December 25th, 1999, Somewhere in Middle
America
Three
old men stumbled, tiredly along a stretch of highway, carrying ragged suitcases
and dirty canteens. They muttered quietly to themselves, every so often casting
a wearied glance towards the nighttime sky. They watched in silence as cars and
semi-trucks pass by going well over the speed limit. They say nothing nor
extend not even an arm for the forlorn chance at receiving a welcomed ride. Not
many people pick up hitchhikers anymore these days and three old men that look
as if they haven’t bathed in weeks, even less.
“How
much further do we have to go Frank?”
“Merle,
if I even had a clue, do you think I wouldn’t have told you guys by now?”
“Goldy,
do you know where were going?”
“All
I know is that I got a message to head east, and that’s where were going, but
for how long, I don’t know. Just keep walking will you. We’ll figure this thing
out. As God as my witness, we’ll get there in time.”
The
three men walked on, their shoes almost worn out through the soles. What was
left of their socks almost peeked out the front and could feel the night’s cold
chill of wind. They gripped their old long coats tighter to their chests with
their arthritic right hands and almost dragged their battered suitcases,
briefly scuffing the ground every so often with each odd step.
On a telephone wire along
the highway rested a large white dove. It shone like it was blanketed from an
unseen spotlight.
The old man named Goldy who
played the role of their leader noticed it. He stopped and the two other men
did the same. “That is a sign were on the right path, I can feel it. Keep
walking.”
They all nodded in silence
and grinned.
The three old men continued
to walk on in the darkness, every so often lit up by the light and the loud hum
of passing cars until they saw the outline of a small building upon the
horizon. They could barely make out the distant glow of what looked to be the
building’s adjacent sign, flickering in the far off distance. Without a word,
they brought their dirty canteens to their mouths and quickened their pace.
They knew they were close.
As the three old men got
closer to the building, they could now tell that it was a gas station. Oddly,
although it was closed for the day, the sign stayed lit. Frank nudged Merle and
the two men chuckled in giddy happiness. They had walked so far after leaving
their shelter in the middle of the night three months ago. They had endured torrential
rain, strong winds, small snow storms; strangers’ harassments and other
inconveniences, but now appeared to finally be at their destination.
“Shhhhh, do you hear that?”
Goldy asked his two companions.
“Huh? Did he say something?”
Frank asked in response.
“I don’t know, did you?”
Merle replied with a question of his own, confused.
“Shhhhh, there it is again,”
Goldy said. He did his best to block out the mutterings of his two companions
so that he could concentrate on what sounded to be a young woman crying. “It
sounds like a young woman. This is it.”
The three old men stood at
the closed front doors of the gas station, silhouetted underneath the
flickering light of the adjacent sign.
“Is anyone here?!” Goldy
shouted.
“Were in back of the
building!” A man’s voice replied.
“Let’s go fellas, it’s what
we’ve been waiting for,” Goldy said.
As the three old men turned
the corner to the back of the building they began to hear the loud crying
shrill of a newborn baby. A young woman was lying on her back atop of blankets
placed atop of a cut up cardboard box, her legs shaking above a pool of blood.
A young man was staring in disbelief and open mouthed wonder at the baby she
held in her arms.
“My wife, my wife……..she
just had a child, is there anything you can do?” the young man asked. The look
on his face of fatigue matched the three pair of eyes that greeted him.
“I’m not sure there is
anything to be done, but to love the child with all of your heart,” Goldy
replied. The old man nudged Merle in the side and he did the same to Frank.
“What Goldy means is that
from the looks of it, you all are going to be just fine. Isn’t that right
Merle?” Frank stated.
“That’s right young man, for
we’ve traveled a long way to find you two and him,” Merle said, as he pointed
his shaking index finger toward the crying newborn baby.
“The name is Goldy and these
are my friends, Frank and Merle. We mean not to surprise you, but like Merle
said, we’ve traveled a long way to find you three,” the old man said. The tone
of his voice did its’ best to reassure the young couple that they meant no
harm.
“What do you mean? How did
you know about us?” the young man asked. The shock on his face couldn’t
disguise the fact that he was having a difficult time putting all of the pieces
together.
“I think I know how, or at
least why they’re here Joseph,” the young woman said, wiping the tears from her
eyes as she cradled her crying newborn baby boy.
“Maire, what are you talking
about?” Joseph asked.
