فصل بیست و ششم

Chapter twenty six

Beside the well, there was a ruin, an old stone wall. When I came back from my work the next evening, I caught sight of my little prince from a distance.

He was sitting on top of the wall, legs dangling. And I heard him talking. “Don’t you remember” he was saying.

“This isn’t exactly the place!” Another voice must have answered him then, for he replied, “Oh yes, it’s the right day, but this isn’t the place…”

I continued walking toward the wall. I still could neither see nor hear anyone, yet the little prince answered again: “Of course.

You’ll see where my tracks begin on the sand. Just wait for me there. I’ll be there tonight.”

I was twenty yards from the wall and still saw no one.

Then the little prince said, after a silence, “Your poison is good? You’re sure it won’t make me suffer long?”

I stopped short, my heart pounding, but I still didn’t understand.

“Now go away,” the little prince said. “I want to get down from here!”

Then I looked down toward the foot of the wall, and gave a great start! There, coiled in front of the little prince, was one of those yellow snakes that can kill you in thirty seconds.

As I dug into my pocket for my revolver, I stepped back, but at the noise I made, the snake flowed over the sand like a trickling fountain,

and without even hurrying, slipped away between the stones with a faint metallic sound.

I reached the wall just in time to catch my little prince in my arms, his face white as snow.

“What’s going on here? You’re talking to snakes now?”

I had loosened the yellow scarf he always wore. I had moistened his temples and made him drink some water. And now I didn’t dare ask him anything more.

He gazed at me with a serious expression and put his arms round my neck. I felt his heart beating like a dying bird’s when it’s been shot.

He said to me: “I’m glad you found what was the matter with your engine. Now you’ll be able to fly again…”

“How did you know?” I was just coming to tell him that I had been successful beyond all hope!

He didn’t answer my question; all he said was “I’m leaving today, too.” And then, sadly, “It’s much further…” It’s much more difficult.”

I realized that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him in my arms like a little child, yet it seemed to me that he was dropping headlong into an abyss, and I could do nothing to hold him back.

His expression was very serious now, lost and remote. “I have your sheep. And I have the crate for it. And the muzzle…” And he smiled sadly.

I waited a long time. I could feel that he was reviving a little. “Little fellow, you were frightened…” Of course, he was frightened!

But he laughed a little. “I’ll be much more frightened tonight…”

Once again I felt chilled by the sense of something irreparable. And I realized I couldn’t bear the thought of never hearing that laugh again. For me, it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert.

“Little fellow, I want to hear you laugh again…”

But he said to me, “Tonight, it’ll be a year. My star will be just above the place where I fell last year…”

“Little fellow, it’s a bad dream, isn’t it? All this conversation with the snake and the meeting place and the star…”

But he didn’t answer my question. All he said was, “The important thing is what can’t be seen…”

“Of course…”

“It’s the same as for the flower. If you love a flower that lives on a star, then it’s good, at night, to look up at the sky. All the stars are blossoming.”

“Of course…”

“It’s the same for the water. The water you gave me to drink was like music, on account of the pulley and the rope… You remember… It was good.”

“Of course…”

“At night, you’ll look up at the stars. It’s too small, where I live, for me to show you where my star is. It’s better that way.

My star will be… one of the stars, for you. So you’ll like looking at all of them. They’ll all be your friends. And besides, I have a present for you.” He laughed again.

“Ah, little fellow, little fellow, I love hearing that laugh!”

“That’ll be my present. Just that… It’ll be the same as for the water.”

“What do you mean?”

“People have stars, but they aren’t the same. For travelers, the stars are guides. For other people, they’re nothing but tiny lights. And for still others, for scholars, they’re problems.

For my businessman, they were gold. But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you’ll have stars like nobody else.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you look up at the sky at night, since I’ll be living on one of them, since I’ll be laughing on one of them, for you it’ll be as if all the stars are laughing. You’ll have stars that can laugh!”

And he laughed again.

“And when you’re consoled (everyone eventually is consoled), you’ll be glad you’ve known me. You’ll always be my friend.

You’ll feel like laughing with me. And you’ll open your window sometimes just for the fun of it… And your friends will be amazed to see you laughing while you’re looking up at the sky.

Then you’ll tell them, ‘Yes, it’s the stars; they always make me laugh!’ And they’ll think you’re crazy. It’ll be a nasty trick I played on you…”

And he laughed again.

“And it’ll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh…”

And he laughed again. Then he grew serious once more. “Tonight… you know… don’t come.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“It’ll look as if I’m suffering. It’ll look a little as if I’m dying. It’ll look that way. Don’t come to see that; it’s not worth the trouble.”

“I won’t leave you.”

But he was anxious. “I’m telling you this… on account of the snake. He mustn’t bite you. Snakes are nasty sometimes. They bite just for fun…”

“I won’t leave you.”

But something reassured him. “It’s true they don’t have enough poison for a second bite…”

That night I didn’t see him leave. He got away without making a sound. When I managed to catch up with him, he was walking fast, with determination.

All he said was, “Ah, you’re here.” And he took my hand. But he was still anxious. “You were wrong to come. You’ll suffer. I’ll look as if I’m dead, and that won’t be true…”

I said nothing.

“You understand. It’s too far. I can’t take this body with me. It’s too heavy.”

I said nothing.

“But it’ll be like an old abandoned shell. There’s nothing sad about an old shell…”

I said nothing.

He was a little disheartened now. But he made one more effort.

“It’ll be nice, you know. I’ll be looking at the stars, too. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley. All the stars will pour out water for me to drink…”

I said nothing.

“And it’ll be fun! You’ll have five-hundred million little bells; I’ll have five-hundred million springs of fresh water… And he, too, said nothing, because he was weeping…”

“Here’s the place. Let me go on alone.”

And he sat down because he was frightened.

Then he said:

“You know… my flower… I’m responsible for her. And she’s so weak! And so naive. She has four ridiculous thorns to defend her against the world…”

I sat down, too, because I was unable to stand any longer.

He said, “There… That’s all…”

He hesitated a little longer, then he stood up. He took a step. I couldn’t move.

There was nothing but a yellow flash close to his ankle. He remained motionless for an instant.

He didn’t cry out. He fell gently, the way a tree falls. There wasn’t even a sound, because of the sand.