SHORT STORY “THE RETURN OF THE LITTLE PRINCE”
THE RETURN OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
Automatic traslation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
On October 8, 2021, the Bedouin Akram was riding on his camel to Al Yauf. There, at Saied Yasky Shope, he would buy some things he needed and return to his”Beit al-sha’ar”, the night-black tent that he had built out of goatskin.
Suddenly, an unusual image formed on his retina, immediately pulling him out of his thoughts. A child, a little boy, with golden curls and strangely attired, wandered alone in the Sahara.
He thought it was a mirage and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision… but the little one was still there, closer and closer to him.
Akram, when he was next to the boy, asked him:” Are you ok, little boy?”
The boy, as he was in the habit of doing, instead of answering, asked:” Do you know my friend the aviator?”
“What aviator?” –Asks the bewildered Bedouin.
“I have found a letter; it seems to me that it is written by him…”
“Can you let me see her?”
“He told me that he would tell my story and that he would also appear. I would be the little prince and he would be the aviator. Maybe it’s what he says here, but I can’t read it. On my asteroid, since I’m alone with my rose, I don’t need to know how to read…”
Akram gently takes the yellowed paper from the boy’s hands. The first thing he reads is the date, January 3, 1936… and then the signature, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The content simply reads:”If anyone visits this place and comes across a golden-haired boy who refuses to answer their question, please write to me as soon as possible. Remember, when you read this, that only with the heart can you see well.”
He smiles and thinks the boy is kidding him… but he still doesn’t understand what he’s doing alone in Libya, right in the middle of the Sahara desert.
Then he looks at the little boy again and notices his strange outfits, and remembering the book he had read so many times, he realizes that they correspond to those drawn by Sait-Exupéry in”The Little Prince”… He no longer knows that it is real and which is not…
Puzzled, he invokes divine help saying to himself:”Allah, in your great greatness, if the child’s story is false, let me know…”
After a long time, Allah, who perhaps because of the way the question was formulated, thought that it was not necessary to answer or perhaps because at that moment he was having breakfast and had not found out, he had not said anything. The point is that the Bedouin accepted the little boy’s story and decided that he should communicate with a living relative of the writer.
“Look, boy,” he said to the Little Prince,”now I’m going to Al Yauf, I’ll take the letter with me and from there I’ll try to communicate with a relative of your friend the aviator to read it to him. He died childless in 1944, after you published your story in April 1943. You should come with me, though. The desert is very inhospitable…”
“Where can I find food and water around here?” –Asks the little one without answering.
The Bedouin, familiar with the book, of the boy’s stubbornness, knows that although he has not answered him, he will want to stay and wait, just in case the aviator arrives.
So that he does not have problems until he returns, he indicates that just behind the first dune, he will find the Harat Zuwayyah oasis…
The boy, without a word, directs his steps towards the dune, while Akran goes to Al Yauf… There he will see how to connect with a relative of Saint-Exupéry…
Upon reaching the town, he goes to a parlour to consult on the Internet possible successors of the writer… he soon finds the”Fondation succession Antoine Saint-Exupéry”, whose director, named Olivier, although he does not have the same last name, seems to be related.
From the same parlour, he calls the foundation’s phone and asks for Mr. Olivier.
“He is in a meeting” –answers a female voice.
“It is to comment on an important and urgent matter. I have on my hands a letter from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry dated January 3, 1936, which I think may be of great interest to him. The problem is that I will not be able to call you again…”
After a moment’s hesitation, the voice on the other end of the line comments:”I’m going to see if he can get there.”
An instant later, a man’s voice asks him:”Are you saying you have a letter from my great-uncle?”
Akram reads the content of the letter to him and tells him the story that the golden-haired boy, who claims to be”The Little Prince”, has told him.
Olivier, he falls silent for a few seconds, before managing to articulate a sound…
“Although my grandmother, Antoine’s sister, had told me that he, before the family, always maintained that the story he told in”The Little Prince” was true, the truth is that I find it impossible to believe. But I am genuinely interested in the letter you claim to have. How can I get hold of it?”
“You will have to come to Libya to pick it up, specifically in Al Yauf, but we must specify an exact date. I am a Bedouin and I live in the desert.”
“But, we are in the middle of a pandemic…”
“I know, but I’m sure he can fix it…”
Shortly after both men they have agreed to meet in front of the Mosque of Omar ibn al-Khattab at 12:00 on October 11, just three days later.
Akram, after acquiring what he had gone to buy, returns to the desert. There he will explain to the child what happened and will try to convince him to go with him to meet the aviator’s relative.
Once the little prince found out, he told him:”While you have been away, I have spoken with the yellow snake, so that once he has seen the aviator, he will help me to return home…”
“But… the aviator won’t come; I told you that he died seventy-seven years ago…”
“I’ll keep waiting here for a few days. If anyone wants to see me, it must be here.”
