the old woman led the boy to a room at the back of her house; it was separated from her living room by a curtain of colored beads. the room's furnishings consisted of a table, an image of the sacred heart of jesus, and two chairs.

the woman sat down, and told him to be seated as well. then she took both of his hands in hers, and began quietly to pray.

it sounded like a gypsy prayer. the boy had already had experience on the road with gypsies; they also traveled, but they had no flocks of sheep. people said that gypsies spent their lives tricking others. it was also said that they had a pact with the devil, and that they kidnapped children and, taking them away to their mysterious camps, made them their slaves. as a child, the boy had always been frightened to death that he would be captured by gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman took his hands in hers.

but she has the sacred heart of jesus there, he thought, trying to reassure himself. he didn't want his hand to begin trembling, showing the old woman that he was fearful. he recited an our father silently.

"very interesting," said the woman, never taking her eyes from the boy's hands, and then she fell silent.

the boy was becoming nervous. his hands began to tremble, and the woman sensed it. he quickly pulled his hands away.

"i didn't come here to have you read my palm," he said, already regretting having come. he thought for a moment that it would be better to pay her fee and leave without learning a thing, that he was giving too much importance to his recurrent dream.

"you came so that you could learn about your dreams," said the old woman. "and dreams are the language of god. when he speaks in our language, i can interpret what he has said. but if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand. but, whichever it is, i'm going to charge you for the consultation."

another trick, the boy thought. but he decided to take a chance. a shepherd always takes his chances with wolves and with drought, and that's what makes a shepherd's life exciting.

"i have had the same dream twice," he said. "i dreamed that i was in a field with my sheep, when a child appeared and began to play with the animals. i don't like people to do that, because the sheep are afraid of strangers. but children always seem to be able to play with them without frightening them. i don't know why. i don't know how animals know the age of human beings."

"tell me more about your dream," said the woman. "i have to get back to my cooking, and, since you don't have much money, i can't give you a lot of time."

"the child went on playing with my sheep for quite a while," continued the boy, a bit upset. "and suddenly, the child took me by both hands and transported me to the egyptian pyramids."

he paused for a moment to see if the woman knew what the egyptian pyramids were. but she said nothing.

"then, at the egyptian pyramids,"—he said the last three words slowly, so that the old woman would understand—"the child said to me, if you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.' and, just as she was about to show me the exact location, i woke up. both times."

the woman was silent for some time. then she again took his hands and studied them carefully.

"i'm not going to charge you anything now," she said. "but i want one-tenth of the treasure, if you find it."

the boy laughed—out of happiness. he was going to be able to save the little money he had because of a dream about hidden treasure!

"well, interpret the dream," he said.

"first, swear to me. swear that you will give me one-tenth of your treasure in exchange for what i am going to tell you."

the shepherd swore that he would. the old woman asked him to swear again while looking at the image of the sacred heart of jesus.

"it's a dream in the language of the world," she said. "i can interpret it, but the interpretation is very difficult. that's why i feel that i deserve a part of what you find.

"and this is my interpretation: you must go to the pyramids in egypt. i have never heard of them, but, if it was a child who showed them to you, they exist. there you will find a treasure that will make you a rich man."

the boy was surprised, and then irritated. he didn't need to seek out the old woman for this! but then he remembered that he wasn't going to have to pay anything.

"i didn't need to waste my time just for this," he said.

"i told you that your dream was a difficult one. it's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. and since i am not wise, i have had to learn other arts, such as the reading of palms."

"well, how am i going to get to egypt?"

"i only interpret dreams. i don't know how to turn them into reality. that's why i have to live off what my daughters provide me with."

"and what if i never get to egypt?"

