“But if I can go through what I went through, if I can still live and go through that pain for life on earth to change for the best, let it be.” – Immacullee Ilibagiza ( 1972 – ) Rwandan-Tutsi survivor & author on the price of pain

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THE PRICE OF ADMISSION – “In every case, pain had been the price of admission into a new life.   But this admission price had purchased more than we expected. It brought a measure of humility, which we soon discovered to be a healer of pain.” (12 & 12, p. 75)

Pain – Three Day’s Grace (3:27)

The Old Man with The Hind :

I live in a town far away from your kingdom. I married and got myself a beautiful wife. Many years passed but we didn’t have any children. I had a slave woman who had served me loyally for many years. Then decided to adopt her child as my own. I soon declared him to be my heir and he became my son after the official and religious formalities. Soon enough the child grew to be healthy and strong. He was an intelligent boy at the age of ten.

One day I had to leave town on a long journey. I had some business contacts to make. So I left my adopted son and the slave woman at my home. I instructed my wife to take care of their needs till I returned.

In my absence, some ill-hearted person taught my wife the power of black magic. In her jealous state of mind, my wife decided to get rid of my adopted son and his mother. She chanted some evil words and soon transformed my ten-year-old son into a calf. Then she led this calf to my housekeeper. She told him that she had bought the healthy calf at a high price and it should be taken care of. Then my wife chanted more evil words and changed the slave woman into a cow. This cow she again gave to the housekeeper to take care of.

After nearly a year I came back home. After taking refreshments and resting a while, I enquired about my son and his mother, the slave woman. At this my wife bowed her head in grief. She said, “Dear, I am sorry to say that the slave woman died a few days after you left. She fell ill and couldn’t be cured. As for your adopted son, he went out to play about two months ago and has not returned yet. He is nowhere to be found.”

…

I felt very grieved. Then I felt angry at my wife’s evil doings. I went to the housekeeper’s daughter. I pleaded her to change the calf back into my young son by the power of black magic that she knew. Oh! What joy it would be to embrace my son in flesh and blood.

But the housekeeper’s daughter said, “Sir, I’ll change the calf back into your son. As a reward you must let me be his bride. The second condition is that you’ll not stop me from teaching your evil wife a lesson.”

I agreed to both the conditions and soon I embraced my son tearfully. Just when the housekeeper’s daughter was about to punish my wife, I said, “I think you should not be harsh. Don’t kill her if possible.”

“Alright,” she said. “But I’ll still let her feel what her son went through as an animal.”

So, uttering some magical chants, she changed my evil wife into a hind that you see here. After many years, my son’s wife passed way. In grief, he left home and has not been found yet. So I am going round the world leading my hind, looking for my lost son. “Now, Oh! Genie, whose story is more amazing the merchant’s or mine.”

The old man’s story had indeed been fascinating. So the genie agreed to grant a third of the merchant’s life. Now the old man the hind sat aside. Minutes later, the old man with the two black dogs got up and said, “Oh! Genie, if you thought that story so rising, wait till you hear mine. But promise me a third of the merchant’s punishment would be spared.”

Genie agreed to this and then the old man with the two black s began his story.