“The reason I was pregnant
in the first place Joseph. Don’t you see, this is his will,” Maire replied. The
understanding was reciprocated in the eyes of the three old men that stood
before her.
“Mr. and Mrs. Sheesah, I
don’t want to alarm you. We’ve traveled a long way and I believe that you Maire
are quite aware of why we are here. If the two of you would be so kind, we’ll
then be on our way. Would you do three
tired old men the benefit and allow us to bless your son Tim?”
“It would be an honor,”
Maire replied as she handed the child over to Goldy.
“How the hell do you know
our names, let alone what we’re gonna call our boy? Maire, are you sure about
this?” Joseph asked. He was ready to pounce at a moments notice.
“I am Joseph,” she replied.
She nodded in agreement and looked down at their baby boy, “He is.”
The young child stopped
crying as he was placed into the cracked and dirty hands of Goldy. The old man
muttered something to Frank. Frank then began digging around in the duffel bag
that he was carrying and brought forth a small silver flask, scraped and dirty
from the their long journey. Merle grabbed it from his hands and unscrewed the
cap. He took a long deep pull from the bottle and then gasped in relief.
“God, if there ever was a
time for a drink,” Merle said as he wiped the drops of whiskey from the corner
of his lips.
“Don’t hog it all. Show some
damn manners Merle,” Frank said as he grabbed the flask. “Joseph, you most of
all look like you need a drink. Here, it’s my family’s old Kentucky mash,” he
said as he handed it to the young man.
Joseph gratefully received
the flask and took a pull. His face and lips contorted as if there was
something behind the skin on his face that pulled them back into his skull, but
only for a brief moment. He felt the tingling lightning bolt extend to the
nerve endings of his fingers and toes.
“Whooooo,
heeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!” Merle shouted. He couldn’t help but slap his right knee in
laughter. “The boy don’t know what hit him.”
“Alright, alright, enough
clowning around gentlemen; let’s not forget why we’re here,” Goldy interjected.
“You’re right boss. Our
apologies Ma’am,” Frank said. The embarrassment and joy humbled his appearance.
“As it has been written, let
him be our guide,” Goldy whispered atop of the baby boy’s forehead, “Our
everlasting savior, blessed be that unto all, his glory shall shine
forevermore. Amen.”
“Amen,” Frank and Merle
replied in unison.
Maire, who was struggling to
stay awake as she watched three tired and dirty old men bless her newborn,
caught a glimpse of something white in the corner of her eye. Her husband
Joseph caught it too. The two of them, Maire on her back, legs akimbo, shaking
and Joseph kneeling at her side, an arm around her shoulders gazed up towards
and past the three men making baby talk, holding the newborn boy. There resting
atop of the telephone wire that ran parallel to the back fence adjacent to the
back of the gas station building was a large white dove. It was brilliantly
luminescent in the glow of the moonlight.
For a split second, Maire and Joseph could’ve sworn that the darn bird
smiled.
Goldy nodded in agreement as
if to someone who had just whispered in his ear. “I understand, it is your
will. It has to be done.”
He knelt down and handed the
newborn baby boy back to its’ mothers waiting arms. There were tears falling
down Goldy’s wrinkled face. He mouthed the words, “I’m sorry,” to Maire. With a
puzzled look on her face she gazed back into his eyes.
Goldy stood up and Joseph
rose to meet him, extending a hand to shake. Goldy grabbed the young man’s hand
and shook it. Joseph wrapped his arms around the old man and hugged him deeply,
and then convulsed with a look of wide eyed horror as his mouth gaped in shock
at the other two old men standing before him.
Goldy slowly withdrew the
blade from the young man’s stomach as he watched him fall down to his knees,
blood spilling out onto the dark pavement.
Maire, holding her child
close to her chest, screamed in horror.
Frank and Merle knelt in
obedience before their old companion. Goldy with Maire’s screaming echoing in
his ears, he drew the knife’s blood drenched blade across each of the other two
old men’s’ necks. They collapsed face first onto the pavement as if wet bags of
sands. Goldy brought the blade with his two hands in front of his stomach and
gutted himself, without a word. Bliss covered his face as the sounds of the
young woman screaming coupled with her newborn baby boy’s learning breaths
escaped into the dark night.
The dove that had previously
sat alone on the telephone wire was now accompanied by a large raven. In
silence they looked down upon the scene of birth, murder and suicide as the
young widow and her son wept for the new world that was to come.
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