The Boy Who Would Not Sing

And the man whose voice saved everyone

Since ancient times the Bendolo people celebrated those among them with beautiful singing voices. Children were encouraged to sing before they could speak. Around the campfire each night the people sang well into the night. In the mornings they gathered together facing east and sang to the sun as though coaxing it to rise up into the sky. During times of drought they would sing to the clouds as though imploring them to release their water. Their leader was always chosen based on their singing abilities.

Then one day a little boy was born. He seemed perfectly normal and healthy but when he was old enough to sing he refused. All the Bendolo people were very concerned. Obviously something was very wrong with this child.

When he was a young boy the people relentlessly pleaded with him to sing and finally one day in front of all the people he opened his mouth and sang. It turned out the child was profoundly tone-deaf. His singing was like a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard. Everyone quickly covered their ears with their hands. They never again asked him to sing.

Each night around the campfire all the people sang except for the boy. He just sat against a tree trunk watching all the people.

As a teenager the boy would wander out into the wilderness alone. Normally this was not allowed. There were many dangers in the wild and no one was allowed to wander off without someone else with them. But when the boy did it no one seemed to care since his singing was so bad.

One day Zulina, the people’s leader, decided that she would follow the boy. She wanted to know what he was doing out in the wilderness all alone. Careful not to be detected, she followed him all morning.

He kept walking and walking until he got to the top of a mesa looking out over the rugged desert below. Zulina hid behind a boulder and watched him.

The boy stood at the very edge of the mesa and spread his arms away from his body. He then started to sing. Zulina had the most beautiful singing voice of all the Bendolo people but when she heard the music coming out of his mouth she was overcome by it. It was the most beautiful singing she had ever heard.

When the boy was done singing he began walking back the way he had come. When he approached the boulder behind which Zulina hid she stepped out onto the path and confronted him.

“Why do you hide your singing from the people? Why do you refuse to sing with us?”

The boy did not answer.

“You have betrayed your family and the entire village by not singing with us. I will not allow you to return. You are hereby banished from the tribe. You are a traitor.”

The boy turned and walked away.

Twelve years later the Bendolo village was ravaged by a strange illness. Almost everyone fell ill and were on the ground unable to get up. Zulina was just starting to come down with the sickness but she had enough strength left to go out into the wilderness in search of the boy. He would be a man now — if he was still alive. Zulina felt that the only thing that could save her people was to bring him back to sing to them.

She found him at the same mesa where she last saw him twelve years before. He was just starting to sing. She stood and watched him sing. When he was done all of Zulina’s symptoms were gone. She felt strong and rejuvenated.

She then went up to him and told him what was happening back in the village. She told him that several people had already died and that his own mother was gravely ill. She said that she feared that all the Bendolo people might die if he did not come back and sing.

Reluctantly, he agreed.

When the man entered the village with Zulina he was shocked to see everyone on the ground. He went to the center of the village and began to sing. He sang for a very long time and when he was done he looked around and everyone was standing up. They were all healed and they were cheering him.

Zulina went up to the man and thanked him profusely for saving his people and apologized just as profusely for having banished him, “I turn my leadership over to you. You are now the leader of your people.”

The man spoke, “You are not my people. I have no interest in leading you. I will now return to the wilderness; my home.” With this he turned and walked away and he was never seen again by the Bendolo people.

In the days after the miraculous mass healing the people created a new song to sing. It was a song about a boy who refused to sing and disappeared into the wilderness but came back a man to save the people. The song was sung each night around the camp fire for many years through many generations. He was never forgotten.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction.

Speaking of villages…