The Color

The first time I met him when, tired of lying sleeplessly in my bed, had decided to start my everyday jogging session a little earlier. He was sitting on the waterline, near the rock which used to be my marathon destination point. An old man with a strict but beautiful face… Just watching the sun raising and breathing in a strange, greedy manner…I’ve fallen in the sand, exhausted and subconsciously trying to find the spot he was staring at. But he was only admiring the sunrise, stroking a medal on his chest from time to time. Soon my heartbeat had become slower and my eyes forgot to twinkle. Suddenly I distinguished the ghostly pictures which appeared for him in the colors of the morning sunshine. Scared, hiding behind his mothers’ back, he was watching the fire swallowing his home. He saw her eyes - inflamed, full of tears and misunderstanding. He saw his own wild anger and despair of having no chance to change anything. He recovered the first sunset, he met in the basket of a truck with his platoon. The endless nights when the sounds of a distant battle gave no chance to fall asleep and rest… He recalled the burning skies and the horizon cut with never-ending flashes. The faith and the duty to defend his human rights. The madness, enthusiasm and the rhythm of the first attack. The arrows of unconceivable pain of losing his friends pierced him again and again. The warmth of the tea, which was the only tool to calm the palms tremor, burned his hands. Hundreds and thousands of bloody fights blinded his old eyes. This light and colors made all the stuff he thought he had forgotten appeared again. The taste and the senselessness of revenge. The honor and the gravity of leadership. Perplexity and horror of seeing his own blood on the jacket. The utter pain and the impatience of young mutilated man in the hospital. The hurricane of passion and the home centre of love. The nerve-racking efforts and the will just to get an ordinary life and the first defeat…All the book of his life was written in the color of this incredibly bright and eternally beautiful sunrise, reflected in his eyes, inflamed, full of tears and misunderstanding…