Abilities

The leaves and twigs were wet. Each step flattened them and snapped the twigs lying around them further into the damp soil. The dirt was molding into a thick mud that could be used to build a protective wall. Drops of rain that had been halted by the tree leaves fell to the ground. The sun was nearly set, but what was left of it still shined a light through the forest. Through the trees. It was low enough to cast light into the forest from the horizon.

He ran quicker through the forest. At first, the leaves and sludge kept slipping out from under his feet tripping him up a couple times. He banged his calf on a fallen tree, twisted his ankle by stepping into a hole, and had scratches across his face from running through limbs and bushes.

He slowed to a cautious pace, turning and looking every which way. He began screaming, calling out for help, but heard nothing back. He was the fallen tree and there was no one was around to hear it.

He stopped at a small pond. The soil was flooded. There were no tracks of any living creature walking through the area. He turned his back to the pond when he noticed the reflection in the water was slowly becoming darker. The sun was behind the horizon and the moon began to peak out.

The woods have a distinct difference from sun up to sun down. The tone, the vibe, the mood of the forest, all of it is different. During the day a forest is a calm atmosphere. It almost gives the impression that a forest makes a good home. Anyone who crashed in the middle of it would be able to survive for months. In a word, the forest is beautiful. At night, the forest is different. It’s not considered a forest anymore but dark woods, and the woods can be scary. A creature can lurk behind any tree, jump out at any moment and turn a sightseer into prey.

This was different. This was still a forest in the dark. It didn’t have the horror like others. It was more magical. It was like a forest straight out of a fantasy. The moon hit the leaves at the right angle to illuminate their beauty and bounce the glow to highlight other points of beauty. There were two moons, the one in the sky, and the full moon reflected in the pond.

He stretched his arm out to a close tree, plucked a leaf from it and grazed the edges with his thumb. It was a damp, smooth, blank canvas. This leaf, just like the rest on the tree, starts over new after every rain. That’s the reason the forest was so beautiful at night. After a rain, all the bad, all the horror washes away, and everything gets a new start. The trees, the bushes, the ponds, the fish, and the animals, everything in the forest was reborn.

The snap of a twig caught his attention. His eyes were drawn away from the leaf, but he held it in his hand as his arms fell to his side. He hunched his back and lowered to the ground creeping deeper into the forest. Someone was watching him.

“Mitchel,” he whispered. “Mitchel, is that you?” He walked slowly, but his head and his eyes turned and searched the forest viciously searched the forest. He moved quicker, still hunched.

“William,” a voice came from behind him.

“Where’s Mitchel?” asked William. The man stood in front of the pond. His posture was straight as an arrow. His left arm covered in blood, but there was no visible cut or gash to distinguish where the blood came from. “Where’s my son?”

“Your son? Now he’s your son? What was he last year? I’m sorry, but didn’t you try to kill him, like, twenty times,” said the man.

“This isn’t funny anymore. You’ve got to get a hold of yourself.,” William begged. “We tried everything, ok? We tried to save her. I’m sorry! It was my fault. I’m the reason that this is all happening to us. I’m sorry!” William screamed. He threw his arms out wide like he was telling the man to take an open shot.

William’s eyes opened as wide as they could. His jaw hung open. He looked into the eyes of the man with shock. Sadness. William’s gaze turned towards the top of the trees. He stood directly under an opening between the branches and the leaves. It was tough to see the canvas of the night sky from the forest ground, but in this one spot, he could see everything. He saw the bright moon and the thousands of stars that surrounded it. His head turned slightly as he took in the entire picture.

His body began to sway slightly of exhaustion and acceptance. He looked in the other man’s direction one last time, but the man wasn’t there. He had left. He had left William alone in the forest. He was to be alone here forever. He was meant to die here.

William gazed at the moon for the last time as his body fell to the ground. One last glance before he hit the ground. As his head came into contact with the forest floor, the lights went out, William was already gone.

He laid in the leaves, the mud, the twigs and the grass. He didn’t blink, he didn’t writhe in pain, nor did he breathe. He just lay there staring at the moon.

****

It had been 23-years since that chaotic night at the hospital, 23-years since Gazet convinced William to give up one of his sons and since that time, Gazet never had another vision about either of the Wehde boys again...until now.

