Unjust and Unforgotten
Until Jacob was seven, he thought that there were only three kinds of people: those yet to be born into the world, those who lived in it, and those who had already left it. What he hadn’t thought about was what happened to those who left. Were they to be born again? Did they disappear, never to be seen again? Or were they taken to another world, where they spent the rest of their time? However, his encounter with one of these “lost souls” changed the way he viewed life itself forever.
He had heard ghost stories on camping trips, but never really paid much attention to them. These stories always portrayed ghosts as monsters and terrible creatures, but Josh was different. Josh was Jacob’s grandfather, but Jacob hadn’t spent any time with him, nor had he met him. Josh appeared as Jacob was sleeping, so he didn’t see his grandfather at first. At least, not until the room got colder, and he woke with a start. It was the middle of summer, so it shouldn’t have been that cold, but as Josh entered, the temperature dropped significantly.
Jacob woke up and went to see why it was cold when he saw Josh standing near his bed. He was frozen in place, both with fear, and a reluctance to get up from under his warm blankets. Josh didn’t say anything, but as the minutes ticked by, Jacob grew more and more restless. He didn’t know whether he should say something, or just lay there. He didn’t want to ignore his grandfather, but he didn’t know what to say. What would he even say to someone who had a heart attack two years before he was even born? After several minutes of silence, Josh finally spoke. He spoke in fragments, and Jacob couldn’t understand what he was saying at first.
As the minutes passed, Josh and Jacob talked about the basic things, like how he was doing in school, and how his life was going. They talked for an hour, until Jacob had to get up for school. Josh disappeared, and Jacob went about his day, trying to forget what had happened that morning. He waited to see if his grandfather would come back the next morning, but he didn’t show up. For weeks, he waited to see if he would come back. He began to think that he had just imagined it, until the next Independence Day, when Josh came back.
For years, this went on, until he was fifteen, and mentioned it to his mother. She told him stories of his grandfather, and how he was enlisted in the army until he was 60. He learned that Josh had always wanted to name his son Jacob, but his wife hadn’t liked the name, so Jacob’s mother had named him after his grandfather’s wishes. They were both sons with no siblings, the only two generations with one child in the past twelve generations, which explained why he was drawn to Jacob.
When Jacob asked if there was anything important to Josh about Independence Day, her face fell. Josh always visited his best friend on Independence Day, year after year, for eleven years. He was on the way to his friend’s house when he had a heart attack. His hands on the wheel, he turned sharply, causing the car to go off the bridge. He was found thirty feet in the woods, both sides of the car dented, Josh still wearing his seatbelt.
Upon realizing that he visited his friend for years before he died, Jacob thought about what this meant for himself. Did he only have three years left to live, or was it coincidence? Was he going to have a heart attack and his grandfather could sense it, or did he just want to spend time with his grandson? He decided to ask his grandfather the next time he saw him. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be too late.
Months had passed, and Independence Day was only days away. As it got closer, Jacob started to feel as though something bad was going to happen. With each passing day, he felt more and more uneasy, until his grandfather was supposed to show up. This time, he was wearing a black suit, which was a stark contrast to the jeans and jacket he usually wore. Jacob didn’t think anything of it, until he felt a sense of dread overcome him, rendering him immobile. He tried to call out, but no sound came.
As the man who Jacob now knew was not his grandfather reached into his pocket, his actual grandfather came in through the sliding door in Jacob’s room, trying to pin the man in the suit down. The two men fought next to Jacob, before Josh grabbed the man’s weapon and turned it back on him, piercing his stomach. When Josh looked back, Jacob was laying there, unable to move or speak.
Josh told Jacob what really happened, and the events leading up to his death. The man in the suit was Noah, the man who killed Josh. He didn’t have a heart attack, he was run off the road. He just wanted to save Jacob from dying at the hands of the same man who killed Josh. Josh had saved him; not all ghosts were bad. Josh was just a man trying to help one last person.
