Short Story: The man who valued privacy more than love

Tweet

Dave Johns valued his privacy. He was almost obsessional about this. Dave did not believe in God, or in Heaven, as he did not want to go there, where he would have to meet up with people again from his life, just lived. If anything, he wanted to get away from these people, and to never see any of them ever again. Never did he want to meet any of the kids he went to school with. Never did he want to meet again anybody that he had ever worked with in his employment. Dave even didn't even ever want to meet up again with his own, mother, father, brothers, or twin sister, even with his wife, nor with any of the members of her family either. Dave just wanted it all to end, and for it all to all be permanently over with forever. Dave valued his own privacy, but at least, he always made it a point to allow all others around him their privacy too. Dave lived a lonely life then, mostly spent up in his own head, areas of which were seemingly private to him too. Dave never understood himself, nor could he figure out who he was, what he was doing here, or even what he wanted to do, or if he wanted to be here too. Dave got to the age of eight two. His mother and father had died. His older brothers had died, even his wife had died a year or two back too. He was estranged from his twin sister, having had nothin to do with her for many years. Dave was really on his own now. He had no children either. It was then that a neighbourly man from a nearby Buddhist temple started visiting him. This man used to visit old folk who lived on their own, and offer to do their shopping for them, or to take them to the chemist, or to a doctor, or to a medical specialist, if needed. Dave agreed then for Charley to take him to a dental appointment, because, he had had an aching tooth, for months now, maybe it could be pulled, he had thought, to himself, when Charley had made his offer to him. Somebody said once that, " All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret." This was the Colombian author, Gabriel García Márquez, (1927 to 2014). Dave only had one life, a secret life. On the way to the dentist, Charley mentioned to Dave, that he never needed to have any medication, or needles, to anaesthetise the pain, at the dentist, as he had trained his mind to be numb from it. Dave said laughingly that my own mind has been numb to me all of my life, so far. There are two types of numb though, Charley had said, a numb numb, and a numb numb numb one, a numb numb mind is numb to its own numbness, but a numb numb numb one is no longer numb to numbness, but aware of this numbness enough to liven it up with a real connection to the ultimate remedy to all numbness, to the aliveness of the flame of love for life that lives in all of our hearts. Dave said, "I know nothing of the heart. I know nothing of the mind. I just wanted to be always just left alone to myself." Charley said, "Well, dying to yourself, allows you to contact the greater self off all, which is God." Dave laughed, and replied, "I am too old for any of that mumbo-jumbo." Charley looked at Dave, and said, "This self I talk of never ages. Look into my eyes, and see its reflection in there, my friend." Dave looked into Charley's eyes, as they were now stopped at the Dentists, just outside of it, parked in a parking bay. Dave saw nothing at first, but then looking longer, deeper, he saw something, a flame was burning somewhere off in the distance. Seeing this flame, ignited something in him, and he saw then that his real self was not a private self, but was connected to all other selves; all was one self, so any privacy was an enforced intrusion to this truth. Dave's eyes lit up for the first time in his long life so far. "Thanks," he said, to Charley, and that was enough for both of them to know, that Dave was now a changed man. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, freeimages.com Daves's face softened noticeably after his experience with Charley.