The city was sleeping when the large river barge crawled quietly into the night. No one noticed the arrival of the boat, and certainly no one noticed that night that it was a river vessel unlike any other. It was long and narrow like the others. It was flat bottomed like the others for passing through the low locks and shallow canals of the inland waterways. Like many other barges, it had a narrow, pointed prow for ocean travel. It was moving south with the river current toward the sea when it pulled quietly into the sleeping city.
Though this particular river barge looked like any other, it was in fact quite unique. What made it so was this: other barges carry much cargo and a few people. This one carried a little cargo, mainly food, and many people. They were young and old, men and women, lighthearted and down, strange and very ordinary. They lived on the barge and in it, on the flat deck with blankets only, in the cabins below if it rained. Mainly, though, they lived in the lives of each other. They were the barge people.
The morning after they arrived, some of the barge people went into the city. The city itself still had not taken note of the vessel, for many barges stopped there on the way to the sea. Some of the barge people went to the stores of the city to buy food and drink for all the rest. But the others who went ashore scattered in the city. They wandered down the back streets of the place. They went into the dark corners of the place. And they all did the same thing. When one of the barge people saw a man lying in the back street, or a man looking for food in the cans of garbage, or a man with a lost light in his eye, he would approach and say, "Hello, I’m just off the barge on the river. We could use you to replace a man who’s leaving us today. We are going to the sea."
Invariably, because of the way it was said and because of the sea, the poor or the hungry or the lost man would lift himself up and nod in some way and follow. And so it was that by noon of the day after the night they had come into the city, the barge people who had gone ashore returned. Each brought one of the city people with him. Each of the city people was shown his sleeping place, given something to eat and told about the voyage to the beautiful sea. All of this was done by the person from the barge who had invited him aboard.
When dusk was near and the barge was about to move on, everyone gathered on the deck. The barge people who had gone into the city that morning began to say farewell to the other barge people. The city people came to understand that their special hosts, the ones who’d found them and brought them back, were leaving the barge, would not go on to the sea. One of the city people, and old man who was sick, approached one of the barge people and asked why the others were leaving. He was told that there was not room enough for them to stay. They had to remain in the city. The old man objected and said that in such a case, the city people should be the ones to leave. He was told that the barge had come to the city for them and that the barge people wanted it so. The old man said then that the sea and hoping for it was too precious, and they should be able to get there. But the barge person to whom he objected said only, "Yes, but perhaps there will be another barge to the sea for them someday."
And so it was that the strange vessel moved on in the current of the river, with its cargo of people, some of the city, and some, of course, still of the barge itself. The city people grew more and more enchanted by their barge-vision of the sea. They yearned for the open space of unbroken horizons. They craved the blue stretch of air without poison. They longed for the silence of sea gulls only and waves. Every day, the city people grew more and more to love the barge, its people, and the hope it had given them.
As the barge flowed its way toward the sea, it passed through several other cities. At each one, the vessel stopped. At each one, some of the barge people went ashore for food and drink. At each one, some of the barge people went ashore for the lost ones of the city. The exchange of the first ashore was repeated again and again, so that, as the barge moved closer to the sea, there were fewer and fewer barge people and more and more city people. And each time that the barge moved on, someone told a worried newcomer, "Perhaps there will be another barge to the sea for them someday."
One morning, after a long time and much thick water had passed, a gull appeared above the barge, then two, then many. The sea at last was near. The word passed quickly through the vessel, over its deck and through all its cabins. The people rushed to the open surface of the barge. They were alive with laughter and excitement. They would live through a wish fulfilled at last. As the barge rounded a final turn in the river, the rich blue of ocean broke into the muddy water ahead. The barge was moving with the current into the mouth of the river. The river was pouring itself out into freedom.
An old man who came from a back street of the first city was the first of the people to notice. He saw that there was an inland waterway channel to the left ahead, and he was looking for the barge man on the tiller. He wanted to watch the turning out to sea. But there was no barge man on the tiller. The old man looked across the crowd and saw that there was no barge man anywhere on the barge. The barge people were gone. Only the city people remained.
The old man screamed, his voice shrill and sudden and more alive than he was. The city people were stunned. They turned from looking at the ocean to look at him. No one spoke. The old man moved his eyes again across the crowd to the inland channel ahead, back across the crowd and to the tiller. The city people turned toward the sea again. The barge was moving away from the last inland channel.
Still no one spoke. Each of the people thought of the sea, of his city of before, of the barge person in whose place he slept, and of the empty-handed tiller behind. At that moment, just a short time after the old man screamed, all the city people moved slowly together to the left side of the barge. Such a delicate shifting of weight was it that the strange vessel itself turned slightly to the left. Not much of a turn - just enough to turn the barge inland again to the cities instead of to the sea. Not much of a turn - just enough to turn the city crowd into barge people.
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