David

A sharp sudden knock on the door jolts Ian from his trance like state. He rubs his eyes and looks at his mother lying in the bed next to him, chest heaving with each hard laborious breath. The room is cold yet her forehead is beaded in sweat. Her face is pale and clammy. Her eyes mere slits, unable to open completely dude to exhaustion. Ian grips his mother hand and says, “Don’t worry mother. He has come. He will help take you away from your misery. Don’t fear.” Another knock and Ian walks to the front door.

Ian opens the door and looks at the man. He is younger than Ian expected, better looking too. The man dressed in a black suit extends his arm and presents himself as David. Ian welcomes the man and apologizes for the house being so cold. “I’ve been inside taking care of my mother all day. Didn’t have time to get firewood,” he explains. “It’s quite alright. I find working at this temperature better anyways,” David says cunningly. “Of course, however you please sir.” Ian feels compelled to stare at the man. His calm face and low shoulders. Ian swore he’d seen him before, at Aunt Belinda’s funeral perhaps? “Where is she? I would like to get this over with as soon as possible” David says. “Of course, follow me this way.” Ian leads the man through the living room into a hall lined with two doors on each side. “One leads to the basement, one to the kitchen, one to a bathroom and the other to my mothers room,” Ian explains. Why he explains everything to the stranger he doesn’t know. Out of courtesy perhaps?
Ian opens the door and walks to his mother side. “Mother, David is here. He is going to help you.” His mother struggles to open her eyes but fails; it’s all too much for her. David steps over the other side of the bad and extends his hand. “Loretta come with me. Walk with me for a while,” he says. “You promise I won’t feel anything?” she struggles to say. “Yes I promise your pain will go away. Everything will go away. It will be better.”
Loretta takes David’s hand and raised herself up. The floor felt warm beneath her bare feet. Effortlessly she and David walked out of the room, leaving Ian next to a cold lifeless body. He didn’t remember when his father had died but he knew he was feeling the same thing his mother had felt then. Great sadness yet relieved knowing she moved on to a better place. He wondered, “Who’s going to watch me die?”

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