” Mark said. “No sorry -- it’s your day.”

And people rushed to and fro at the station wihtout knowing that a divine thing happened just in the middle of the station.

God’s ways!!!!!

Questions to discuss:

Are human beings unnatural? Or do we do a lot of unnatural things?

Is reading natural? (A lot of people in this world cannot read).

Is a life in ignorance a happier life, than if you have a great knowledge?

Is knowledge the challenge for us?

Why do we have this battle for knowing more and more?

Mom says that we all have our secrets. That we will never grow mature without secrets.

Is this secret what we could call the soul?

Mark and Deena see for a moment the vagabond’s life as more free than their own life.

What is freedom?

Is it a challenge, too?

The text ends up with a new interpretation of the story about Adam and Eve:

That God knew that he created sinners, i.e. that Adam and Eve would eat the fruit.

That sin is a necessity for us in order to our seeing both sides of Life and getting new perspectives.

What do you think? Take a deep dialogue about this.

Maybe sinning is THE challenge for all of us?

Is it right, that God wanted us to have the choice between doing the right things or sin?

So it is up to ourselves?

Or?

The vagabond holds, that the story from The Garden of Eden goes on in every single human being all the time.

What do you think?

How do you prefer to interpret the story about Adam and Eve?

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