James left his mother that night. A mistake that he was going to repent for the years he would live.
Heather had not been feeling well for the past couple of days. A 24 – hour maid took care of the everyday chores and gave the medicines to Heather. She reluctantly gulped down the pills with a sip of water and realized the end was drawing near. She always tried to stay happy and calm; when the pills had an adverse effect on her, so she did the total opposite.
Hours. Days. Weeks passed.
James did everything he could do for his mother but couldn’t stay at home for long. He tirelessly worked day and night to earn his dough, pay the utility bills, buy the medicines and afford the 24- hour maid.
The same routine carried on for weeks as Heather’s condition deteriorated. She had breast cancer.Her treatment was over and the doctors gave up. Yet she wasn’t quite ready to do that . She fought alone in the battlefield against the millions of warriors.
One night,James arrived home, fuming with anger. He slammed the door close and climbed up the stairs without greeting his mother. Confused, his mother called his name out several times but he did not respond. Unable to move,she just lay there and called his name out one last time.
“James!”
She took her last breath and prayed to God as her soul parted from her body.T he static sound made by the machines next to her bed,echoed in the house,seeped through the walls.Heather’s lips were turned at one corner and made her look as if she was smirking. Silence.
It wasn’t until next morning that the maid pronounced Heather dead! James stood next to her bed and stared into nothingness, shocked. He held onto Heather’s ice-cold hand between his warm hands, interlocking his fingers together. He remembered last night in a faze.He had heard his mother calling on after him but he had ignored her. If only he knew that it was her last day. He steadied his gaze on Heather’s face one last time and took a deep breath. Her face,innocent but was covered in wrinkles. Her frozen pink lips were carved like a graving on wood.
That night everything changed.
James wasn’t going to forgive himself. Maybe this was the end for him too,so then he could meet her and tell her how sorry he was.
That night his feet walked him to the river. As though they were the leash and he was the dog. A passerby would only mistake him as a tourist or perhaps someone here for some recreational activity. But what he sought was peace. A Greater Perhaps.
He kept struggling with himself and was convinced that even though he knew how to swim; he would drown. He would gag on water,his lungs would fill with water and then the human buoyancy would show its karma.
By morning his body would flow to the river bank and rumors will spread. He stroded down the river bank and approached the river.This was how he had imagined his death.He could already feel the Angel of Death lurking over his shoulders.
He closed his eyes as the chilling water hit his skin.
He gasped for breath.
Darkness.
This was how it ended.This was the end.
–END–
