The Old Man from Far Away (2)

His age was a mystery. 

Once he told us of the time it took him to sail to the stars - sixteen years. "And when I returned everything had gone," he said. "There was nothing left of the world."

"Sixteen years is a long time," I agreed, "But some things must have remained, there must have been people you knew. I'm 39, I said, I would have known you when you left, or known of you at least, if you were from here as you claim. And if the buildings had changed there would still be trees, that oak over there is a hundred years old."

"Ah," he said, "although my journey took me sixteen years, many thousands of years passed here on Earth. Entire civilisations crumbled, knowledge faded. Nothing was left."

Nonsense, all nonsense, but the children lapped it up. 

"Does that mean you're thousands of years old?" my youngest asked.

"I suppose it does. I belong to a different age, a long-passed age."