My older brother Michael ran away when I was just fourteen years old. Michael at the time was twenty-three. He and dad just didn't see eye to eye on too many issues. After many loud and hot arguments, Michael packed up his belongings, loaded up his old pickup and disappeared. Mom was heartbroken when she discovered his room had been cleared out of all his belongings. Michael had removed all his childhood memories from the room. He left it as if no one had ever occupied the room. Dad took it so matter of fact, it was almost unnatural. He and Michael were very close through Michael's journey to adulthood. The last three years things changed. They always seemed to be locking horns over one thing or another. If he was heartbroken over Mike's leaving, he never once showed it.
We never saw Michael again. From that time on nothing was ever heard from him, or about him. It was as if he had never existed. We didn't even have his childhood keepsakes as reminders that Michael lived here. Life wasn't the same after that. Mom would be heard sobbing in her sleep. She would wake up tired and depressed. Dad and I would try keeping every thing on an even keel when we knew Mom had a rough night.
Michael had always been a loner. Mom would tell stories about Michael as a small boy. Whenever company would bring their children to visit, Michael would always go to his room, close the door and amuse himself for as long as the other children were visiting. Mom always thought it was because Michael was never a fighter. It seemed he would rather be alone than get into an argument or fight with other children. Mike was that way all through school and never changed. He had two close friends. These boys were as gentle and docile as our Michael. Mom never once heard an argument erupt between the three.
What ever went wrong between the gentle years and the turbulent ones are still a mystery. The grieving over Michael started to take its toll on Mom. Dad would get up at night to find the bed empty. He would find Mom sitting in Michael's empty room. She would be rocking in an old rocking chair, that had been in the room since Michael was an infant.
I had walked into the room one night after hearing strange sounds coming from the other side of the door. Mom was sitting in the rocker in front of the large window. A tall slim shadow was standing by her side. Mom was rocking and humming a nursery rhyme. Mom turned when she heard me enter; her face was wet with tears. "MY MICHAEL'S DEAD" she said.
At that moment the shadow disappeared. She cried for hours. She told me she awoke and saw Michael standing in the doorway. He was beckoning to her to follow him. She followed him to his room and then shut the door. Once entering the room, Mom sat in the rocker. She began humming the nursery rhymes that she had sung to him so many years ago. He was always plagued by ear infections as a child, so Mom would soothe him by rocking and singing to him.
Three days later the State Police came to the door. They wanted to talk to Mom and Dad about a body that was found in a small town across the tracks. The townspeople called that part of town Dog Patch. The town consisted mainly of abandoned buildings. The buildings were home to a lot of transients. How could our Michael have ended up so close to home, yet so far away from his family?
Michael was buried two days later. We never found out why he was living such a life. The Coroner's report stated that Michael died from a brain infection. The infection had started in the ear. Because of neglect, it had spread to his brain. Mom's soul died the same night Michael came to her for soothing. She passed away a few weeks later from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Dad spends his days sitting on the front porch rocking and humming nursery rhymes.
It saddened me to see shadows on the porch beside Dad's rocking chair. I know it is only a matter of time before he goes off with these two Earthbound Spirits. They are the shadows of a tall, thin young man, and a small frail woman. Michael came to take Mom, now they are both here WAITING FOR DAD.
Submitted by: Jenny M Decker
