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  Chapter 3

  The Condors were playing now, showing off for their audience. Slipping dizzily sideways off to one side of the canyon, then arching back in a huge sweep, to finish off with a flap of their wings that looked a lot like applause.

  Axel was aware that his time was running short. Soon the hot air would cool and the players on this enormous stage would settle their feathers and sink to the comfort of their penthouse homes.

  He hoped one of these actors was his bird. He knew it had been healed and returned to the Andes here in Peru. Here, to Canyon del Colca, the deepest canyon in the world; deeper even than the American Grand Canyon by one hundred and thirty six feet. Here to the place of an early Inca civilisation and now host to fifteen thousand people. Here, to the cradle of its birth.

  He had sent the Zoo in Frankfurt every mark that he could spare for the care of that particular bird. They had been very grateful and full of praise for his generosity, but he had known it was more than money that was needed; it was caring. So, he had planned and studied and learned more and more of Peru and his Condor.

  Peru, land of incredible poverty.

  Peru, land of people struggling to eke a living from barren desert lands.

  Peru, land of dirt floor huts and no sanitation, of running water reserved for the rich; of leaking roofs and lice.

  Peru, so poor the majority of its people would never know a true holiday from work, from worry.

  He had learned a lot of facts about Peru over the years; but, none of it had had any meaning until he had come here to the land of his Condor twelve months ago.

  As he looked up, to watch the final act of the unique aerial play being put on for his benefit, he thought back over this last remarkable year.

  His time as an unpaid, voluntary teacher; living in the dirt floor hut of his adopted family. The rush in the morning to get to the bathroom first before the young ones beat you and took all of the cold, clean water. The laughter when you were beaten. The endless trek along the dusty road carrying back more water from the communal tap. The meals of rice, rice and more rice; all flavoured with laughter. Laughter, always the laughter. Poverty never diminished the laughter of these intelligent kind people.

  At first his parents had fretted about his safety, here in this distant, different land, but, finally they had recognised his determination to go and help. After all, as he said to father, hadn’t he been raised to have a social conscience? What was the difference if his conscience was pricking in Peru instead of Europe?

  What was the good of all that good food, clean air and parental nurturing that had produced a strong handsome young man, if it was not put to good use? What good to be six foot five and as strong as a horse, if he couldn’t help those weaker than himself? And, of course, his Condor was in Peru; his Condor that had led him here to help its people.

  Chapter 4

  The air was cooling rapidly now. One by one; the Condors were making their final bows and deserting their aerial stage.

  Tears of joy were flowing freely and unashamedly down Axel’s face. Freedom he thought, came in many disguises; the secret was to recognise them. Just above his head flew one kind; another was what he had found in giving to his fellow man.

  He had to leave this beautiful land for now, maybe forever, but, freedom was going with him in his heart. He had found it was not in distance from parental demands and lack of strictures.

  Freedom was in a giving, loving heart.

  The last Condor aloft, whispered silently closer, until it hovered incredibly near Axel’s head; covering him in enough shade, so, that for the first time he clearly saw the underside of the birds magnificent wings. He sucked in a choked breath, as glinting in the late morning sun, shone a silver I.D. tag. With one last circle overhead the Condor made its final, joyful dive for the valley floor, taking Axel’s heart with it; freedom, freedom.

  The End

  Other Titles by Beth Sadler

  A Man For Cassi

  Twisted Dreams

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