There once was a boy whose curiosity never failed to get the better of him.
He grew up in a small village near a vast forest. Although he knew the forest held many dangers he would often go in and explore its numerous secrets. He would climb trees and talk to the birds perched at the top. He’d crawl through the bushes searching for fairies. One day he found a clearing surrounded and hidden by towering trees. Within the clearing was a beautiful tranquil lake. He bathed in the warm, sun drenched waters and lazily caught fishes in the twilight.
It wasn’t long until he spent every free moment he had either in or by the waters. Everything seemed perfect.
Then, one day when arriving in the clearing a man was waiting for him. The man was clearly very angry. He towered above the boy and shouted down to him “How dare you trespass on my land?“. The man struck the boy to the ground and continued “As punishment I shall curse you. From this point onwards you will forever have to hang your head, if you ever look towards the sky your liver will turn to maggots and eat you from the inside out.“
The boy cowered on the floor whimpering. The man left before the boy had said anything to him.
After an hour or so the boy stood up. Taking care not to look up, he made his way back to the village. His family and friends asked him why he was in such a strange position. Many asked if he had damaged his neck. The boys only reply was “Curiosity got the better of me.“
And so the boy grew into a teenager, a young adult and eventually an elderly man, without ever looking towards the sky. He stayed in the village, afraid to enter the forest again, left only with his memories of the aquatic woodland scene.
Then one day, as he was nearing the time of his death, his desire to return to the lake became too great, and he made his way through the trees to the place of his memories.
He sat by the lake for hours, but it wasn’t the same; just like everything else in his life, his curse had ruined it.
However as he sat there a bird flew above him, and from a tremendous height, it dropped a small pebble which landed on the old man’s head. The man fell backwards and was knocked unconscious.
He awoke a few hours later on his back. He opened his eyes but his vision was blurry. His head hurt, but he strained himself to remember where he was. Slowly, he became able to see properly again and he realised that he was looking at the clouds drifting above him. “This is it then, I am to be eaten alive from the inside out.” He thought to himself. Accepting his fate, he remained where he was and watched the heavens above him, in pure bliss.
He lay there for hours before realising that something was not right. He started to feel awful, an empty pain started to fill his stomach. He slowly came to the horrible realisation that he was fine, that his liver was perfectly in tact, that the man from years ago had lied to him.
He let out an almighty sigh as he mourned his wasted life. He thought back to the day he had met the man, and deeply regretted taking what the man said as truth. It began to dawn on him that by not taking the risk of looking upwards he had taken an even greater risk. Frightened of losing his life, he had wasted it away. All it would have taken to be happy was for him to raise his head slightly.
Deeply depressed, the man lay there for days unable to forgive himself. He did not bother getting any food or drink, he didn’t even bother returning home to his village. He just lay there waiting for death, thinking about all the opportunities he missed out on simply because he hadn’t taken them.
