CHAPTER 25 – WALL

Next to the well there is an old wall. When I come back from my work the next evening, I see the little prince from some distance. He is sitting on top of the wall. He is talking to somebody.

He says. “This is not the right place.”

Some voice must say something to him because the little prince says, “Yes, yes, this is the right day, but it is not the right place.”

I continue my walk to the wall. I still can’t see or hear anybody. But the little prince says again, “Sure. You can follow my steps in the sand. You only have to follow me to that place. It can all happen tonight.

I am twenty meters from the wall and I still can’t see anything. The little prince speaks again, after a pause. “Do you have good poison? Are you sure that you can do it very quickly?”

I stop. My heart is beating strongly. But I still don’t understand the situation.

“Now go away,” says the little prince. “I want to go down from the wall”.

Then I look down at the sand under the wall. I am shocked.

There is a yellow snake there. It is a snake which can kill you in thirty seconds.

I want to take my revolver. But when I am trying to take it, I also make a step back. The snake hears it. He starts to move and he is quickly gone in the rocks. I still hear him but I don’t see him.

I come to the wall. I catch the little prince in my arms. His face is very white.

“What are you doing here?” I want to know. “Why are you talking with the snake?”

He looks at me. His eyes are sad. He puts his arms around my neck. I feel his heart. His heart is beating like the heart of a bird which is dying.

He says to me, “I am happy that your plane is OK. Now you can go home.”

“How do you know it?”

I am here because I want to tell him that my work is finished.

He doesn’t answer my question, but he says, “I can go back home today, too. It is very far. I need somebody’s help for my next journey.”