The Collector
Brian looked wistfully after the girl as she vanished among the trees.
“Beautiful isn’t she?”
Brian whirld round to see a man of indeterminate age sitting on a fallen log in the forest glade.
“I wasn’t paying attention to her. I was out for a ramble. The scenery is magnificent, I was admiring those ancient oaks, they must have withstood the wind these many centuries past” he said pointing to the ancient trees which stood in a semi circle surrounding the clearing.
“Why deny it? It isn’t a crime to look” the stranger replied his black eyes looking unblinkingly into Brian’s. Despite the summer sun which slanted down through the branches creating patterns of light and shade Brian shivered. It was as though those eyes where boring into his very soul.
“OK so I was admiring a pretty girl, wheres the harm in that? And what business is it of yours anyway?” Brian said the colour rising to his cheeks.
“None at all. I was merely making an observation. Forgive me if I have caused offence. I am an observer of men, they fascinate me”.
Despite himself Brian was mesmerised by the stranger. Try as he might he couldn’t withdraw his gaze from those cold black eyes.
“and what do you observe in me?” The words where spoken before Brian could swallow them.
“You wanted to fuck her but something prevented you from folloing your natural instinct”.
Brian’s mouth felt dry as a bone. He moistened his lips
“I couldn’t, it would have been rape. I’m not a beast, I can’t give in to animal urges”.
“there’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” The stranger replied.
“But some things are wicked and raping a young girl is one of them. You can’t be defending rape?!
“Throughout history governments and society have sought to place constraints on the natural instincts of mankind. They have formulated laws to prevent mankind from living in a state of joy in which he can give full expression to his desires. You believe that what the law terms rape is wrong because society has conditioned you to hold that your search for sexual pleasure is wrong”.
“But what about the effects on the girl? Rape destroys the lives of those who are raped. You don’t really believe what you are saying, you are spinning clever arguments like my philosophy professor” Brian said.
“Perhaps I am but have you ever considered how much happier your life would be where you to stop worrying about others and live in accordance with your own desires? What pedants call morality is no more than the preferences of individuals. It changes according to time and place. In Victorian England the age of consent was 13 but the law now punishes anyone who enters into sexual relations with a girl or boy under the age of 16. If a man’s desires lead him to view girls under 16-years-old as attractive then why should not he indulge himself?” the stranger said.
“Ah you are a moral relativist” Brian said desperately attempting to place his companion’s views into a convenient box.
“Perhaps there is no morality. Think of it this way. The domestic tabby has no conception that killing rodents is wrong nor does the fox feel pangs of conscience when he devours the lamb. Why then should humans be tortured by this artificial construct, morality which is, after all their own creation? Better to live as the great lion does on the plains of Africa killing, eating and reproducing. You are, forgive me for saying so a mere animal. You may think that you are superior to the other creatures but, in reality you are one of them, why not live as nature intended without this artifice of morality?”
“Conscience is what sepparates us from the other animals. When I see a starving child on the television or read about the Nazis concentration camps I feel compassion for those who suffered or are still suffering. The stacked stinking corpses in the camps where an affront to civilisation. Those who manned the gas chambers where worse than animals as they aught to have known that their actions where evil”.
“Ah “conscience does make cowards of us all, well much of humanity at any rate” the stranger said.
“Do you believe that what Hitler did was morally acceptable?” Brian said a feeling of growing nausea rising in him.
“Oh my good sir you will keep bringing this human creation, morality into the equation. My adherents scorn such mumbo jumbo. As you ask, I take no view on the holocaust. Hitler was a strong man who threw aside conventional morality, his mistake as with all you men was to believe himself to be invincible”.
The stranger’s eyes took on a dream-like expression
“I was there in Hitler’s bunker at the last. I looked on dispassionately as he shot his mistress, his dog and then himself. If only he had heeded my advice Europe, perhaps the globe could have been his” the stranger said heaving a deep sigh.
“You where in Hitler’s bunker in 1945?!” Brian asked a look of utter disbelief on his face.
“Yes and at Stalin’s side when he breathed his last. Poor man he was so paranoid at the end that had he been living in what we call a democracy he would, no doubt have been certified as insane”.
“Who are you?” Brian asked an icey shiver running down his spine.
“I’m a collector” the stranger said with a smile.
“A collector and what do you collect?” Brian asked.
“That which once lost can not be regained” the stranger said grinning from ear to ear.
“You are teasing me with riddles” Brian said.
“Tell me what is most precious to you my good sir?” the stranger asked.
“My health”
“Yes but I was thinking of something other than that” the stranger said.
“My life”
“Indeed that is precious but, again that is not what I am referring to” the stranger answered.
“Happiness as there is no point in living a life full of sorrow” Brian said
“A thought provoking answer but, again you have failed to hit the nail on the head” the stranger said his black eyes twinkling with mirth.
“I don’t know then” Brian said a look of puzzlement passing across his face.
“I despair of the modern education system. Don’t you youngsters read Milton any more? Read Paradise Lost my good sir and mind you keep a watch on your soul”. The stranger winked and in a puff of sulphurous smoke vanished leaving Brian standing open mouthed.
The end