"then i don't get paid. it wouldn't be the first time."

and the woman told the boy to leave, saying she had already wasted too much time with him.

so the boy was disappointed; he decided that he would never again believe in dreams. he remembered that he had a number of things he had to take care of: he went to the market for something to eat, he traded his book for one that was thicker, and he found a bench in the plaza where he could sample the new wine he had bought. the day was hot, and the wine was refreshing. the sheep were at the gates of the city, in a stable that belonged to a friend. the boy knew a lot of people in the city. that was what made traveling appeal to him—he always made new friends, and he didn't need to spend all of his time with them. when someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. and then they want the person to change. if someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

he decided to wait until the sun had sunk a bit lower in the sky before following his flock back through the fields. three days from now, he would be with the merchant's daughter.

he started to read the book he had bought. on the very first page it described a burial ceremony. and the names of the people involved were very difficult to pronounce. if he ever wrote a book, he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the reader wouldn't have to worry about memorizing a lot of names.

when he was finally able to concentrate on what he was reading, he liked the book better; the burial was on a snowy day, and he welcomed the feeling of being cold. as he read on, an old man sat down at his side and tried to strike up a conversation.

"what are they doing?" the old man asked, pointing at the people in the plaza.

"working," the boy answered dryly, making it look as if he wanted to concentrate on his reading.

actually, he was thinking about shearing his sheep in front of the merchant's daughter, so that she could see that he was someone who was capable of doing difficult things. he had already imagined the scene many times; every time, the girl became fascinated when he explained that the sheep had to be sheared from back to front. he also tried to remember some good stories to relate as he sheared the sheep. most of them he had read in books, but he would tell them as if they were from his personal experience. she would never know the difference, because she didn't know how to read.

meanwhile, the old man persisted in his attempt to strike up a conversation. he said that he was tired and thirsty, and asked if he might have a sip of the boy's wine. the boy offered his bottle, hoping that the old man would leave him alone.

but the old man wanted to talk, and he asked the boy what book he was reading. the boy was tempted to be rude, and move to another bench, but his father had taught him to be respectful of the elderly. so he held out the book to the man—for two reasons: first, that he, himself, wasn't sure how to pronounce the title; and second, that if the old man didn't know how to read, he would probably feel ashamed and decide of his own accord to change benches.

"hmm…" said the old man, looking at all sides of the book, as if it were some strange object. "this is an important book, but it's really irritating."

the boy was shocked. the old man knew how to read, and had already read the book. and if the book was irritating, as the old man had said, the boy still had time to change it for another.

"it's a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say," continued the old man. "it describes people's inability to choose their own destinies. and it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie."

"what's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised.

"it's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. that's the world's greatest lie."

"that's never happened to me," the boy said. "they wanted me to be a priest, but i decided to become a shepherd."

"much better," said the old man. "because you really like to travel."

"he knew what i was thinking," the boy said to himself. the old man, meanwhile, was leafing through the book, without seeming to want to return it at all. the boy noticed that the man's clothing was strange. he looked like an arab, which was not unusual in those parts. africa was only a few hours from tarifa; one had only to cross the narrow straits by boat. arabs often appeared in the city, shopping and chanting their strange prayers several times a day.

"where are you from?" the boy asked.

"from many places."

"no one can be from many places," the boy said. "i'm a shepherd, and i have been to many places, but i come from only one place—from a city near an ancient castle. that's where i was born."

"well then, we could say that i was born in salem."

the boy didn't know where salem was, but he didn't want to ask, fearing that he would appear ignorant. he looked at the people in the plaza for a while; they were coming and going, and all of them seemed to be very busy.

"so, what is salem like?" he asked, trying to get some sort of clue.

"it's like it always has been."

no clue yet. but he knew that salem wasn't in andalusia. if it were, he would already have heard of it.

"and what do you do in salem?" he insisted.

"what do i do in salem?" the old man laughed. "well, i'm the king of salem!"

people say strange things, the boy thought. sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. and better still to be alone with one's books. they tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. but when you're talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don't know how to continue the conversation.

"my name is melchizedek," said the old man. "how many sheep do you have?"

"enough," said the boy. he could see that the old man wanted to know more about his life.

"well, then, we've got a problem. i can't help you if you feel you've got enough sheep."