The Offer

The Mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own.

I contemplated that line from one of the horror movies I had watched a while ago as I wondered how I was going to cleanse and get rid of the large mirror that had been gifted to my husband Rik and me.

It was gorgeous…it was also a spirit portal. It would be one thing if only nice spirits came through but unfortunately, that's the thing about a door....anything can come and go as it pleases if it's not locked.

It was not locked, and we had been playing grand central station for supernatural activity ever since.

At the time, I was sick as hell and needed to contact the shamanic witch, Evony; whom I usually got help from on this stuff.

I was having all kinds of bizarre spirit activity come my way since my dad’s health began to deteriorate due to on-set dementia. This paranormal stuff was normally his territory, not mine. Evony felt that it was my calling, I knew that, but I didn't have to like it.

I knew that I needed to get her over here but I barely had the strength to sit up. I got sick more than usual due to the constant stress I was under with my business Odds & Ends (An Antique shop), but this time it was a doozy.

I hadn't been this sick in a long time and it was scaring me, not that I told anyone that. No point in burdening anybody, it wouldn't do any good.

As I lay there coughing so hard, I felt the contents of my stomach crawl up my throat, I idly asked why I was going through this.

It had been this way for weeks; my illness got a bit better and then grew far worse. At times I could barely breathe.

I had been to the doctor repeatedly, the diagnosis was always the same; something like bronchitis, but not quite. Antibiotics only worked for a little while. Now I could barely hold down soup.

I wondered which deity I had pissed off for this to happen. I was having upper respiratory issues off and on, but not like this.

Nothing worked for long to dispel the cough, the exhaustion from it was extensive.

I worked as best as I could and I took care of my son as best as I could, I was glad that he was an understanding little guy.

Rik and my mom were too busy working to help me, it was aggravating but it was also life.

I lay in bed as another coughing fit saw me losing control of my bladder yet again.

The corners of my vision were darkening...hmm, well I had passed out from the cough before, at least I was laying down so I couldn't hurt myself this time......then the darkness coalesced into a vision of a small boy.

He had the straightest, thickest jet-black hair, that I had ever seen. It was cut in a nice-looking modern style. He sat up in a large bed with expensive looking blankets and dark wooden posts at the corners. He looked happy and amazed.

On closer inspection, he wore powder blue pajamas with yellow ducks on them, the kind of ducks that are portrayed in children's books. I doubted if he was more than four years old, he was so small.

Great, I thought, now I’m hallucinating!

A sudden fear of my own mortality struck me and then the fear of who would take care of my son Ben if I were to die flashed through me. It was understandable but seemed out of place to me. Almost artificial.

A voice slithered into my mind.

"You can be healthy. All this can go away. Give it to the boy. He doesn't matter anyway."

What the literal hell!

Since this was a crazy situation anyway, I answered "No. He is a child. Absolutely not. I'm an adult and I will fight off whatever this is eventually. He doesn't deserve this."

A part of me had thought about it for a third of a second, the desire to have all of this over and to be healthy again, for it all to stop, it was powerful. I was ashamed of that third of a second.

The voice came again "Then think of it as you returning to him what is his. His destiny. Something that was foisted on to you." The voice held a note of laughter.

The voice added "He's just a child, he doesn't matter anyway." It sounded almost incredulous...like a child was of zero importance.

I thought to myself that whatever this was really needed to do its research before making a sales pitch. Dad had always taught me to know my audience. This thing was barking up the wrong tree and was shocked that I wasn't jumping at the chance.

I thought about the concept of being able to take away a child's sickness and rolled it around in my mind. I was shocked if that could be true......then I would take it in a heartbeat!

I didn't care if someone had traded their kid's illness onto me...good for them for finding a way to heal their kid.

I thought about how many times I had wished that I could take my own son's illness from him.

I would have given anything to be able to do so.

"Then I will take it and I will fight it off. I will heal eventually. I can fight this off, he is just a kid. He won't be able to fight this off, but I can" I thought about how afraid he would be, how much he would suffer, and it hurt me deeply. I felt myself cringe at the thought.

It was an odd sensation in that moment. I knew that I would heal and be fine eventually. With just as much certainty, I knew that whatever I had would kill that little boy. I can't tell you how I could be so certain, but I was.

The voice formed into a being at my left ear.

He appeared to be an Allan Quartermain like figure....if Allan Quartermain had been 125lbs and his face had been chiseled by decades of bitterness & resentment.

The figure seethed "Then you will die like this. Drowning as your lungs fill with fluid."

"So be it." I answered resolutely. I felt truly ambiguous about the possibility of my life ending at that moment, it was an odd sensation.

As everything began to clear I heard a muttered parting shot "Enjoy pissing yourself."

The entity knew which barbs to throw as I loathed the indignity of it. Peeing myself just added the final insult to injury with this damned illness.

Just as it had come, everything was gone, and I was alone again. Coughing so hard I could barely catch my breath and losing bladder control.

I contemplated the incident for a little while and then managed to pass out for a few hours before my son woke up.

How wonderful it would be for adults to be able to take away a child's illness. If only it were true.

I did eventually heal up and everything was fine.

After that incident, I called Evony, and she cleared the mirror and locked it down and then I decided to donate it to a local church.

I spoke with Evony and Rik about the incident.

Evony wasn't shocked, but Rik was visibly uncomfortable. We decided to open a paranormal helpline of sorts, it was a branch off my antique business but would cater to people who were having the same kind of issues that Rik & I had been dealing with since we got the mirror.

We ended up helping a lot of people with the helpline, it didn't earn any money, but it did a lot of good. I passed the torch once I gave birth to my daughter Maya.

Many years later l stumbled upon a young doctor being interviewed on one of those late-night talk shows and what I heard chilled me to the bone.

The young man spoke about why he had become a doctor and how he had perfected some of the radical and almost miraculous methods that he employed in his treatments, many of which he gave out for free all over the world. He specialized in pediatrics.

He told the show host about how he had been quite sick as a child with one thing and then another, even at times necessitating round-the-clock nurses, but there had been one bought of respiratory illness that had very nearly ended his life.

He came up with the body of his treatments during his different illnesses, but that one particular incident stuck in his mind because of the way that the illness just disappeared one morning as if by magic....that and the vivid hallucination that went with it.

He said that he had woken one morning and had been able to breathe perfectly, this came on the heels of months of having difficulty breathing off and on. He and his nurse both thought that they were dreaming.

He saw plain as day the image of a dark haired woman laying on a bed and she was coughing the same way that he usually did.

The woman in the vision seemed to speak with a shadowy being, the entity was offering her health in exchange for sending her illness to the boy.

He was struck by the fact that the woman chose to face her illness on her own and by her words, "I will heal eventually on my own, I will be fine....if I’m not then so be it.", and the resolute attitude that she had.

The young doctor told how that was when he made the decision to overcome his illnesses and track their progress. He could face any illness and he could beat it.

The doctor felt that even though it was most likely a fever dream, it changed his attitude toward his sicknesses. He felt empowered after that instead of like a victim and it gave him the resolve to change his fate and to help others fight their battles as well.