The Promise

Two friends lived in a village.

They stayed together,
worked together,
rested together.

They had no one else.

“We will not leave each other,”
they said.

They said it often.

One day,
one of them heard of
an easier life elsewhere.

“You said you would stay,”
said the other.

He thought about it.
Then he left.

He said he would come back.

The other stayed.

Time passed.

The road remained empty.

Many years later,
the man returned to the village.

He walked to his friend’s house.
The door was closed.

A neighbor said,
“He left.”

The man stood there,
facing the empty house.

“You said you would stay,” he said.

There was no answer.