There’s a man who walks the ramparts of the town I live in. He’s been doing it for as long as anyone can remember.

There’s a man who walks the ramparts of the town I live in. He’s been doing it for as long as anyone can remember, and I’ve been wondering who he is and why he does that for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I asked my mother about him, but she quickly told me it wasn’t any of my business. After that, she would always make sure I was inside whenever he walked outside, and I would often wait until she was distracted to sneak a peek at him.<br><br>I was a very curious kid.<br><br>As I grew older, I started to notice that there were people in the town who would often look up at the ramparts to see if he was there. They’d look up and smile and continue on with their day. They’d point him out to their kids, and those kids would just stare in wonder. All of us knew that he was keeping us safe, but none of us knew why.<br><br>As I got even older, I realized that our town is kind of strange. We’re surrounded by the ramparts, and there’s only one entrance to the town. It’s a huge wooden gate that’s always guarded and always closed. The strange part is that we’re in the middle of a huge desert. I’ve walked in that desert, and I don’t see anything out there for miles. Sand, rocks, and theeldo plants. It’s a pretty desolate place. The fact that we have to be protected from something out in that desert is just baffling. On top of that, I’ve been to other towns and cities (not many), and none of them have huge walls like we do. None of them seem to have the attitude that something out in the desert is going to hurt them.<br><br>Last month, it was my 18th birthday. My father took me out to the ramparts, and he made sure that the walker saw me. The man nodded at me, and my father clapped me on the back.<br><br>“You can go out there now,” he said.<br><br>“Really?”<br><br>“Yes, really. You’re an adult now.”<br><br>I knew this day was going to come, but I still couldn’t believe it had finally arrived. I had so many questions to ask the walker. Who are you? Why do you walk the ramparts? What’s your name? Why won’t you talk to us? What’s out there?<br><br>I waited until he was out of sight and then I went out to meet him. I’d never felt so nervous and excited in my life. I was finally going to get some answers.<br><br>I met him right where I first saw him. He was walking in the same direction that he always did. When he saw me, he just kept walking.<br><br>“Hello?” I said.<br><br>I was expecting him to be a bit startled, but it didn’t seem that way. He kept walking until he was right next to me, and then he stopped. He stood there for a good twenty minutes before he finally spoke.<br><br>“My name is Marcel.”<br><br>It took me by surprise. I had expected something more dramatic than that. I didn’t even know what to say. I just stood there frozen.<br><br>“I know you have questions,” he said. “You can ask them.”<br><br>It took a while, but I finally got myself together. I knew that if I let this opportunity pass, I may never get it again.<br><br>“What’s out there?”<br><br>“You don’t know?”<br><br>“No, I don’t. I’ve been out there. I didn’t see anything.”<br><br>“They’re out there.”<br><br>I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just waited. I assumed that he was going to elaborate, but he just stood there. A couple of minutes passed before I finally had the guts to speak.<br><br>“Who are they?” I asked.<br><br>“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know that they’re out there.”<br><br>“How did you find out that they’re out there?”<br><br>“I was a boy once,” he said. “I lived in a village. One night, something attacked the village. A lot of people died, including my family.”<br><br>“I’m sorry.”<br><br>“Many years have passed since then. I’m an old man now. When I was still a boy, I decided that I would walk the earth until I found them again.”<br><br>“So you just walk?”<br><br>“Yes, I just walk.”<br><br>“But you’re walking our ramparts.”<br><br>“Yes I am. This was a village once. You see, as I walked, I noticed that there were a lot of villages in the world. I also noticed that there are a lot of ways for them to die. Fire, water, disease, battle, starvation. I walked for a very long time, but I never saw the things again. I decided that it didn’t matter. I would just protect one of these villages, and that would be my revenge. I found your ancestors. They had built this place out in the desert, far from their enemies. I thought that it was perfect. It’s been a long time since then.”<br><br>“Why do you walk the ramparts? Why do you keep them safe?”<br><br>“Because I failed my village. It burned while my family died in the fire. I won’t fail this one.”<br><br>“Why did you fail your village?”<br><br>“I couldn’t see them. They attacked at night, and I was too far away. I was walking in the forest. I didn’t see them until it was too late.”<br><br>I didn’t know what to say to that.<br><br>“You have a good life here,” he said. “I’m glad that I chose this place.”<br><br>I stood there in silence for a while. I assumed that he wanted me to leave, but I wasn’t ready to go yet. I had more questions.<br><br>“Will I be expected to do this when you’re gone?”<br><br>“Yes.”<br><br>“How? You didn’t see them, and it happened during the night.”<br><br>“I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time,” he said. “I don’t know when I’ll die, but I know that it will be soon. When it happens, I want you to take my body out into the desert. I want you to burn it as far away from the town as you can go in one day.”<br><br>“I don’t see how that’s going to help,” I said.<br><br>“I don’t know if it will,” he said. “But I have reasons to believe that your life will be much happier if you do this.”<br><br>I didn’t question him any further. I just turned around and went home.<br><br>I can’t stop thinking about our conversation. I feel a little better now that I know why he’s doing it, but I also feel a little worse knowing what happened to his family. I’m still not sure why he wants me to burn his body out in the desert, but I’ll do it anyway. When he’s gone, I’ll be the one protecting this town. I’ll be the one to make sure that the people I love are safe. He’s an old man, but he seems indestructible. I don’t think that he’ll be gone anytime soon. I’m not really afraid of burning his body out in the desert, and I don’t really think that the creatures he’s talking about even exist. I’m just afraid of not seeing him out there anymore.<br><br>When I look out my window, I can see him. He’s walking along the ramparts. I know that he’s keeping us safe. I know that I’ll be taking his place soon. I guess I have a lot to learn from him in the meantime.