CHAPTER 22 – DESERT

It is now the eighth day after my accident in the desert. I listen to the story about the businessman and I am drinking my last water.

“Your stories are very nice,” I say to the little prince, “but my plane is still broken. I have nothing to drink. I also want to walk very slowly to a fountain.”

“My friend, the fox, says that…”

“My dear little man, this has nothing to do with the fox.”

“Why not?”

“Because soon I am dead.”

But the little prince says, “It is good to have a friend. And if you can die soon, it is good to have a friend too. I am very happy that I have a fox as a friend.”

“He doesn’t see the danger,” I think. “He is never hungry or thirsty. He only needs a little sunshine.”

But he looks at me and maybe he knows what I am thinking because he says, “I am thirsty too. Let’s look for a well.”

It is crazy to look for a well in this big desert. But we start to walk.

We walk for many hours. Then the night comes. The stars start to shine. I see them as in a dream. I am very thirsty. The last words of the little prince dance in my head.

“So, you are thirsty, too?” I ask him.

But he doesn’t answer my question. He only says to me, “Water can also be good for the heart.”

I don’t understand his answer, but I say nothing. I already know that he doesn’t answer my questions. He is tired. He sits down. I sit down next to him.

After a quiet moment, the little prince speaks again, “The stars are beautiful because there is a flower on one of them.”

“Sure,” I say. Then I look at the sand. The sand is all around us. We see the sand in the light of the moon.

“The desert is beautiful,” he says.

It is true. I always love the desert. When I sit down on sand in the desert. I see nothing. I hear nothing. But something beats and something shines in the desert.