Innocence Lost -- October 7, 1075

By: Eric Sedlack

Trevor, as usual, was skipping about the castle at high-speed. His nanny had long since learned what a futile task keeping up with him was and simply conspired with as many of the other servants as possible to keep an eye on him. Unfortunately for her, Trevor had recently figured out this ploy and avoided all servants whenever possible. Thus he maximized his freedom from supervision.

He was currently chasing a large mouse he had discovered in the corridor. The mouse wanted to find its way to the wall, but Trevor had flushed it out into the open and was deftly cutting off all means of escape. He continued to chase the frightened rodent down the corridor, almost bumping into a servant. He heard the servant mutter to herself, something about not needing any cats with the Baron's crazy boy about. Everyone thought he did this to torment the animals but in reality he tried to catch mice in the hopes of sneaking them outside to what he naively believed was safety for the animal. The fact that none of his rodent rescues had ever been successful to date failed to dampen his spirits for the exercise. This time was no exception, eventually the mouse escaped into a hole in the wall.

Trevor then found himself in the front hall of the castle. Too many servants were around here, so he endeavored to beat a hasty retreat. But something caught his eye. Someone was at the door!...someone with the distinct trappings of a messenger. Trevor knew that messengers could spell excitement, sometimes the happy excitement and jubilation of good news or the frenetic, confused excitement of bad news. Most of the time, of course, it was just something boring that would cause no stir at all. Trevor optimistically assumed the best and began following the servant who took the message. From corner to corner he sneaked behind the message-bearer, who if he noticed made no show of it. It soon became apparant that this message was going to father! This could be exciting!

He stood in the door, discreetly looking around to see his father read the message. To Trevor's dismay, the Baron uttered no exclaimation...of either elation or distress. He just got a look of profound sadness and crumpled the message, threw it on the floor and buried his face in his hands.

Now Trevor started to worry. He came out of his hiding place. The Baron looked up and Trevor could see that his eyes were red.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" Trevor asked.

"Oh, Trevor, it's something that happened out at the edge of our lands, nothing for you to worry about."

Trevor climbed up into his father's lap. "But why are you so sad, Daddy?"

"Well, son, sometimes people do bad things to other people."

"Like what?"

"Like hurt them."

"Why?"

"Well, sometimes people are afraid of other people because they are different. And it's easier for them to hurt them than to try to understand their differences."

"Is that what the piece of paper said?"

"Yes."

"Hurting people is wrong."

"Yes, son it is."

"William says that when people do things that are wrong, you punish them. Are you going to punish the people who hurt the other people?"

"No, son."

"Why not?!"

"Because the law says it was okay for them to hurt those people."

"But that means that the law is wrong."

"Yes, it's wrong...but it's a law I can't change."

"But if a law is wrong, why do you follow it."

"Because I have to."

"But you should do what's right."

"I'd like to son, but if I do, more people will come to hurt me, and mother, and you and your sister and brothers."

"But Mother says that God wants us to do right even when others want us to do wrong."

"I know son...but sometimes it isn't that simple...Look, I think it's time for you to go play." He lifted Trevor off his knee and set him down, shooing him off.

Trevor thought again to himself that his father should do the RIGHT thing...