With Much Love Our Son

“Are you sure about this?” Claire asked.

“We don’t have any other options,” Elijah answered as they made their way up the dirt road to were it intersected with another road. “We’re here.”

“The crossroads.” Claire nodded. “So how does it work?”

Elijah held up a coin with a skull engraved on it. “We bury this in the middle.”

They quickly dug out a small hole in the ground and placed the coin inside.

“Is that it?” Asked Claire as they filled the hole and stepped back hesitantly.

“I think so.” Elijah scratched his head.

“Are you sure, no chanting or strange words?” Claire looked around expectantly. “Who told you how to do this again?”

“Well-”

“Claire and Elijah! What a surprise!” Interrupted a man standing behind them. They both turned around in shock. “After all those years going to church, I never thought I would see you here.”

“Well um-” Elijah started again.

“It’s your son, I know.” The man interrupted again, clearly not accustomed to waiting on others.

“How do you know?” Claire asked befuddled.

“You know what they say, the devil’s in the details.” He smiled, flashing his sparkling white teeth.

“Can you help us?” Asked Elijah, looking down in shame.

“Of course I can help you! All we have to do now is discuss terms.”

“What do you want, our souls?” Claire asked, moving closer to her husband.

“It’s not that simple.” The devil answered. “I mean I’ll have your souls, and a little more too.”

“All we need is twenty thousand dollars for our sons surgery, he’ll die without it.” Elijah explained, desperation creeping through his voice.

“And that I could give you.” The devil nodded almost sympathetically. “In exchange you’ll get the next ten years of your life before I come to collect.”

“We get twenty thousand dollars and only ten years?!” Claire blurted out. “What about all the people who get millions and become celebrities? Can’t you give us more?”

“I help people get what they desire.” The devil answered. “You want to get your son this surgery, and I’m willing to get you what you need to get that. No more, no less.”

“Elijah maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” Claire grabbed her husband's arm.

“We don’t have a choice Claire.” Elijah replied. “No bank will lend us the money after what happened last summer and none of our relatives can afford it.”

“So do we have a deal then?” The devil inquired knowing that he already had them the moment they buried the coin.

Elijah nodded. “What do we have to do?”

“Well we need pen and paper to write out a contract, and you’ll need to sign it in blood, both of you.”

“Where’s the paper?” Asked Claire.

“I could provide it, but it will cost you.” The devil smiled deviously.

“No, no one second.” Claire began rummaging through her purse. She looked to her husband for direction but his eyes stayed fixed at the ground in front of him. She withdrew a small black book and handed it to the devil.

“Smart choice.” The devil opened the book and began writing. He paused, looking up at them. “There is one more thing.”

“Our souls not enough?” Elijah looked up angrily.

“It’s not that.” The devil tilted his head. “It’s just that the surgery is very risky, no guarantee that money alone could solve your problem. Normally I wouldn’t point out such a detail, except there is something more I could do to help you.”

“And that is?” Claire and Elijah said in unison.

“I could guarantee that your son’s surgery will be successful and that his life will be saved.” The devil paused, deliberately toying with his prey. “In exchange all that I ask for is the joy you’d feel from raising him.”

“What does that mean?” Elijah asked, confused at the prospect.

“It means your son will grow and be healthy, but you won’t get the joy from seeing him grow or learn. He will still accomplish things and do things himself, you just won’t get any joy from watching him do it.”

Claire looked at Elijah. “It would be selfish of us to value our joy of raising our son over his own life.”

Elijah nodded in agreement. “We accept.”

“Great, sign here.” The devil held out the small black book.

Johnny sat through the eulogy quietly. He felt sadness aching through his heart, but he didn’t want to. His parents had called him every day the week before. Left several messages asking to see him, Johnny didn’t want to go. He told himself he would go the next day, but every day ended up the same as the last, with him chasing happiness at the bottom of a bottle.

