Love and Loss
Joshua had promised his father that he would keep his younger brother Jason busy while he worked on fixing the tractor. He would always take Joshua out to the cornfield where they would play catch after everything was harvested for that year. Jason led Joshua over to the farthest edge of the property away from the farm and it's equipment. In this area they could throw the ball as hard and far as they wanted without hitting anything. Joshua had the ball and right before he threw it yelled, “This one is gonna go far, you ready?” Jason nodded and Joshua threw it.
Jason went far back but the ball still went over his head. He found where it had landed and threw it back over to his brother. That was when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There in the field was a woman, she was all in black. She was just standing there, watching them. Jason looked to his brother who was playing catch by himself while waiting for his brother to get back over to him. ‘Guess he doesn’t see her’ Jason thought to himself as had started to walk closer to his brother, just to be safe. When he turned back to see where the woman was or if she was even still there, she had gotten even closer. He had only looked away for a few seconds, ‘how could she have gotten there so quickly?’ Jason asked himself as he had stopped walking to keep his eye on her for a moment. She seemed to flicker in and out of existence for a moment and then flicker back solid only a few feet from him. He took several steps back from her “Ma’am, can I help you?” Jason asked as he tried to hide his fear. Joshua heard his brothers voice and turned to him. He saw him standing there looking off into the field. He followed his line of sight and saw a woman standing out in the field. She was dressed entirely in black, she even had a veil over her face. Jason was staring at her as she silently stared back at him. Jason could feel himself being drawn in by her stare, he wanted to look away he even tried to look away but, he couldn’t. He wanted to tell his brother to run and get dad, maybe even to run to the house and hide away. She had come even closer to him now.
To him it seemed as if she had floated above the ground this time. He didn’t even flinch at this and just continued to stare into her eyes. She slowly began to rise her hand to his chest, to the area around his heart. He began to feel a slight burning sensation there. He flinched slightly at the pain but never looked away from her eyes. “My Jason” she began to say over and over again. It was all he could hear. Her other hand began to reach towards her face, towards the veil covering her face. As she began to lift it he caught a glimpse of a decaying face. As soon as the veil was completely lifted though, her face changed. She appeared to be a young woman, a young woman he knew at one point. As he continued to stare at her he realized who she was. It was his grandmother, when she was much younger. “My Jason” She said again. Joshua had been yelling for his brother trying to get him away from this woman. Jason was acting weird and ignoring him. “Jason” Joshua tried again. When he got no response he yelled for their father. “Dad, Dad”. They were to far out in the field for his dad to come. He didn’t want to leave Jason, he didn’t want to leave him with this woman.
Jason could feel himself getting weaker and weaker the longer he stared at her. He just couldn’t look away, couldn’t hear anything else around him. All he could see and hear was her, his grandmother. She was so young and beautiful. Jason felt his knees begin to buckle and he began to fall to the ground. He couldn’t stop it, couldn’t look away. All he could feel was safety, warmth and an overwhelming need to sleep. He laid down on the ground. She stood over him, hand over his chest and repeated “My Jason”. The feeling of exhaustion overwhelmed him but, he couldn’t close his eyes. The last thing he saw was his grandmother and her saying “My Jason”. After that he knew no more. Joshua was running over to his brother. He was scared when he saw this woman stretch out her hand towards Jason. He became terrified when he saw him falling to the ground. ‘Why wouldn’t Jason fight back, why would he just stand there?’. All these questions ran through his head as he made his way over to him.
Once he was close enough to them he could see the veil had been removed from her face. She turned to him and smiled. Her face was one of a decomposing woman. There was skin hanging off of her face, her eyes had a foggy appearance to them and her teeth were rotted and discolored. She was still smiling when she flickered and then vanished. Joshua ran through the area she had been standing in and was met with a strong cold feeling. This was the middle of the summer in South Dakota, there was no way it could be cold outside. He finally reached his brother and kneeled next to him. He was cold, his lips were blue and his eyes had the same appearance as hers had. He felt his brothers neck looking for a pulse, tears were clouding his vision. He found the area where his pulse should be at but, he couldn’t find it. He was dead, his brother was gone. Jason was gone. He laid his head on his brothers chest and didn’t hold back the tears as he cried for the loss of his brother.
