Finish the Story #44: The story of Mr. Renhe Ren

This is my entry into the #finishthestory contest by @bananafish
You can enter contest on this link

The story of Mr. Renhe Ren
by @marcoriccardi

It is said that Mr. Renhe Ren, of Daochu village, in the province of Quan Shijie, in his forty-second year of life, was seized by a great rage because of his long-standing enemy, who was constantly working to hinder and ruin any of his activities and projects. Faced with the umpteenth abuse, Mr. Renhe Ren felt that his harmony and self-control were going to be lost. He was no longer able to feel the noble sentiments worthy of a superior man.
Then he remembered the words of the wise man. "Sit down along the river bank and wait, sooner or later you will see the corpse of your enemy pass". So, he left the village of Daochu and went down to the river. He found a willow with a wide foliage that bent gently over the water, and sat down in his shadow, determined to wait until the wisdom of the ancestors had brought a solution to his problem.

He awaited for days and nights, meditating. Sun, rain, wind and fog alternated tormenting him, but neither the heat, nor the cold, nor the humidity, nor the insects distracted him from his waiting. Time passed, until one day in late autumn, the stream swollen for the rains brought a corpse to its feet, face down. Mr. Renhe Ren shook himself from his meditation and leaned towards the muddy water, his heart finally calm.

Great was his surprise when he saw…

My part of the story is:

He watched, and watched. It seemed like the whole eternity passed. His eyes began to burn him. Thoughts that were impossible, something unimaginably strayed through his mind. He looked in his own face.

The horror passed through his body and it seemed to him that he himself did not belong there. It's just like his tired body and mind are playing with him. Maybe he was too long there by the river?

What if those wise words then were really not true at all? He never wondered and turned back to one of the words that made his life so terrible. What if this postulate of his sacrifice was a false, deliberate or unintentional lie, or even a simple mistake? There was another saying, '' If you are silent for a long time, people will think that you are wise".

All this wandered through the labyrinth of his thoughts while the other part of the brain tried to fit this unrealistic image into a deliberately meaningful enlargement. My face, I'm touching my face. To get at least a little hint of reality, he looked around. Rain did not allow his view to go far. The fog went back again.

And then,between his confused flow of thought, he got one clear direction. What if he was waiting there for so long ... he was no longer sure how much. It's like a year has passed. Another ancient saying " The river does not return to its springhead, it always run only in one direction. So it is with the time". This sentence seemed to have unleashed a new fire in his body. He held his face in his hands, total absurdity. But his thoughts flew at the speed of light. And the conclusion came too fast. Too big and too harsh.

I've waited too long. Waiting for someone else's ruin I caused my own. Important moments of my life are wasted. They are now gone and will not come back, like that river. All this time, I was an imposter, and I met my own failure. It lies right here, on my hands. So calm and tranquil face. At the same time, it was me, but I did not was there.

I looked back to the place where I meditated, out from where I was standing now, on that lonely willow. My body was still there in meditation.

My personal demons are now in front of me. My enemy were the limits, there have always been restrictions that I set myself and lived upon them.

I have the opportunity to start everything again, without limitations and small human evils. Unless this is all an illusion. I tried to wake up and hear the scream that was mine, but it did not come from my body.

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