Neighbor

We have two beautiful mango trees growing near our house, gifts from Jesus, the ancient man who is our closest neighbor. We stopped by his place to say hello, but for once he didn’t come out as we approached on the road.

Later villagers told us that he is in a place for the elderly, several kilometers away, as his legs have given out. Aside from missing the primitive home he’s lived in for decades, Jesus may have found that he enjoys being around people, which is something he didn’t have all that often before.

Whenever we’d walk by, he’d rush out and talk nonstop at his fence for several minutes, keeping up a steady stream of solo conversation, all in Spanish as we nodded our heads and tried to insert a word here and there. There is no certainty to Jesus’s return home. We hope he is content.