Letting go (a story about change)

Letting go

1. Altan opened the painted wooden door of his

   ger

   to see his daughter Chimeg’s rusty pickup truck rolling toward him, kicking up dust on the grasslands. He sighed. Uyanga, his Bactrian camel, snorted from her favorite spot outside the ger, her weary legs curled up beneath her.
2. Chimeg opened the truck, revealing a sack overflowing with mutton chops, vegetables, and a loaf of bread.
3. “Thank you,” Altan said quietly. He scratched the fur between Uyanga’s ears as Chimeg walked past him into the ger. She checked the temperature of his freezer, which was powered by a small solar panel outside.
4. It grew quiet after Chimeg stored the food.
5. “I think we have to talk about Uyanga again,” she said from inside. “I don’t mind helping you but–”
6. “No,” Altan said firmly.
7. With that, Chimeg climbed into her truck and drove home across the Mongolian steppe. Altan didn’t watch until the truck disappeared behind the mountains, as he usually did.

8. It was true, Uyanga had gotten old. But so had he. Did that mean Chimeg wanted to trade him in for a new father?
9. Chimeg accused him of resisting modern life. But he had agreed to the solar panel and the freezer, hadn’t he? He didn’t want to become alienated like so many of his friends, lost to their televisions and mobile phones, surrounded by solar panels and captive to technology inside their gers.
10. At the Buddhist temple nearby, Altan sat with his palms pressed together, meditating before the ancient statues and repeating his

    mantra

    . Outside, his beloved Uyanga waited patiently. His faith taught him that strength and happiness came from within, and that attachment to things only leads to suffering.
11. Altan worked on developing compassion because he knew his neighbors must be suffering with their attachments to so many new things.

12. One winter afternoon, Altan rode Uyanga from the ger of Batu, who sold firewood. The heavy sacks hung on either side of the camel and her gait was slower than normal in the cold wind and flurries of snow.
13. “Come on,” Altan gently encouraged, wrapping his fur tighter around himself.
14. But Uyanga began limping, lowering herself to the icy ground. In a panic, Altan leapt off her back and removed the sacks of firewood.
15. “Uyanga! Please, please get up!”
16. But she stayed put, her cloudy eyes gazing at Altan as he begged her and tugged at her reins. Altan’s face grew numb and he was terrified, but he would never, ever abandon her there.
17. The sun had fallen lower and the snow was falling harder when finally Uyanga rose unsteadily. It was ridiculous for Altan to try to support such a massive animal but he did his best, walking alongside Uyanga, a hand stretched underneath her sagging belly, guiding her slowly home.
18. It was nearly dark when they reached the ger and Altan desperately wanted to crawl into bed. But instead, he started a fire with the last of his wood and sat before his own small Buddhist altar. He pressed his hands together and meditated. Soon, the ger grew cozy and, as his mind cleared, the heaviness inside him began to lift.
19. Tomorrow, he would call Chimeg from his neighbor’s phone and tell her that he was ready.

20. Altan waited for the sound of the pickup truck in the distance before he put on his fur hat and stepped nervously into the chilly morning. The truck grew larger against the mountains and the sunrise. Altan drew a deep breath and watched the shape in the bed of the truck become larger too.
21. Chimeg pulled up carefully beside the ger. First, she handed Altan a sack of groceries from the cab of the truck. He retrieved a carrot and fed it to Uyanga, resting in her pen under a small blanket.
22. Then, Chimeg pulled a metal ramp from the bed of the truck. She took the motorcycle by its handlebars and eased it to the ground, before kick-starting it and showing him how fast he could go.