Gazet’s eyes opened sharply and he sucked in air like a vacuum. Breathing out didn’t go so well. He struggled to push the air out of his lungs. He only managed to exhale a short puff before trying to suck more into his chest. He continued as if there were a 200-pound boulder on his chest. He fought for every ounce of air.

The lights stopped him from keeping his eyes fully open. While he waited for his eyes to adjust, he hid under the shade of his forearm and hand. He tried his best to hide under the shade of his forearm and hand, but the lights were especially bright having just woke up. He rubbed his eyes, but his pupils weren’t adjusting. He covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. He kept his hands plastered to his face and slowed his breathing down to a regular pace. Once he got it down to long, deep breaths, he opened his eyes and noticed an I.V. in the back of his hand.

The surprise of seeing that jolted him to sit up, but he couldn’t. Trying to rise shot pain through his body like he was being jabbed with nails. His hands crawled up to his neck. He felt a neck brace. The long breaths become short and stunted.

“Hello! Is there anyone there?” he shouted. He was panicking and couldn’t lift his head to look around the room. “Hello! Somebody!”

“Sir, I’m here. It’s ok,” a nurse came into the room.

“No! What’s going on?” Gazet tried to lift himself from the bed but the pain was too much and the nurse gently held his shoulders down. “What the hell happened?”

“Mr. Gazet, I need you to relax. You need to calm down for me. Can you do that? Mr. Gazet!” her voice turned harsh.

Gazet stopped fighting her and lay still in his bed. As he relaxed in his bed his face scrunched up like he had sucked on a lemon. He clenched his fists at his sides pulling at the bed sheets. His mouth formed an “O” and he blew out all of the oxygen in his lungs. He released his grip and his eyes found their way to the nurse. She stood looking at Gazet like she felt his pain. Her hands loosened at his shoulders and she smoothed the wrinkles out of his gown.

“What…” Gazet’s words got lost in his breathing. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You were in a car accident,” she broke the news to him.

“How…I don’t even,” Gazet fumbled the words out of his mouth.

“I’m very sorry. How are you feeling?” she asked as she did her routine checkups on Gazet.

“I’m in a lot of pain,” he answered uncomfortably.

“That’s understandable. We’ve got you on plenty of pain medicine, though. We will manage it as best we can, but you’re banged up pretty good,” she said. “You’ve got a minor cervical fracture.”

“My neck? Am I going to be able to walk again?” he asked.

“Yes. The doctor will need to do one more surgery, but it’s fixable.”

“One more? How many have…”

“Two,” she interrupted. “We had to operate on your leg. It was broken pretty badly. We also had to remove your spleen. You also have a couple broken ribs. You’ll make a full recovery but you may have a slight limp from now on. You were lucky.”

“Yeah. Lucky.” he said with no enthusiasm. His breathing was beginning to speed up from the unpleasant news.

“Just try to relax,” she said to him. The nurse looked at her patient struggling looking out the window trying to hold back his frustration and tears. “I’ll be back to check on you soon. Get some rest,” she began to walk away.

“Can you close the blinds and turn the lights off?” he asked.

“Sure,” she responded.

She pulled the cord closing the blinds. The light vanished from the left side of his face. Only the light from the ceiling was on. He stared at the blank walls and kept his eyes away from the door. The nurse flipped the switch to pilfer rid the room from the remainder of the light.

The wall vanished. Gazet could only see the pitch-black. He rolled his head around, but stopped because the pain was writhing too much for him to take. He looked up at the ceiling. The only sound was the slow beeping of the monitor he was hooked to. It beeped every second. It’s a scary thought to be hooked up to that machine because it only means something bad has happened, but the beep was soothing. It was a pleasant sound. There was no one else in the room; there was no light and as long as he lay in that bed, the beeping of the machine connected to his heart was the only thing to prove that he was still alive.

Gazet listened to the sound of his own beating heart and closed his eyes.

****

The streets were busy. Holidays were always a popular time in Ireland. The weather was never terribly cold so that people were forced to stay in their houses. The temperature hovered in the high 30’s throughout Christmas. The shops and streets were decorated with Christmas lights and wreaths. The cars were bumper to bumper but traffic always seemed to keep moving.

Gazet sped on the sidewalks. He moved around and in between the people bumping some of them as he passed. He carried a small bag that read “Jay’s Antiques” in his hand and made sure to keep the bag still during his speed walking session through the streets. He stopped at a crosswalk as the cars passed him by.

