Britain Baker

Ravi Chacko

J.D. Leonard

Sarah Thornock

The Alchemist

The main character of the story is Santiago. He is a boy whose life changed from being a wandering shepherd in Spain to traveling to the Pyramids of Egypt to find his destiny. Santiago has made friends with an alchemist at an oasis in an Egyptian desert and they were traveling together towards the Pyramids when a tribe in war with another tribe captured them. The wise alchemist gave the tribe all of Santiago’s money and bargained with the chief of the tribe that if Santiago could change himself into the wind, they were to be let free.

The chief met with his officers. He called the alchemist to the meeting and said, “Let’s go see the boy who turns himself into the wind.”

The boy took them to the cliff where he had been on the previous day. He told them all to be seated.

“It’s going to take a while,” the boy said.

“We’re in no hurry,” the chief answered. “We are men of the desert.”

Santiago spoke to the desert, asking for help in turning himself into the wind.

The desert responded, “I’ll give you my sands to help the wind to blow, but, alone, I can’t do anything. You’ll have to ask for help from the wind.”

The wind heard the conversation and came to the boy. “Help me,” Santiago said.

“Who taught you to speak the language of the desert and the wind?”

“My heart,” the boy answered.

“You can’t be the wind,” the wind said. “We’re two very different things.”

“That’s not true,” the boy said. “I have learned the alchemists secrets in my travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe.”

“Just teach me to be the wind for a few moments,” the boy said. “So you and I can talk about the limitless possibilities of people and the winds.”

The wind did not know how to change the boy into wind. “In my travels around the world, I’ve often seen people speaking of love and looking toward the heavens,” the wind said, furious at having to accept it’s own limitations. “Maybe it’s better to ask heaven.” The wind blew with all it’s strength to let the boy talk to heaven filling the sky with sand. The tribesmen were worried. The boy spoke to the sun about love and the Soul of the World.

“So what do you want of me?” the sun asked.

“I want you to help me turn myself into the wind,” the boy answered. However, the sun did not know how to turn the boy into the wind.

“Speak to the hand that wrote all,” said the sun. The wind blew even harder, listening to the conversation.

The boy turned to the hand that wrote all and prayed, reaching the Soul of the World. For generations thereafter, the Arabs recounted the legend of the boy who turned himself into the wind, destroying a military camp.