Free The Crystal Child by Theodore Roszak Page B

me.  I would live many centuries, getting older and older, until I couldn’t get any older, until my life had to stop.  That made me afraid.  And as fear came over me, I remembered my mission.  I had come to ask if there was some way to save myself.  I said to my mythical father, “If I am the son of a god, then I should never have to die.”
    Cronos said, “But you are part mortal. Your mother is a human.  Unless you can purge away your mortality, it is your fate to die when your time comes.  And that time is here.”
    I said, “For the sake of what is divine in me, tell me if there is a way to turn back and be young again.”
    Cronos studied me long and hard and said at last, “There is a way, and because you are my son, I will tell you what it is.  But the risk is very great.  Are you willing to make this choice?”
    I said, “Yes.”  I remember that Cronos looked at me with pity, but I was sure he also admired me.  He made me feel like a warrior who is going into battle with no hope of returning.
    He led me outside the gates of the city and gestured out across a deep gorge.  The gorge was crossed by a bridge that seemed to be made of glass.  I couldn’t see the far end of the bridge because at a certain distance it vanished into a bank of dark clouds.  Cronos said, “Your true youth lies waiting at the far end of this bridge.  If you have the courage, follow where it leads.”
    I wasn’t sure the bridge would hold my weight, but I stepped out carefully.  The bridge held, but by the time I’d gone several steps, my breath began to fail and my body became too heavy to move.  Still I summoned up the strength to continue.  And soon I was standing where the dark clouds began.  One more step and I wouldn’t be able to see where I was going or where I’d come from.  One step, two steps, three steps.  I was growing dizzy, I was losing my footing.  For a moment, I went blank.  One more step, and all of a sudden I was through to the other side of the cloud; the darkness was gone like a curtain that had been pulled aside.  And then the tiredness went away.  My mind cleared as if a fog had been blown away and every thought stood out like a jewel.  I could breathe without wheezing and my heart was beating strong.  I looked at my hands and saw they were no longer blue and wrinkled.  And then, ahead of me, I saw what was on the other side of the gorge.  A land that was shining and warm, with trees in flower, like something an artist might paint — a picture of paradise, but without color.  The light was too strong to permit color.  Instead everything was glowing silver.  It was so beautiful, I began to run toward it as fast as I could.  I could run!  I felt life coming back to me in every limb.
    And where the bridge ended, I could make out a figure, somebody waiting for me.  A boy.  A boy who was so beautiful that he might have been a girl.  He had long silver hair and his eyes were piercing bright.  He said nothing, but I knew he wanted me to come to him.  The boy was radiating love.  I could feel his love, like waves coming at me, surrounding me.   He was safety, he was shelter.  I moved closer; the boy moved too, as if he were my image in a mirror.  And then we were close enough to touch.  But before I could reach him, I felt myself falling.  The bridge was shattering into pieces beneath me.  I was sinking into the void.
    Just then, the boy reached for me and caught me.  My hand was in his, firmly gripped.  He was strong as a giant, holding me above the chasm.
    “Who sent you?” he asked.  His voice wasn’t that of a child, but of an adult who assumed he had the right to command.
    I said, “My father.”
    “Who is your father?” he asked.
    “Cronos, the Lord of time,” I answered. I was growing afraid.  Below me the chasm yawned.  Did he intend to drop me?
    “Do you know why he sent you here to cross this fragile bridge?” the boy asked.
    “To purge away my