A child, about 13-years-old, stopped next to Gazet. The boy looked him up and down. They were about the same height, but Gazet had him by a couple inches. Gazet could tell that the boy was staring at him, but he was used to it. He had grown up being the little guy in class, in the school, on the bus. Anywhere he was, he was the little man.

“Merry Christmas,” Gazet said to the boy with a smile.

“What’s in the bag?” asked the boy.

“Oh, well,” he looked down at the small bag in his hands and continued, “it’s a Christmas gift for a special lady.”

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry, but that would ruin the surprise,” Gazet smiled and walked through the crosswalk.

Gazet walked into a Starbucks coffee shop and was disappointed that the line stretched to the front door didn’t have both feet into the building before he was standing at the end of the line. Gazet extended to his tiptoes to see over the people. He dropped to the bottom of his feet and let out a long sigh. The overly large woman in front of him shot a look of displeasure at the sound of his sigh.

“Hello. Merry Christmas,” he said cheerfully.

She groaned and faced the front of the line. Gazet rolled his eyes and moved on with his life. He looked around the store. There wasn’t an open table in the house. The place was filled with locals and tourists, businessmen and women, and people who had just left the gym.

As Gazet scanned the room, he came across a woman. She had dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her glasses were squared lenses in a black frame. Two cups of fresh Starbucks coffee sat on her table. She lifted them high in the air and smiled at Gazet.

Gazet looked at his watch and covered it with his other hand when he saw what the time was. He smiled and dropped his hands. He nodded to the women and walked over to her table.

“I just now remembered we said two and not 2:15,” he said apologetic.

“Oh, it’s fine. I haven’t been here long,” she responded.

She stood up and Gazet wrapped his arms around her. He held her close and breathed in her smell. Her hand moved up and down his back and the hug ended with her squeezing him tightly.

“I got you something,” he said as they took their seats. “I know we said no gifts this year, but I saw it and I just had to get it for you.”

“Anthony, we said no gifts,” she said.

“I know,” Gazet said smiling. “But it’s just a small something.”

“Well, that’s ok,” she reached down to the floor and pulled up a bag of her own. “I like getting gifts.”

Gazet smiled and placed the bag down in front of her. He put both his elbows on the table and pulled his coffee towards him and sniffed in the sweet chocolate aroma. He looked into her eyes. She looked at it in eager nervousness. She clicked her teeth together and the two of them shared a laugh.

“I suppose it’s not a new car?” she teased.

“No, I couldn’t find any bags big enough for that one,” he replied.

She opened the bag. Pulling the string handles as far apart as they could stretch. She reached into the bag and pulled out the gift. It was wrapped in red and green sparkle tissue paper. She unfolded the paper and lifted from it a glass snow globe.

“Do you like it?” asked Gazet appearing like he already knew the answer.

She held the snow globe in her hands. Her thumbs graced the glass ball. She sniffed and closed her eyes. She pulled the globe into her chest and the edges of her mouth curled up. Gazet watched her hold the present and couldn’t help but smile himself. He looked around at the rest of the shop feeling proud of himself for his gift.

The globe had a dark bronze colored base. Stars were engraved around the base. Inside the globe was a beautiful miniature Christmas tree. The tree was covered with small lights and multicolored ornaments. There was a bright yellow star on the top. Snow surrounded the tree. Rolling mounds of snow. In the snow looking up at the tree were three Polar bears. Two adults and a small baby polar bear. Their dark eyes stood out from the white gloss of the snow. The bears spread out and covered all areas of the globe.

“Where did you get this?” she asked

“This small family-owned antique store.”

“Jays? I’ve been in there a dozen times. I’ve never seen this.”

“Well, I had the manager make a couple calls. Do you like it?” he asked.

“I love it, Anthony. Thank you so much. It’s…” she stared at it with soft eyes. “It’s just like moms.”

“Yeah. Well moms had the triangles instead of the stars around the bottom, but I thought it was close enough.”

“It’s beautiful. I…I have no idea what to say,” she couldn’t find the words.

“It’s not a problem. Your expression said it all.”

She smiled and fought back the tears that were coming. She set the globe down and pulled Gazet in close. She couldn’t stop from smiling as she held him in a tight hug.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said releasing him from her grasp.

“Haha, you are welcome,” he smiled because she picked the globe up again and held it against her body. “Merry Christmas, Claire.”