I stared up at the familiar night sky, the one I had gazed upon so many times throughout my life, the stars bringing back pleasant memories from my youth. My youth. That was something I had avoided thinking about for many years. I didn’t mean to avoid it, but I had been busying myself with science and mathematics, always on the brink of some discovery. Dropping my gaze to the grass in front of me, I began to reflect.
"Look, Johannes, The Great Comet!”.
It was 1577 and my mother, Katharina Guldenmann had taken me to see the Great Comet.I was aged six years old, and it had been one year after my father had left, his fate unknown. It was assumed that he had died somewhere in the Netherlands. A few years before this, two of my would-be siblings had succumbed to disease and died, mother’s herbs doing very little for them.
“I wonder if Father can see it. Do you think that he can see it?
She instantly tensed, mother had tended to avoid the touchy subject, but being only six years old, tact was an art unknown to my young mind.
Father had always been more serious, working as a mercenary, before his disappearance and assumed death. Slowly, the memory faded to the back of my mind. I hesitantly decided to go inside my Zagan home, I didn’t want to leave the stars, but it was better that I pull myself from the memories and go to sleep.
The next day, I awoke from one of the best slumbers that I had had in many years. Maybe it was due to not working on project late into the night for once… Shaking my head to rid the thought, I recalled that I had to go to the nearby university to retrieve some books that I had lent to a professor whose books had been lost by a forgetful pupil. Gathering my worn leather bag for the books, and a small pouch of gold coins, I headed out the door and into the streets. Walking down the street, I looked at the vendors peddling their goods. An elderly lady selling jewelry smiled at me.
"Fine jewelry for sale, beautiful necklaces! Perfect gift for a wife or daughter, will you be buying one, sir?"
"Look, Johannes, The Great Comet!”.
It was 1577 and my mother, Katharina Guldenmann had taken me to see the Great Comet.I was aged six years old, and it had been one year after my father had left, his fate unknown. It was assumed that he had died somewhere in the Netherlands. A few years before this, two of my would-be siblings had succumbed to disease and died, mother’s herbs doing very little for them.
“I wonder if Father can see it. Do you think that he can see it?
She instantly tensed, mother had tended to avoid the touchy subject, but being only six years old, tact was an art unknown to my young mind.
Father had always been more serious, working as a mercenary, before his disappearance and assumed death. Slowly, the memory faded to the back of my mind. I hesitantly decided to go inside my Zagan home, I didn’t want to leave the stars, but it was better that I pull myself from the memories and go to sleep.
The next day, I awoke from one of the best slumbers that I had had in many years. Maybe it was due to not working on project late into the night for once… Shaking my head to rid the thought, I recalled that I had to go to the nearby university to retrieve some books that I had lent to a professor whose books had been lost by a forgetful pupil. Gathering my worn leather bag for the books, and a small pouch of gold coins, I headed out the door and into the streets. Walking down the street, I looked at the vendors peddling their goods. An elderly lady selling jewelry smiled at me.
"Fine jewelry for sale, beautiful necklaces! Perfect gift for a wife or daughter, will you be buying one, sir?"