Leonteios School of Athens

B Grade Senior High 2020-21

The Seeker by Jorge Bucay

This is the story of a man I would define as a seeker. A seeker is someone who looks for something,
but not necessarily someone who finds it. Nor is he someone who necessarily knows what he is
looking for. He is simply someone for whom life is a quest.

One day, the seeker felt he should go to the city of Kammir. He had learned to listen to these
feelings coming from an unknown part of himself, so he left everything and started his trip.
After two days of walking by the dusty roads, he spotted in the distance the city of Kammir. Just
before reaching the town, a hill at the right of the path caught his eye. It was a wonderful padded
green hill and had a lot of trees, birds and lovely flowers, completely surrounded by a small polished
wooden fence. A bronze door invited him to enter.

Suddenly, he forgot about the city and surrendered to the temptation to rest there for a while.
He crossed the doorway and began walking slowly through the white stones as they were distributed
randomly among the trees. He rested his gaze in every detail of this colorful paradise. His eyes were
those of a seeker, and perhaps that is why he found on one of the stones, this inscription:

Abdul Tareg, lived 8 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 3 days.

He was a bit moved when he realized that the stone was not just a rock but a tombstone. He was
sad thinking that a child so young was buried there.

Looking around him, he noticed that the next stone also had an inscription. He leaned closer to read
it, and it said:

Yamir Kalib lived 5 years, 8 months and 3 weeks.

He was terribly shocked. This beautiful place was a graveyard and every rock, a tomb. One by one,
he began to read the headstones. All had similar inscriptions, a name and the exact lifetime of the
deceased.

But he was terrified when he discovered that the person who lived longest was barely over 11 years
old. Overcome with a terrible sorrow, he sat and began to cry. The caretaker of the cemetery passed
by and came over. He looked at the man crying in silence for a while and then he asked him if he
was crying for a family member.

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Leonteios School of Athens
B Grade Senior High 2020-21

“No, no family” – replied the seeker. “What happened to these people, and what terrible thing is
there in this city? Why are so many dead children buried here? What is this horrible curse that is on
these people, which forced them to build a cemetery full of children?”

The old man smiled and replied:

“Calm down. There is no such curse. What happens is that we have an old custom here. When a
young man turns 15, his parents buy him a notebook, like the one I have here, around my neck. And
it is a tradition among us that from there, every time you enjoy something intensely, you open the
book and you write down what you enjoyed on the left side, and how long it lasted on the right side.
You and your girlfriend fell in love? How long did this enormous passion and pleasure last? A week?
Two? Three and a half weeks?
And then …the excitement of your first kiss, the first kiss that was a wonderful pleasure, how long
was it? Was it a half minute kiss? Two days? A week?
What about the pregnancy and the birth of your first child?
And the wedding of your friends?
And your most desired trip?
And reuniting with a brother who had been away in a foreign land?
How long did the enjoyment of these events last? Hours? Days?

So we write down in the notebook each time we enjoy each moment.

When someone dies, it is our tradition, to open the notebook and add the time enjoyed, and then it
is written on the grave. Because that is, for us, the length of time they truly lived.”

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