It seemed to be summer forever with the Lovers. The nights were short but warm and the days were long and hot, but there was always a shady tree or a swimming hole to cool off. The garden was dotted with fountains that provided cool refreshing water.
One day the satyr said he wanted to go into town for some supplies. The Fool wanted to go with him. They traveled out of the garden past the hedgerow that surrounded the paradise. They followed a brick road that cut through a maple forest. The leaves were yellowing and some had fallen to the forest floor and on the brick road.
We don’t spend that much time apart, the satyr said, but sometimes it is nice to have some space.
The Fool couldn’t understand how two people could spend that much time together without needing alone time or needing to wander away.
She is my partner, the satyr said, we share everything without any conditions.
They came to a bigger road and the road was packed. It seemed that there was some kind of religious pilgrimage happening. People were either packed light or had whole carts full of belongings. People used pack animals like mules and oxen to lug their baggage. The satyr and the Fool merged into the long line of people.
The people were talking about some kind of celebration of being freed from slavery and were here to give offerings to the local temple. The people ranged in age, but most seemed very poor. Most looked like farmers.
It took several hours, but the Fool and the satyr made it through the city walls and were walking by the temple itself. Stalls were set up all around the temple and even inside the temple making currency exchange, selling animals for sacrifice, and giving loans. They yelled out to the pilgrims as they waited in line for the temple.
The Fool thought it sad that people were using a spiritual pilgrimage and ritual to make money. Most of these people were poor and brought everything they had to make the trip and give the local god an offering. The Fool saw that some of the richer people were buying sheep and cattle while the poor waited in long lines to buy doves. He saw the poor also wait in line for loans with exorbitant interest rates. The Fool shook his head.
A man marched into the square with some people following him. He was angry and started yelling at the vendors that sat right in front of the entrance of the temple.
This is a house of prayer to god, the mand yelled, not some kind of way to rob the believers of their coin!
He then started flipping the tables over spilling the coins and gold all over the plaza. He used some cord to make the sheep and cattle run away. He opened up the cages and let the doves fly away. The vendors were angry, but the rest of the people celebrated and scrambled to get the coins off the ground.
After all the table had been overturned and the animals set free, the man and his many followers went into the temple to worship. The temple leaders seemed reluctant to let him and his people in, but they stood to the side as the line of folks entered.
The Fool and the satyr moved on as the drama died down. They went into a market and the satyr went to stall to stall picking the wares up and really looking at each item with intensity. The satyr seemed at peace scouring for details each piece of produce he picked up. The vendors seemed to enjoy the satyr’s critical eye. They conversed about the story of each item. The satyr seemed enthralled with each tale of how the head of lettuce got from the ground to his hand.
He bought a basket full of fresh produce, some eggs, and some lamb. They exited the city and the Fool felt instantly better being on the open road. They saw that the line of pilgrims had become a trickle as the sun sat low in the sky. They made their way back to the garden and feasted.