August 4, 2021

In the meantime, what changed was the expectation of how quickly progress would be made in solving the child’s case.

The village felt stuck but learnt to accept that, for now, they could only speculate about what to do next, because they had no clear idea. No matter how precious the child was becoming to them, they had to restrain themselves from reaching out to him. The village realized that the child was becoming as precious to them as their project. In fact, many people in the village saw him as an integral part of their project, almost like a symbol or reward from a universe for their bravery.

Accordingly, they managed to come up with numerous theories about him – both contradictory and astonishing – based solely on their imagination, to the point where they found it amusing. However, this was the only way for the community to cope. The obsession with the child’s case was so intense that the village decided it would benefit for the majority to be involved in these speculations. This approach helped redirect their attention and channel their energy from approaching the child to guessing about him. By participating in debates, they felt empowered and contributive rather than disempowered. Everyone agreed to hold on to their conclusions and suspend their judgement during the debates until (if ever) the most reasonable explanation was reached. Here is an overview of the causes that, in majority’s opinion, led to the child’s abandonment:

1. Disaster

Previously, while living with his tribe, the child encountered danger or was exposed to an unknown threat. If this was the case, it was most likely a contagious disease, and consequently, he had to be isolated from the source of the disaster. Suggestions that it might have been cruelty towards the child were not considered, as the tribe was seen as an ultimate model of kindness and respect. Therefore, if the child was intentionally abandoned, it was an act of desperation to save his life from threats other than bad behaviour within his tribe.

2. Trial/challenge

2. The child had reached a milestone where it was time for him to achieve something or transform himself to meet the tribe’s standards. If this was so, the abandonment of the child was a premeditated educational plan to cultivate his abilities and build his character. Typically, this involves mastering specific skills necessary for survival on your own, finding one’s inner voice, or maximising courage and endurance. Similarly, perhaps the child needed to be exposed to the knowledge and learn the value of solitude.
3. However, on the other hand, what if the child was underachieving during his trial and eventually stopped trying to improve? Maybe he was unassertive or someone who over adapts and just needed more time. Or perhaps his instincts were becoming dull, causing him to loose his identity? Even if his curriculum was unclear, it seemed obvious that his tribe was allowing the child to be on his own by not being alongside him. In their eyes, there was probably nothing wrong with a child wanting some time alone.
4. Furthermore, some in the village though it unlikely, but not impossible, that the child wasn’t bothered by the rules against mixing with strangers. If this was the case, maybe the child was simply being naughty, challenging his tribe, and playing a game of hide and seek with them. He might have been hiding for fun from them on the borders of the village, where it was taboo for the tribe to go, making it the perfect hiding spot. However, not many participants in the debates felt confident thinking that way. From one extreme, seeing the child as a caterpillar waiting to become a butterfly, to the other extreme, seeing him as provoking his tribe to break their rules, even if an innocent way, playing. It seemed exaggerated. The child was too young for all of this.

3. Communication

The third option was that the child was a symbol of communication, or just as importantly, a gift. What if the tribe was seeking bridges between their world and civilization, based on their interest in the experiment happening in the Visited country? Or perhaps, the other way around, the child was a promise of a bridge that would lead the modern world to follow the tribe and find its way back to simplicity. That possibility of the mute and deaf communicating with each other, an attempt to stop living in parallel worlds without connection, was a compelling idea.The notion that the child had a role in broadening horizons was intriguing. Unfortunately, because one day the child was caught in the woods by spies and enemies of country V and sent to another planet, for the majority in the village, there was no way of finding whether or not this was the right guess.

Unlike the village, the child didn’t feel the need to question or to justify his tribe’s behaviour towards him, despite understanding his isolation even less than the village did. He accepted their withdrawal form his surroundings and forgave the tribe immediately. This is why he was able to face to what had happened.

There was something else not immediately obvious to those in the village who were concerned about the child’s feelings, when he couldn’t belong to anybody, yet the village had no words to communicate with him, only to hold back and to observe how the child wasn’t reaching out, no matter how reachable they were.The truth is, there was no way of guessing that the child was sent to the borders of their village by his own tribe. He was chosen for a”secret” mission whispered into his ears before the final farewell. This part wasn’t genuine; it served as a distraction to get the child moving. Another part was to go there and surrender himself to his fate. The child was too young to understand the second part, which was the reason for the first one, even if it was a lie.

Apparently, the tribe wasn’t entirely saintly. And although they were wrongly perceived as nearly saints, in fact they were considerably different from everyone else in a good way. However, like many others, when they received a call from the Planet N it was their first experience of it. An invitation to live there was a shock, partly because it was addressed to only one person in the tribe – the child. No matter how surprising it was, the tribe saw no reason to question or oppose it. They didn’t even try to be clever and wait for the child to grow enough to accept or refuse it himself. Their response was total collaboration and complete acceptance, done on behalf of the child. That’s why he was sent to be lost. It was the easiest way for Planet N to find him.