Where Does the Sun Go?

From "Adam in the Parallel World"
By Saber El Ganzoury

In "Where Does the Sun Go?", Saber El Ganzoury begins with what sounds like a child's question and gradually turns it into a meditation on some of humanity's oldest mysteries: virtue, reason, justice, spirit and the meaning of being human.

The story moves from a sunset on the shore to an enigmatic encounter with an old man, then into the bright absurdity of a circus, where profound philosophical questions become reasons for laughter. Between the sea and the circus, El Ganzoury creates a striking contrast between the individual searching for meaning and a world that may laugh when confronted with the questions it has never seriously tried to answer.

"Where Does the Sun Go?"

He stood facing the sun at sunset and addressed it:

"Where are you going when I can see you sinking into the sea and disappearing from the sky?
Are you going to another world beyond ours?
All worlds are dark, and the darkest of them is this world in which we live."

The sun slipped away, and he whispered:

"I love those that set."

He lay down on the shore.
The sand embraced him.
A spell of sleep carried him away.

A gentle voice belonging to an old man awakened him:

"Get up, my son. The sea is treacherous.
My boy, there is no one here but you."

He examined the man's face and appearance beneath the silver moonlight as the roar of the waves grew louder.

He said:

"What a kind old man you are. But why are you here?"

The old man replied:

"I write, I sing, and I pray..."

He asked:

"What do you write about? What do you sing about? And to whom do you pray?"

He replied:

"I write about virtue, reason and justice. I sing to the spirit, and I pray for the higher human being."

He asked again:

"What is virtue?"

The old man answered:

"The good you give to another without expecting anything in return."

He asked:

"And what is reason?"

"A creature forever hungry for knowledge."

He asked:

"And justice?"

The old man replied:

"A word we invented for our world."

He asked:

"And what is our world?"

The old man answered:

"A body we live within, and a self that rules us. If you truly understood it, you would recognize its ugliness and its distorted image."

He asked:

"And what is the spirit?"

The old man sighed:

"An invisibility that is not air, a light that is not fire, and a purity that is not water."

He asked:

"And the higher human being?"

The old man answered:

"You, my son. You are the higher human being."

Then he added:

"Now get up and go far away from here before the sea harms you. And ask no more questions."

He rose and examined the old man's angry face.

A powerful fear and an inexplicable dread entered him. He obeyed the man's command and disappeared from his sight. He returned to the company of the city and thought to himself:

"From one company to another we came, and to another company we shall depart."

He reached the circus tent, entered his room and put on his masks. He painted his face red, yellow, green and blue, then went out to the audience waiting for his performance.

He wandered among them, playing with children and adults, making them laugh as they laughed both with him and at him.

At the end of his act, with the spontaneous humor of a clown, he asked:

"What is virtue? What is reason? What is justice? What is the spirit?"

They laughed as they had never laughed before.

He asked them again:

"Have you ever heard of the higher human being?"

They pointed toward the sky.

Still handing out his laughter as he ran between their rows, he asked:

"Where does the sun go?"

They fell silent, and the lights of the tent went out.

He left the circus and hurried toward the sea, hoping to find the old man. He could not.

He stood facing the moon and asked:

"Where is the light?"

He entered the water... fought against the waves... his tears became one with the sea... he continued searching for the sun...

The old man picked up his clothes and wrapped them in a hollow in the sand. His fingers became stained, leaving a dark red mark upon them...

He cried... prayed... sang... and said:

"There... you will see the truth naked, my son."