“Yes,” Aleksandras said, “you’re a special boy, Andrius.”
“Let’s go home, Papa.”
“All right. Let’s go home.”
“Pay attention now. Pay attention. Your break is past and we have to resume.”
Andrius sighed from where he sat in the branches of the spreading tree. He had not played with the other children during their recess. No one had invited him. Milda had talked with him briefly, but they only ended up arguing.
“Settle down,” the instructor spoke again, clapping his hands. “Take a seat, fun time is through. Settle down and call out for roll again so I know you’ve all returned.”
Andrius did not want to go back down. Viktoras might hit him again and no one ever seemed to notice. Besides, his mind was another place. The wind gently tousled his fine hair and he listened to the music of the crown of mountains, guarding him like sentinels in the place beyond the barrier. And the sun! It sang magnificently today. All he could do was listen in awe and let it warm his soul.
He definitely wasn’t climbing down.
“Berena.”
“Viktoras.”
“Milda.”
“Runas.”
The other children faithfully called out their names as the instructor nodded. When there were no more names to be said, the instructor paused. Andrius was daydreaming and listening to the sun.
“I don’t believe I heard Andrius’s name. Did he wander off?”
“No, Teacher,” Andrius replied from up above. He was bored with the class today. They would be learning reading skills again. It had been exciting when they first learned, but they stayed on the basics long after Andrius had picked it up. Reading was something that he was actually good at. All of the other kids had to run their finger across the page as they read, but Andrius didn’t need to.
The instructor turned his head, piqued.
“Andrius, where are you?”
“I’m up here,” he answered. “I can listen from up here.”
Suddenly the instructor’s face was aghast and the children began murmuring.
“You mean to tell me that you’re . . . you’re up in the tree?”
The children were really talking now. More than a few gasps were uttered. Andrius was confused. He swung his legs where they dangled off the large branch.
“What’s wrong with that? I can hear you from here. I’m not up too high, only halfway.”
The instructor stood up and approached the base of the old tree.
“Andrius,” he said gravely. “I’m not mad at you, but you need to do as I say. Slowly, take your time, you need to feel your way down from that tree.”
“I can’t believe he’d climb a tree!” Berena whispered loud enough for the whole group to hear.
Andrius furrowed his brow as he shifted on the branch.
“But why, teacher? I won’t cause any trouble up here.”
“Blizzard and silence, Andrius! Are you so dull? It’s dangerous, stupid, and reckless. Do you want to break your neck? Or an arm or a leg? Or your spine?”
They were reacting very strongly. Andrius did not understand why. He climbed trees all the time.
He turned back one last time at the meadow beyond him, the thick swath of woods on all sides, and the proud mountains in the distance. He began to climb down.
“I don’t get why I have to come down,” Andrius grumbled to himself.
With a little leap, Andrius left the tree and his feet thudded to the ground. The children gasped, making Andrius tilt his head up and scratch it self-consciously.
“He’s crazy,” Milda whispered.
“Idiot,” Viktoras muttered.
“It isn’t that big of a deal,” Andrius protested, hesitantly walking to where he had set his things. His throat felt suddenly dry, so he picked up his wooden pitcher and took a long drink.
The instructor shook his head.
“Andrius, for better or for worse, you are one of a kind. Now do me a favor and never do something like that again. Let’s not toy with death until we have a little more experience with life, hmm?”
Andrius sat down on the grass and twisted his cane absentmindedly in his hands.
“Yes, Teacher.”
The instructor began droning on, and Andrius found his attention slipping away. He didn’t see what the big deal was about climbing a tree during break. The instructor passed out reading sheets, but Andrius was more interested in the meadow and the forest and the mountains beyond. A cloud drifted lazily across the sky. The children laughed at a joke that Andrius had missed. He was in his own world. The tall grasses swayed gently in the wind, harmoniously to the sun’s music.
Something caught Andrius’s attention. Way off in the distance, did he hear something?
Forgetting about everyone around him, he stood up. His eye caught a flash of movement at the forest’s edge.
“Andrius?” the instructor asked. “Andrius, I’m waiting for the answer. You are behaving most strangely today.”
The boy’s focus did not waver. There was definitely movement.
He ran to the tree suddenly, without thinking, and began to clamber up it.
“Andrius? Andrius! What are you doing?”
It might mean severe punishment, but Andrius couldn’t think of that now. His hands reached up, one after the other, taking hold of alternating branches and pulling himself higher. If he was right, this was more important.
“Andrius!” the instructor shouted. Now he was angry.
“I heard something, Teacher.”
Andrius’s head emerged from the canopy of leaves and there it was. The meadow spread out before him in the dazzling song of the late afternoon sun. At its edge, just outside of the forest, was where Andrius had noticed movement. He knew for sure now that it was not just his imagination.
“There’s a man out there! Past the barricade!”
The children reacted excitedly, chattering among themselves.
“How can you tell?” asked Runa, one of the duller students in his age group.
“I heard him!” Andrius replied.
The figure in the distance was in bad shape. His path was stumbling and erratic. Andrius was the only one to notice him stumble and fall.
“Where is he?” Berena asked while the instructor tried in vain to restore order.
“Past the barricade. He’s probably a whole road away!”
“Andrius,” the instructor huffed, turning his attention back to the impetus of the upheaval. “Get out of that tree this instant!”
Andrius was already in the air. His feet met the ground softly.
“He needs our help!”
“Andrius, this is so unlike you. Come back here and listen to me!”
But someone was hurt. Andrius was running toward the fallen man as fast as his legs could carry him. Usually he would shrink back at his teacher’s instruction, but he knew that the man that he noticed, that nobody else did, needed help. Did not even the Prophet himself say that helping others was their primary occupation? For a better village.
“Follow me!” Andrius hollered. “I won’t be able to carry him by myself.”
Several of the children took up their canes and went shuffling after Andrius. The instructor, realizing that there was no stopping them, went along and urged caution.