then one day the boy returned the books to the englishman. "did you learn anything?" the englishman asked, eager to hear what it might be. he needed someone to talk to so as to avoid thinking about the possibility of war.
"i learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. i learned that many alchemists realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the soul of the world, the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life.
"but, above all, i learned that these things are all so simple that they could be written on the surface of an emerald."
the englishman was disappointed. the years of research, the magic symbols, the strange words and the laboratory equipment… none of this had made an impression on the boy. his soul must be too primitive to understand those things, he thought.
he took back his books and packed them away again in their bags.
"go back to watching the caravan," he said. "that didn't teach me anything, either."
the boy went back to contemplating the silence of the desert, and the sand raised by the animals. "everyone has his or her own way of learning things," he said to himself. "his way isn't the same as mine, nor mine as his. but we're both in search of our destinies, and i respect him for that."
the caravan began to travel day and night. the hooded bedouins reappeared more and more frequently, and the camel driver—who had become a good friend of the boy's—explained that the war between the tribes had already begun. the caravan would be very lucky to reach the oasis.
the animals were exhausted, and the men talked among themselves less and less. the silence was the worst aspect of the night, when the mere groan of a camel—which before had been nothing but the groan of a camel—now frightened everyone, because it might signal a raid.
the camel driver, though, seemed not to be very concerned with the threat of war.
"i'm alive," he said to the boy, as they ate a bunch of dates one night, with no fires and no moon. "when i'm eating, that's all i think about. if i'm on the march, i just concentrate on marching. if i have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other.
"because i don't live in either my past or my future. i'm interested only in the present. if you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. you'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now."
two nights later, as he was getting ready to bed down, the boy looked for the star they followed every night. he thought that the horizon was a bit lower than it had been, because he seemed to see stars on the desert itself.
"it's the oasis," said the camel driver.
"well, why don't we go there right now?" the boy asked.
the boy awoke as the sun rose. there, in front of him, where the small stars had been the night before, was an endless row of date palms, stretching across the entire desert.
"we've done it!" said the englishman, who had also awakened early.
but the boy was quiet. he was at home with the silence of the desert, and he was content just to look at the trees. he still had a long way to go to reach the pyramids, and someday this morning would just be a memory. but this was the present moment—the party the camel driver had mentioned—and he wanted to live it as he did the lessons of his past and his dreams of the future. although the vision of the date palms would someday be just a memory, right now it signified shade, water, and a refuge from the war. yesterday, the camel's groan signaled danger, and now a row of date palms could herald a miracle.
the world speaks many languages, the boy thought.
the times rush past, and so do the caravans, thought the alchemist, as he watched the hundreds of people and animals arriving at the oasis. people were shouting at the new arrivals, dust obscured the desert sun, and the children of the oasis were bursting with excitement at the arrival of the strangers. the alchemist saw the tribal chiefs greet the leader of the caravan, and converse with him at length.
but none of that mattered to the alchemist. he had already seen many people come and go, and the desert remained as it was. he had seen kings and beggars walking the desert sands. the dunes were changed constantly by the wind, yet these were the same sands he had known since he was a child. he always enjoyed seeing the happiness that the travelers experienced when, after weeks of yellow sand and blue sky, they first saw the green of the date palms. maybe god created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought.
he decided to concentrate on more practical matters. he knew that in the caravan there was a man to whom he was to teach some of his secrets. the omens had told him so. he didn't know the man yet, but his practiced eye would recognize him when he appeared. he hoped that it would be someone as capable as his previous apprentice.
i don't know why these things have to be transmitted by word of mouth, he thought. it wasn't exactly that they were secrets; god revealed his secrets easily to all his creatures.
he had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words.
because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the language of the world.
the boy couldn't believe what he was seeing: the oasis, rather than being just a well surrounded by a few palm trees—as he had seen once in a geography book—was much larger than many towns back in spain. there were three hundred wells, fifty thousand date trees, and innumerable colored tents spread among them.
"it looks like the thousand and one nights," said the englishman, impatient to meet with the alchemist.
they were surrounded by children, curious to look at the animals and people that were arriving. the men of the oasis wanted to know if they had seen any fighting, and the women competed with one another for access to the cloth and precious stones brought by the merchants. the silence of the desert was a distant dream; the travelers in the caravan were talking incessantly, laughing and shouting, as if they had emerged from the spiritual world and found themselves once again in the world of people. they were relieved and happy.
they had been taking careful precautions in the desert, but the camel driver explained to the boy that oases were always considered to be neutral territories, because the majority of the inhabitants were women and children. there were oases throughout the desert, but the tribesmen fought in the desert, leaving the oases as places of refuge.
with some difficulty, the leader of the caravan brought all his people together and gave them his instructions. the group was to remain there at the oasis until the conflict between the tribes was over. since they were visitors, they would have to share living space with those who lived there, and would be given the best accommodations. that was the law of hospitality. then he asked that everyone, including his own sentinels, hand over their arms to the men appointed by the tribal chieftains.
"those are the rules of war," the leader explained. "the oases may not shelter armies or troops."
to the boy's surprise, the englishman took a chrome-plated revolver out of his bag and gave it to the men who were collecting the arms.
"why a revolver?" he asked.
"it helped me to trust in people," the englishman answered.
meanwhile, the boy thought about his treasure. the closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became. it seemed as if what the old king had called "beginner's luck" were no longer functioning. in his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. so he could not be hasty, nor impatient. if he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by god along his path.
god placed them along my path. he had surprised himself with the thought. until then, he had considered the omens to be things of this world. like eating or sleeping, or like seeking love or finding a job. he had never thought of them in terms of a language used by god to indicate what he should do.
"don't be impatient," he repeated to himself. "it's like the camel driver said: 'eat when it's time to eat. and move along when it's time to move along.' "
