Freedom
by
Beth Sadler
Copyright 2012 Beth Sadler
This book is written in Australian English
Cover Copyright 2012 Beth Sadler
Chapter 1
Axel gazed up at the Condors in wonder, stunned by the magnificence of these huge magical creatures who danced happily in the cool, clear blue sky above. They swooped overhead, so close you could swear they were playing with you, tempting you to try and touch them. With an almost silent rush of air over their glistening, powerful wings, they swooped down, down into the depths of this ancient, mysterious canyon in the heart of Peru.
Axel stood entranced, waiting for the return of these symbols of freedom that he had travelled so far to see. His heart bursting with fullness, a sting of tears at the back of his eyes, he waited. He had taken a year to get here and now only had a day to bask in this glory.
On silent wings, a black dot from hundreds of metres below in the valley swiftly grew larger as it lifted on the thermal updraughts, heading straight to where he stood.
This time he didn’t try to hold back the tears.
Freedom! This was freedom, this was the freedom he had craved back home in Germany.
His life was blessed, he knew that. He was the product of a middle class, rich, German family.
His father was a successful businessman and his mother a doctor; he had never had to struggle for anything. Of course his parents hadn’t got to where they were without strict discipline; he knew all about strictures and discipline. God, how tightly his life had been wound back home, till he thought he would explode if he didn’t get free.
"Duty" had said his father "was not just important, it was essential".
This had been the lecture when Axel had informed his father that he had deferred his National Service. He was not going straight into the army after he completed university; he was going to defer for a year to travel overseas.
“Europe needs its young people to have a social conscience” had said father. They were expected to give something back to the world that had nurtured them so well.
Finally, his parent’s had come around; after all, they loved him, and he loved and honoured them. But, oh God! How he had craved freedom. Freedom, from the rigid worlds of school and home. Freedom, how he had longed to let his soul escape and soar like these magnificent creatures.
The condor swept closer and closer, quickly growing in size the nearer it came. Then, like a gift from the gods, it was circling lazily over his head its wings spread to an enormous twelve feet, hovering over him like a benediction. It seemed to be toying with him, staying just out of reach above his madly swivelling head. Axel thought about lying on his back to watch, but then he would miss the joyful swoop as it dived back down to the valley floor. With a casual “watch me” flap of its wings, the Condor seemed to be performing just for Axle’s pleasure. With a lightening move, it was off; diving towards the ground again, down, down, faster and faster simply because it could. That was freedom.
Chapter 2
That was what he had done, dived head first into life; simply because he could.
He had been at the Zoo in Frankfurt when he had first seen a Condor. How miserable he had been that day, father was being unfair again, forbidding him from going to the rock concert in East Berlin. "It wasn’t fair," he had been huffing to himself. All of his friends were going, including the gorgeous Anna Schmidt that he had had a crush on all year.
But, "no" had said father, he must attend the Zoo on behalf of his parents, as they had urgent business in Vienna.
Father was a generous contributor to the Zoo’s ‘Birds of Prey’ preservation society; he was to receive an award for all of his help; Axel would have to appear in his place and deliver his already written, "thank you" speech.
So there he had been, wandering around the zoo, kicking his size thirteen boots against every rubbish bin he passed and in general acting like a ten year old, instead of the seventeen year old he was. Eventually he had arrived at the open door to the veterinary clinic; a young man struggling to hold on to a huge bird looked up at him with a relieved smile.
“Quickly please, grab hold of our friend here so that I can get his I.D. tag on.”
Axel had rushed into the room, and used every muscle of his huge frame, to hang onto the, as yet, unknown bird, before he realised what he was doing.
Sweat poured off of him and dripped to the floor as he pitted the might of his six foot five inch frame, against the bird’s desire to be free. He felt the wild heart beat of this mighty bird and recognised a kindred spirit.
When the task was finished and the bird safely back in his cage, the young man took the leather snood off of its head.
That was when Axel’s life changed forever.
The Condor looked at him with such a fierce cry for freedom shining in its proud eyes that he knew this bird would die if it had to stay in captivity. He felt the bird’s desire for flight, its need to be unrestricted from the desires of humans. He understood, and as he looked into those fierce eyes, he thought that perhaps the bird understood him better than anyone else on earth. Now he knew why his father donated money to this cause, but, suddenly he knew----- money wasn’t enough.
He started that day to learn about his Condor and the land that it came from.
Peru.
Peru, land of the Inca’s, bathed in everlasting mystery.
Peru, land of the Llama, Alpaca and Jaguar.
Peru, land of magnificent mountains, endless deserts and ancient cities
Peru, land of beautiful giving people, some, still speaking the ancient language of their Indian ancestors.