In a small town where everyone knew everyone, there lived an elderly man. His name was Aldamar. No one knew where his strange name came from. No one spoke to him. He didn't speak to anyone himself. He avoided people. Every morning, before the sun rose, Aldamar went to the highest mountain in the town. The oldest inhabitants couldn't remember when Aldamar first appeared in the town. One day, he arrived with a single small bundle, and there he remained. The bearded old man aroused general astonishment among the townspeople. Children ran after him, calling Aldamar a wretch. Aldamar passed them and walked calmly on. Until sunrise, he sat on the bare ground. He was unafraid of cold, snow, storms, and heat. The sun rose, and he raised his hands to it as if to bless it. He always carried his little bundle with him, containing a crumpled yellow booklet, seemingly written in Hebrew, and a small cross bearing a now-faded Latin inscription.
The sun illuminated the entire town, and Aldamar would go to the old hut on the mountainside. He had built it himself, the very day he stepped onto this land. The lumberjacks from the nearby forest didn't protest when he took a few planks from them. No one ever dared to look into his hut. The older people had grown accustomed to Aldamar and tolerated this strange creature, calling him that themselves. Animals, out of fear, steered clear of him. And Aldamar was, after all, just like them. After sunset, the villagers saw no more Aldamar. Some said he never slept, and at night he transformed into a ghost. Aldamar would stay in his hut until the last light went out in the last window of the last house. Then he would finish his prayer, leave his hut, and return to his home. A small room in an abandoned barracks on the outskirts of town. People wondered why no one visited him. Did he have a family? He was always alone everywhere. A hermit.
One morning, Aldamar went up the mountain again, as he did every day. The sun began to rise. Suddenly, the inhabitants heard a beautiful melody. They had never heard such beautiful sounds in their lives. Everyone looked at Aldamar, who raised his hands to the sky, where they saw a bright figure in a boat. The figure in the boat drifted away with the clouds. The people couldn't believe their eyes. Was this some kind of sign? In a moment, everything vanished like a dream. The inhabitants whispered and murmured that Aldamar was performing magic. Aldamar, on the other hand, went to his hut...
The next morning, no one saw Aldamar. He didn't wander up the mountain as he usually did. People weren't surprised. He must have fallen ill or died, they said. A month later, the mayor, concerned about the old man's prolonged absence, looked into his room. Aldamar was gone, and inside, he found only dust. His wooden hut was gone, too. On the ground where he waited for the sunrise each morning, a sign in Hebrew was carved. And Aldamar vanished forever...
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