THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF DON CASTALONI..

 

During the winter of 1237..in the year of our lord..a great pestilence roamed the land.
Crops failed, great storms filled the heavens, the sky was a constant grey or black.
Birds stopped singing. Women died in childbirth. Chickens stopped laying.
Thousands died of a strange mallady they called 'The Croak'..
a terrible disease that took the lives of so many god fearing folk of villages across the land.
So many died of the croak there was little room left in the graveyards.
Bodies were burnt on great pyres. Many were simply tossed off cliffs into the sea.
And while this torment caused so much horror and death to so many,
 one man, just one man  seemed invincible. He was the son of a smple olive farmer.
At the time of these great torments, at the age of just fifteen, he would become,
the saviour of his village. Many tales have been written of this man..
including these...
The Strange Tales Of Don Castaloni...

The Devil is Gone...

It was a bright and sunny morning. In the humble farmhouse of his parents,
Don was busy shaving. His father came in and said..'we must stay away from the village Don,
we are safer away from folk. We have survived already here on the hillside. While down there,
countless poor souls have been ravaged by this terrible pestilence.
This is our protection Don. This is how we will survive.
Don wipes his face and says..'father, you know i've been down to the village many times 
in the last few months..yes i've seen the devastation, i've seen the death first hand.
Yes, its bad, it's very very bad. But look.i'm still here...and today,
 look,  the sun is shining again..the grey clouds are gone.
I think its truly over father'.

His father sits at the kitchen table..he sips coffee.
'Son , he says, i dont know how