The Reaper (Pt V)

Kadin never knew sleep while under the cowboy's possession. He ripped him from the arms of sleep like a newborn from his mother. His eyes groped about the still blackness of night.

The sun didn't peek its head from the horizon. The stars grew dim and restless. The cold air enveloped his lungs as the cowboy conducted drills; the silver hiss of his whistle ringing in his ears.

The weeks settled like a deck of cards. He rose in darkness; he slept in darkness. But one day the cowboy's rough hands slackened. He was enrolled in a private college. The cowboy's connections lay golden opportunities at his feet.

"Haven't I done right by you, my boy," the cowboy laughed and patted his back jovially.

"Yes sir," Kadin replied. He had no doubt that his mother was the invisible master behind his destiny. The cowboy was merely an actor in her grand show.

He was thrusted upon the doors of academia. The halls of higher learning, the pantheon of knowledge. He watched boys and girls his own age scurrying along the sidewalks. They all appeared amused with smiles plastered upon their faces. Many huddled like wolves in a pack, charging at something he did not know.

He realized when he left the presence of the cowboy, he had entered into a new freedom. There were no eyes watching him. No commandments whipping against his ear. Perhaps this won't be so bad, he thought as he walked into his new destiny.