I had left school with a slightly murky mind. Since last night, I had thought about what that note said, and the many possibilities of what Mr. Andres could tell me when I saw him in the park that afternoon, and asked him about the meaning of what the note said.

Arriving at the park entrance, I looked at the landscape through the threshold: the extensive path that ran along the park, surrounding the small lagoon that was in the middle of the land, with bifurcations that could make a straight and faster path to only take it as a shortcut. That landscape only contemplated it when I felt that something important was happening in my life, and until now, I had only contemplated it when I came out of an operation to extract my appendix, and when I did my high school selection exam.

From the entrance I could see that Mr. Andres was sitting as always at that same time, on the bench closest to the lake, while feeding small animals that approached without fear. I began to approach carefully and quietly to try not to scare the animals like Mr. Andres, but it turned out to be a useless effort when I reached two meters from the bench, and the animals left running away with the food they could in their mouths.

-It seems you want to be accepted by these little friends, don’t you, boy?

-But it seems that they cannot accept me as you.

-Not now, but someday they could –Mr. Andres seemed to be in a good mood, smiling broadly as he looked at the small animals returning for small moments to take any piece of food they could take-. If it were not like that, why else would you try to get there without driving them away?

-How can you say it with just that?

Mr. Andres scrutinized my face for a moment.

- Could you understand what my thought was saying?

-The sheet of paper? –I knew he was referring to that kind of poem, since it was just the reason why he had gone to the park that day to see it. I could understand some things, but there are still some those-. I could not understand.

-Like which?

I pulled the sheet of paper out of my jacket and read the first part that had confused me.

- If a person has forgotten the reasons why he started something, he should remember: Why...? Why do I do this...? Why do I want this...?

-Tell me, boy, what do you think it could mean?

-I can only understand that it's like the questions you asked me yesterday.

-Well, in that you earned a point. Well thought.

-Thanks.

-But it's not all yet, I can tell you for example what I mentioned earlier, that someday these little animals could accept you without escaping. Why did they accept me?

-Because you give them food.

-No, boy. They accept my presence because I have been coming to this park, and I have persevered for several years to be accepted. At first, they walked away no matter how much food they brought with me, or they just came a little closer and moved away as they did when you arrived. That's the Why...? Of that thought.

-I understand –I said, barely understanding what Mr. Andres was saying-. But then, the other fragment that I did not understand, If a person tries to fill the void that someone else left, He will leave a gap where he or she should have been. If you try to fill your life with the earrings that someone else left, your present will be lost sight of, and you will not be able to see the earrings that you leave yourself. That fragment seemed particularly strange to me. What is it…?

I looked at the face of Mr. Andres, and his mischievous smile had changed to a nostalgic face with only a faint sign of the smile that had moments before.

-Boy... No, Alex. Would you be willing to listen to this old man's story?

I could tell from his expression that this "History" would be the reason for that very heavy and at the same time intense fragment of that thought. In short, it was what I expected to hear from the moment I entered the park.

-If you allow me, I'd like to hear that story, please.

-Well, boy, make you comfortable because it will take me a while.

And in that way, the origin of that very intense thought began that had attracted my attention with such fervor.