It had all started eight years earlier. Johnny was sick, everyone was so sure he was going to die. His parents couldn’t afford the surgery. At the time he had never felt so loved, seeing how much his parents cared for him. It wasn’t until later that he realized that it may have been his surviving that caused his parents to suffer so. They unexpectedly came into twenty thousand dollars. The money saved Johnny’s life, but that was the last time his parents ever smiled at him. It was as if a switch had suddenly been flipped in them. They would still say the words, go through the motions, but they were indifferent to him. Johnny would bring home good grades, trophies, whatever else he could to get their attention. They would pat him on the back and say good job, but all he saw in their eyes was sadness.

Johnny kept trying to make excuses for them, but it hurt him every time he saw them smile and cheer watching their sports team on TV or how his mother gushed over how cute a baby was. They were capable of these emotions, but just not when it came to him. Not since he survived. He felt like they had secretly wished he had died. Some days he even wished that he had. Anytime someone said a face only a mother could love or anything with a similar sentiment it made him feel broken. Not his mother, not his face. Johnny started to cry, lost in the memories that pained him.

“Johnny?” A man appeared beside him wearing a fancy suit.

“Yes, that’s me.” Johnny answered wiping away his tears quickly.

“I’m Mr. Montgomery, the lawyer responsible for your parents estate. There are some things they wanted you to have.” The man said reaching out his hand.

“Did you want to do it now?” Replied Johnny, shifting uncomfortably as the alcohol started wearing off.

“If we could please.” Mr. Montgomery answered. “I know it’s irregular but you’re a hard man to find. We can get it out of the way and I’ll leave you alone to mourn.”

Johnny nodded, getting up to follow the lawyer. He was hopeful there would be some money left to him, his funds were running out and bottles weren’t getting any cheaper. Mr. Montgomery lead him to a room at the back of the church, holding the door open for him and ushering him into a seat. The lawyer quickly sat down behind the desk and began opening his briefcase.

“So naturally as the only heir they left you the house and whatever resides within. They didn’t have much in the way of savings but what they did have is in this check.” Mr. Montgomery placed the check and deed to the home in front of Johnny. “Once you sign these papers you’ll be good to go.”

“That’s it?” Asked Johnny, holding back the urge to scoop up the check and see how much was in store for him. He quickly signed the documents in front of him.

“There is one other thing.” Mr. Montgomery withdrew a small black book from his brief case. “They had left this for you. Said it was very important you read it.”

Johnny took the book and began to open it.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Mr. Montgomery got up and excused himself.

The first pages were old grocery lists. The ink was faded and it was clear to Johnny that it was written long ago. Afterwards he reached a page that wasn’t faded at all. He skimmed the page over quickly, not understanding much. An amount of twenty thousand dollars, ten years, joy from raising a son were the details that stood out to Johnny. At the bottom of the page was two blotches of blood pressed in by a finger. None of it made any sense to him. He flipped over to the next page looking hurriedly. This page also wasn’t faded, it looked as though it were written very recently.

Dearest Son,

We understand that to you we must be monsters. To never smile at such a wonderful man and son that you are. We have always been proud of you and have never had anything other than love for you. When we made the deal with the devil we never understood what we were giving up. We thought it selfish to value our joy over your life, but we never understood how much it would mean to you or us. We’ve wanted to tell you for so long, but the contract forbid us from doing so.

It pained us every time we saw you achieve greatness yet we couldn’t feel the joy of your accomplishment. If you saw sadness or pain in our eyes in those moments, it was the sadness of realizing what we had lost out on. The sadness of never enjoying the joys of those moments with you.

We gave up everything to see you grow, and we wanted to spend the last ten years of our life watching you grow whether we got the joy or not. It broke us when you left two years ago. All we could think of is the monsters we had become. We decided to take our lives early so that you could finally learn the truth and not live in the torment of thinking we did not love you. Please don’t blame yourself. We are so proud of you.

With much love our son,

Your loving parents

Tears started to fill Johnny’s eyes as he finished reading the letter. Not tears of pity for himself for what he perceived as the crimes of his parents, but tears of sadness for the truest of loves that he lost. He placed down the book as his teary eyes rested on the amount written on the check. It was written out to the sum of twenty thousand dollars.