Ill

Tobias is ill.

The disease, if there is only one, comes so slowly that no one is really sure when it starts. Looking from another angle, his health gradually fades as twilight. The sun has gone below the horizon but the sky remains bright. Then it turns, shade after shade, from dim to gloomy. A moment later, it is completely dark. Yes, he is an old man. But, just a few years back, he was absolutely astute and fierce. Now? It looks as if he is about to take his last breath at any moment.

The problem of the old man is he has several children but none could get along well with another. True, they all appear caring. (To their father, or to the money? Who knows?) They send for a doctor, who could not make out what's wrong with the old man. They send for another. Same. And then they fed up. They form their own opinions about the disease of their father.

Yes, I said opinions. Plural. More than one. Each of them has a different view.

Or, to say the least, there are two major streams of opinion.

(To be continued.)