Mother and Son

A graveyard is not somewhere one wishes to be but will always end up in no matter what. John didn’t really have a good relationship with his mother. He moved out at the age of 16, his father had left the family when he was 6 and his mother never really seemed to be impacted by the situation. They never really talked about it but at the same time, they really never talked about anything. The house was always silent and John never really cared. He was always occupied in his room sketching characters for comic book ideas.

His mom Darnell was an author. She had published 2 books on neuroscience which got her recognition in the science community but later stopped due to her husband leaving. She departed from her career in writing and began working part time jobs to keep up with the rent. John started doing odd jobs at a young age to help out which he didn’t mind doing.

With the lack of communication came a distance between John and his mother that could not be fixed. When John moved out he left without saying where he was going. All he knew was that he would rather live with himself. John never really spoke to her mother since. As nothing but a kind gesture, he would send her letters detailing who and where he had been staying at. He had friends from different parts of the that he could stay with and he would move from friends house to friends house while still finishing school.

At the age of 21, it had been an entire year since he had spoken to his mother, so he decided to pay her a visit. When he arrived he noticed that the house was vacant. After asking around the neighborhood, he came upon an old man that told him his mother had passed months before from cancer. He was struck at first with grief but slowly, his grief turned into remorse. He thought about all the years that went by without him seeing her. He started to wonder how she must’ve felt, had she been mad or sad? Did she even think about him at all?

After gathering some information about the whereabouts of her mother’s grave he began to drive there. He drove slowly. Oftentimes, he would pull over and stare out into the distance. After a long drive, he arrived. He walked as if something was pulling him back, the wind was strong that day as if a storm was coming. He finally found her mother’s grave and sat next to her headstone that simply read: Darnell, a mother. He did not shed a tear or say anything. He simply got up after a couple of minutes and went back to the vacant house.

Not very many memories were shared in that house but he still felt a bit of nostalgia as he came in. The house was pretty much empty with the exception of a few boxes full of miscellaneous items by the front door. He started going through them as he recognized some items from his childhood. He was curious if his sketches were in there. He came across a box labeled John’s art with a heart drawn next to the words. He could not remember writing that himself so it had to have been his mom. He opened the box and found a little back notebook.

He opened it to reveal that every single one of his sketches was kept in there. It turned out that his mom had been writing short fictional stories about every character that he drew. All those years that he spent as a kid living with her mother thinking that no one mattered to one another changed immediately after reading a note at the end of the notebook.

“To my dear son, I wanted to give you this before you left but I didn’t know how. I hoped it would have helped wherever you were going. I know I haven’t been the best mom but I just want you to know that I love you and appreciate you with all my heart. Please know that the reason for me being so distant from you was not your fault. I should have dealt with the issue of your father leaving sooner than later. I don’t know when I’ll see you again but please take the money that I left for you in my bag on top of the fridge.”

John looked for it but could not find it. He didn't really care if he found it or not. Right as he was about to give up, he glimpsed at the side of the fridge to find a paper bag nudged in the space between it and the wall. He took the paper bag and opened it up. To his surprise and with tears pouring down his face, he took out 2 stacks of 10,000 dollars. Collapsed to his knees and started weeping uncontrollably. For the first time since he could remember, he wanted to hug his mother.