RIVER OF LIFE – A Family Short Story
Photo credit: jeltovski from morguefile.com
Jacek and Placek had their Mother. For obvious, biological reasons they had a father as well, but Peter was an alcoholic and a home tyrant. Christine was doing everything possible, and sometimes even impossible, for her children to have at least a substitute of a normal life. Fortunately for the whole family, she was strong enough to make a decision about leaving the drunker, and she got divorced. She had to take extra hours at work to provide all they needed. She was alone with her children, but at least wasn’t living in a great fear anymore.
A great effort of the Mother allowed Jacek and Placek to graduate from the university, and both got pretty good jobs. Jacek became a C++ software developer, and Placek was an automation engineer. Both got married, and even though in the beginning they had marriage problems, the work of good psychologists together with great understanding from their wives allowed to overcome crisis in both families. Now Mother had all the reasons to be satisfied after all she came through, and soon she was even more happy, as Placek’s wife delivered a granddaughter Veronica.
Grandma Christie soon was sixty, and was retired so she she could take care of Veronica, when her parents were at work. This was double good for her, not only because at last she witnessed her son’s happiness, but also because she was not able to stop an extremely active life, and do almost nothing like most of retired people.
Her happiness was lasting for three years. Some day she was taken to a hospital, as her blood examination was not good. Jacek and Placek visited their Mother alternately every day, after their work for an hour or two. While one of them was with Mother, another one was taking care of her house near the forest, and took her dog Max for a walk.
One Saturday noon Jacek was walking in the forest with Max. They came deeply into forest, and it seemed for Jacek that they were lost. After roaming for several minutes Jacek walked into a dense group of pines. The dog didn’t follow him. Soon a meadow appeared before his eyes, and Jacek saw a huge Oak over a river, and some figure sitting and looking at the water flowing. After he approached he found this figure to be an angel, a classic one with feathery, white wings.
“Mortal! How did you get here?” asked the angel.
“I just walked among the trees with my dog… Actually I don’t know, where Max is now…”
“I am the angel guardian of the Oak of Birth and the River of Life. You can walk around here, but don’t approach the river closer than two meters.”
Jacek did as he was told by the angel. The River of Life was very broad, and the Oak huge with numerous leafs. Each few seconds a leaf or several were falling from the tree into the water.
“This place is symbolic.” told the angel “Each leaf represents a human being. They are drifting through the River of Life. There are different water currents in the river, so some leafs drift faster and some slower. This determines the length of human life. Leafs are heading to the Waterfall of Death, not far beyond the trees on the end of this meadow. You cannot see it from here, and obviously you can’t go there!”
Jacek was walking along the river bank, keeping the distance ordered by the angel. Indeed, every time he was looking at some leaf, a name of a person somehow appeared in his mind. He found his niece’s leaf not far from the Oak, leafs of himself and his brother, and then he came near the line of the trees on the border of the meadow to look for the leaf, he was the most interested in. He made it after more than half an hour.
“Mother! So it’s not much time left!”
Worried, he left the meadow. The dog was sitting on the ground, right at the place they split.
The next week he was at a leave of absence from his work, as he wanted to spend as much time with his Mother as possible. He was thinking about the meadow, and tried to find that place on Google maps, but the satellite pictures showed the forest everywhere. He didn’t tell Placek about his finding, but only mentioned that he has a feeling that Mother won’t live for a long time.
That day Jacek was doing shopping, and soon was about to shift Placek at the hospital, when he received a call on his mobile.
“Brother! The situation is tragical. Mother is dying! Just come here as soon as possible.”
He left the cart with shopping, left the store, and got in his car. He started the engine.
“I just must be with her in her last moment.”
A stream of his thoughts was fast and mixed with strong emotions.
“Or … if I? … the meadow!”
Not aware of traffic rules he drove quickly to mother’s house, left the car, and walked into the forest. The dog, waiting on the yard, found it strange that he was not taken for a walk this time. It was not so easy to find the meadow, but soon Jacek did.
“Aaaa… it’s you again!… Wait! Don’t go there!”
Jacek took the advantage of angel’s surprise, and quickly approached the line of the trees at the end of the meadow. He jumped into the water, disturbing the drift of several leafs. Despite its wideness, the river was shallow so he was just walking slowly in the water. About twenty meters further it was already twilight, and he heard not so loud roar of the Waterfall of Death. He looked around, which was not so easy due to weak light.
“Mother’s leaf… Oh no! Too late!”
The waterfall itself was only three to four meters high, so without much thinking Jacek jumped down. Into the darkness!
“Julius Cesar, John Paul II, Napoleon, Kosciuszko, Copernicus, thousands of unknown people… over there!”
He found his Mother’s leaf, and took it in his hand. “Christine Novak” – the empty voice resounded in his head. No emotions!
“Mortal! You fool!” suddenly he heard angle’s voice, but could not see him “The leaves are symbols of human beings, not their souls! Your Mother is not here! You have stepped out of the world, and now you are beyond the place and the time, trapped in the eternity. You are lost!”
__END__
