Market Day

The chronicles of a boy on a search the market chapter.

When Tobias was 8, he left his house, telling his parents he was off to find himself, and that he would travel a mari usque ad mare. His parents let him go quietly, but as he was walking out the door his father, Isaiah, ran up to him. He was holding a small yellow box, and as Tobias opened it, his father warned him not to show his mother what it was. Tobias asked why, and his father merely replied with the common family phrase, res ipsa loquitor: it speaks for itself.
Tobias grinned and tore open the box, gently lifting aside the grey paper so that it was shield the boxes contents from his mother.
It contained two homemade fishing lures and a book entitled “Being the judges of others, and yourself.” Tobias grinned and hugged his father before taking one last look at the dirt house he had grown up in, before turning away and leaving.
His parents waved behind his back, but he never turned around to see them. Turning your head was a weakness, and this was a journey that required strength and gave wisdom.
On the second day he reached a lake, and he forewent his normal bread and honey lunch in favor of whatever fish he could catch with his lures.
He went to the woods and fashioned a rod out of a chestnut tree. He tied the lure on it with some string, and that night he dined on salmon.
Dining on fish roasted over a fire in the woods at night, took him back in time, to the romans. He felt as if he was going off to war.
A few days later, he chanced upon a market. There were sellers everywhere, yelling for people to buy their goods.
“Daniel’s fresh fruit! Avocados, picked this morning! Come and get it!”
“Mark is selling as well! Come and buy my olives; perfect for an Italian dinner with your neighbors! Come and get them!”
“Timothy has all the clothes you could need! Work clothes, sleep clothes, fancy ones for black tie dinners! I have a periwinkle tie that would match your eyes beautifully good sir!”
Tobias backed away slowly and chuckled. “No thank you, I’m quite good!”
“Au contraire, my good sir! Those rags will never help you find a wife in the future. Come and buy!”
“No, really, I’m quite good. I’m sorry, I can hear my uncle Peter calling me, I have to go!”
Tobias scuttled away, hoping that the man had bought his story about his fake uncle Peter.
As he wandered around the market he noticed how colourful everything was. There were orange scarves on sale for the women, being sold by a woman named Ruth. She was very enthusiastic about it, and yelled out to every female passing by “Buy my scarves! Ad captandum vulgus!”
Another woman sold orchids, and she was fighting for volume in the noisy market. “Buy a bouquet! Treat yourself, or take it home to your lovely wife! Buy a bunch to mark the genesis of your relationship with the prettiest girl in town!”
Tobias smiled and walked past.
A man brushed by him at one point and whispered in his ear “caveat emptor” before carrying on. Tobias turned around to see who it was, but they had already been swallowed by the masses.
Another man grabbed his and asked him to buy some wine. “I have demi-sec! Do you want that? Perhaps some demi-glace?” He babbled for a moment before glancing over his shoulder and running. A minute later, la policia arrived and asked whether Tobias had seen a man named Joel, who was selling illegal alcohol. Tobias pointed them on their way, and as they rushed off, he heard one yell “In flagrante delicto!”
Tobias could only assume they had caught the man.
Tobias turned to the man next to him and asked whether alcohol was illegal in this town.
“Rem acu tetigisti,” the man replied before walking away as he threw his purple scarf over his shoulder.
Tobias looked up at the sky, and noticed the ruby rays of the setting sun stretching across the sky. “Tempus fugit” he muttered to himself, and he followed the numbers on the streets to the house he was staying at. A nice woman named Esther had agreed to take him in for a night so long as he behaved.
The sky turned a dark navy and the stars began to twinkle late at night. A little boy came up to Tobias on the street as he was stargazing and asked how long the stars would twinkle. He wanted to go and get his friend, but he was afraid by the time she had put on her slippers and put out the smoke from her nightly fire, that the stars would have gone out.
Tobias grinned and told the boy “ad infinitum,” to infinity.
As he left the next morning, he thought of how bright an explosive this town had been how different from his home life. And yet, he also thought “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,” the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Except for the alcohol. He passed by a few drunkards on his way out, one of them muttering “quod me nutrit, me destruit.”