The Boy who was Always
Thirteen
There were once a man and woman so truly good that the great god said he would reward them with whatever they wished to ask. "We want a son," said the man and his wife.
"You shall have a son," said Shiva, the great god. "But you must now choose the kind of son you want. Will you have him perfect in every way, beautiful and good and clever, and loved by all the world, but doomed to be no older than his thirteenth year? Or will you have him just an ordinary boy, but living as long as the ordinary man, so that you may even see his children's children? Choose: that which you wish shall be given."
And the man and his wife were sorrowful; for to choose was not easy.
85