The Bedouin does not know how he can convince Olivier to go into the desert and see the little boy…
“The aviator promised me that if we met again he would draw me two more lambs… One white and one black…”
Time, even in the desert, passes quickly and it is time to leave for Al Yauf to meet Olivier and although he asks the boy to accompany him again, finally, he must leave alone…
When locating him, Akram, shows the letter to Olivier… This one when seeing the letter pales. It is the handwriting of his great-uncle, he has no doubt.
“Yes, the letter is from my great-uncle, but the truth is that I don’t believe it about the child. If he was true he would have brought it with you now.”
“He is very stubborn, he thinks that the aviator may appear at any moment and he has not wanted to come…”
“It sounds very strange to me. Besides, how after so many years he is still a child…?”
“I don’t know either, but he has managed to convince me… The last thing he told me, and he did it full of emotion, is that his great-uncle promised him that if they met again she would draw him two lambs. One white and one black…”
Olivier’s face pales as his eyes and lips open in surprise…
“It didn’t say that in the book, but according to my grandmother, my great-uncle always insisted on it.” He made him promise that if he was missing and we were to find him, we would draw the little lambs that he promised him… Even so, the little one; he will have to convince me that the impossible can exist, if you see it with your heart. Let’s see the child…!”
Akram, who this time had brought a second camel, who was very docile and calm, helps Olivier ride, who is seized with fear. In turn, he goes up to his and both go to the Harat Zuwayyah oasis, where right next to it they will find the Little Prince…
When they arrive, just seeing him, Olivier is enchanted… The little one is identical to the drawings of his, now deceased, relative of him… And he only succeeds in telling him…
“Hi Little Prince, I’m going to draw you the little lambs that my great-uncle promised you. Before he died, he asked my grandmother that, if any of us saw you, he would draw them for you…”
“I’m sure I won’t like them. Only he knew how I loved them…”
“Let me try it” –says Olivier as he opens a folder and takes out a paper and a pencil and begins to draw a beautiful gift-wrapped box with a ribbon ending in a beautiful bow and, when he finishes it, he hands it to the little Prince…
“It’s true…! They are exactly as he promised me… he told me it would be a gift… Only he knew that he should wrap them like this” –said the little one with moistened eyes…
For an almost eternal moment, everyone is silent, until the little one speaks again…
“When the yellow snake bit me last time, I thought it would go to my asteroid, but I found myself in a very beautiful place, full of light and colour where there was no one, just a kind old man.”
“This is not my house! The yellow snake has tricked me!” -I said angrily looking at the old man, who was watching me with a kind face…
“She lied to you, because for you, your house was the asteroid. Although inadvertently in reality she told you the truth. This is your true home, everyone’s. Your little planet, it was just your temporary abode.
“You tell me it’s everyone’s house, but I don’t see anyone here,” -I protested.
“It will take you a few days to see them. You have to get used to not seeing with eyes that you no longer have.” –He replied.
“he truth is that after a few days I was able to see the others… that as he had told me, there were many.”
The boy takes a deep breath and continues:”Then I asked him if my friend the aviator was also there…”
“No, he has not finished his work yet; he will take time to arrive. Reassure yourself that nothing bad will happen to him. When he arrives you will be able to see him. But don’t get impatient, the weather here is different than on Earth” –he answered me.
“So what did you do?” –Asks Olivier, completely ecstatic by the story…
“When four years passed, seeing that he did not arrive, I asked the old man to let me return to Earth to look for him… He replied that if I returned, since the time was different, he would not find him anymore… but as I kept insisting and he saw me sad, –no one is there–, he finally brought me back here with my body… Of course, I pray that when I was convinced, I would come back as soon as possible. For this reason I have already agreed with the yellow snake… just when I know what happened, I will return with her help…”
“When do you think you will be convinced?” -Akram asks, with real interest…
“I am… Now I leave you and go with the snake –and looking at Olivier, the boy ads–, now I will tell you what I said to your great-uncle. You can see me as if he had died, but it is because my body is too heavy to take it with me. Do not see me leave, since it could disturb you… when you want to know about me, you only have to look at the stars and remember my laugh, and that way it will seem to you that all the stars laugh with me.”
Then the little prince gets up and goes where the yellow snake awaits him, which immediately bites him and his body falls without making a sound, while for a fleeting moment he sees, transparent as in a mirage, the yellow snake biting the aviator and knows , finally, that the pilot will be at home, awaiting his arrival.
The two men, with moistened eyes, embrace for a moment, with the tranquillity of knowing something that almost no one knows… since only with the heart can the invisible be seen.
The Return of the Little Prince – Short stories series – Copyright ©Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés