The sky was blue and as wide open as anything he'd ever seen. Life in the bustling trade city meant that Joseph always had something around; People mostly, but also buildings, animals, sounds, smells, and all the different noise of the mind that crowds in and takes up space so that there is painfully little of the self left. Joseph had felt it before too, that lack of self where you aren't really sitting in your own body. Someone works, running around, carrying things and messages for people too busy to do it themselves. Someone smiles and says hello when they are greeted. Someone argues over the price of something at the market, but none of them were Joseph. They were all just head noise.

Joseph was content with this life, or at least he thought he was. There was always something to do, always some distraction. Even sleep seemed like a waste of time when there were errands to run, stories to tell, and money to earn. And Joseph thought this made him happy. He was not starving. He was not ill. He was better off than many, though certainly not so well off as some. He was perfectly happy continuing on like this. That is, he was happy with it until he was sent away.

The man was wealthy and generous; one of those people who had other people do their things because they were too busy to do it themselves. That was good, seeing as it kept Joseph busy. It was a simple errand, but a long one. Travel from the city—There is a world outside the city, Joseph had reminded himself—go out the city gates and far, far from the place he called home. Walk west until he found the ocean and then head North until he found a tiny little village. Once he was there, he would deliver a package to the old woman who lived there. “Which old woman?” Joseph had asked. “There is only one old woman who lives there.” the man had replied, a thought that simply boggled the mind. A town with only one old woman? Bizarre.

Joseph didn't know what the package was. It was a little box, probably wooden if the weight was any sign, tightly bound in thick paper and twine. It was no bigger that the palm of his hand and fit neatly in his sack as he walks along. He walked along and the walls of the city dropped back from the scenery. There were still houses of course, and roads and things, but gradually even those became more and more scarce.

And then there weren't any.

There was the crumbling road, and grass, and the occasional tree, and the sky.

The wide, bright blue sky; bigger than anything he had ever seen. It was bigger than he though anything could even be. It hugged the ground in a full circle from where he stood. It stooped low and touched the earth, like the ocean he had heard about, except still. Perfectly still, aside from the occasional wisp of cloud.

There were still plenty of hours in the day but after looking around, Joseph realized, there was no one here. There was no one to watch him, no one to talk to, no place to be that wasn't still days or more away. Just him, the grass, and the sky.

All at once, Joseph laughed. It started with a smile, just a grin, but now he was laughing, arms spread as he took in the horizon. He took in the horizon. He laid back in the rustling grass. He stared up at the blue, blue sky, and for perhaps the first time ever, he was himself, and at peace.