# Four Days of Leave

A girl; disabled, unable to walk. So she never goes anywhere far. For her, the world is a room, a garden, and a street or two she knows. She never even imagines that anyone beyond her family would spare her a moment. The love of a crippled person too is crippled in everyone's eyes! What use is there in giving time to someone who cannot even carry herself?

Then one winter—not someone close to her—a friend comes to visit and stays four days, giving her his time, listening to everything she says in quiet patience. It's not that he cured her sorrow; he simply gave her his genuine attention. Then he leaves. The girl can't fathom it: why would he waste his entire holiday listening to her pointless sorrows?

For the first time in her life, the girl understands: the person who agreed, without expecting anything in return, to sit with her in her loneliness—besides him, she has no real friends, only acquaintances. There exists a person who gives his time knowing he will gain nothing in exchange. And she is not alone. Whoever has no friend is the one who is truly crippled.

A real friend comes suddenly into life; hardly anyone searches for such friendship beforehand.