A laugh, giggles, small talk.. I could hear it all as i watched the wooden logs slowly burn . he himself from between the logs interrupted them with a loud explosion. Isn't  being dead enough, he may have thought. I shook my head, "apparently not".

Once a tree, once a man, all turned grey when the red flower faded. I sat beside a tree to remember and remember i did.  That if not for a gasp, i would have forgot i breathe. If not for her grab, never would i see whats beneath. yet i sit, aloof and flat, like its all so long ago.  But is not so far to go.

I wondered how agony came to be apathy. I wondered how hows came to be whys. Thoughts, i got to know, is mightier than the garrote. I wondered if what i did was all i could do.

Never acquainted but yet so familiar, he smiled as he patted on my shoulder. "Let me tell you a story" he said. A story! I was amazed by his grit and wide eyed i looked at him, the well known stranger.

"Once yama the god of death went to meet lord vishnu, out there at the gate way was a bird who sang in a melodious voice. Yama gazed at the bird puzzled only to be noticed by the mighty garuda. The bird should be rescued no matter what and so he did as yama walked in through the gateway"

"he flew, garuda, with the little bird, past seven seas and seven lands to the mighty mountain no one has ever climbed. There on top of the mountain he placed the little bird " no one not even the god of death will find you here" he solaced and returned to the gateway he guarded.

"Yama looked at where the bird sat as he came out of the gateway only to find garuda with a triumphant smile. "No yama i wont let you take that innocent young bird with a beautiful voice, so i took her past seven seas and seven lands to the mighty mountain where even you can never reach"

The god of death smiled and said " i was puzzled to see the little bird here for he was to die tonight in the deadly fire on top of the mighty mountain. I was wondering how would the little bird fly past seven seas and seven lands to reach the mighty mountain by nightfall"

Bedazzled i was, with the greybeards story.
Looked up to see a sparrow on the tree. Satiated i felt, as all the hows and whys leaked through. "thank you" i said only to find a vacant chair. My eyes wandered in search of that strange stranger but That's how he is the well known stranger.