Emanuel's Gift

Chapter - 6

1924

Time went by, and I had my 15th birthday, one without my family. I wanted to do something great for it, sadly grandfather didn't seem to care, he was too focused on other things. My only shine of joy was a letter from Anna-Maria. Though, Cilan was wrestling inside me, trying to stop me from reading the letter. Kind of a very uneventful birthday. I couldn't help but feel disappointed. The sun was drifting westward across the sky. All I could do was watch it from my window. Watch the birds fly about, watch a stray cat jump about the rooftops. I wanted to go outside and enjoy it, though the spirit inside me had other ideas in mind.

"Emanuel, please go downstairs and cleanse someone's mind, I must do this or else I could disappear." 

He hissed in anger. I put the letter down.

"Fine. I'll go downstairs and feed you." 

I replied bluntly, I did find Cilan neediness annoying sometimes. Whilst he means well I can't help not feel like he's smothering me. I took a quick look around and noticed my grandfather wasn't around, so I drifted downstairs. So far I remained unnoticed as I went over to the doorway that led to the room where I was before, where the bodies were carefully taken care of and placed in a coffin awaiting to be taken away to be buried. I crept over to the coffin that laid out on the table area and peered into it. I had taken my lamp with me to shed some light in the dimness.

"This isn't too disturbing."

The sight sent a chill down my spine as I looked at the lifeless body. I jumped back, hitting the table behind me and knocked the lamp from my hand.

"Oh my god, this is scary!" 

I said out loud running away, I tripped over and my lamp crashed to the floor breaking it starting a small fire. The lamp flames started to lick at the wooden floor boards and leapt onto the furniture.

"HELP!" 

I cried, hoping that my Grandfather could hear me. I had to get out of there as everything was engulfed in flames and smoke. I struggled back towards the stairs and clambered up coughing from the smoke.

"Grandfather!"

He grabbed me and pulled me aside to see the fire.

"What did you do!"

I was too scared to speak and pushed me out the front door as he called for the fire brigade. All the smoke clouding up the interior was wafting out the doorway and now slowly consuming the house. Everything after that became a blur, I blacked out from the smoke to wake up again in hospital.

"Grandfather?" I said faintly seeing him by my bedside.

"Emanuel, I want to know what you were doing down there?".

I didn't know what to say, I did something terribly wrong that could have destroyed our house and business. I just looked at him and my eyes were watery with tears.

"I'm sorry!" I croaked out. He looked at me and sighed, placing a hand on my head, toying with my dark black hair.

"I see Emanuel is awake, remarkable for a boy suffering from heart disease." The doctor said,

"How bad is the damage?" I asked faintly.

"It's pretty bad Emanuel, everything is pretty much lost. We will have to find somewhere new to live." 

I frowned and pulled the blankets over my head.

"You just wish I died, don't you, grandfather?" 

I cried underneath the blankets.

"No, I don't wish that to happen to you, my dear grandson." 

He said as he pulled the blankets away revealing my tear stained face.

"Mr. Woods, I think you better give your grandson a break. It was an accident." 

The doctor said, giving me a wink.

"I guess so, Doctor. It's just after having to take care of my grandson after my son passed away, leaving me with the business which is now in ruins. I don't know how I can come back from this" grandfather replied.

"I guess Aunty Fran will be taking care of us until everything is sorted out. All the coffins and everything is lost. The business pretty much needs to be completely rebuilt again." 

He said, looking at me. I hung my head down, tears were wielding in my eyes. I brought such grief upon my dear Grandfather. That meant the coffin I wanted was gone as well, all my toys and everything that was reminding me of my family was now a pile of ash and rubble.

"Can we go now?" I asked.

"Well, Emanuel, we better get going before it gets dark." My grandfather said as we left the hospital.

Aunty Fran lived not far from where we lived, so she was happy for us to live with her. It didn't shake the overwhelming sadness inside me. She was devastated by the news, I felt awful and Cilan hadn't dared come out or talked to me at all. During that time my mind had been spinning the words that came from the dead person's mind into my own.

"I'm so glad that you're ok, Emanuel. Did you get a reply from Anna-Maria?" 

She asked as we went inside.

"I did, she seems happy that I'm talking to her." 

I mumbled and sat down. This was a disaster of a birthday, I burned down my own home. Grandfather is upset with me. I could tell how he could not, on the bright side I was staying with my Aunt. At least she had already set aside a room for me to sleep in, filled with toys it might not be the same.

"I guess you can live here with me, your grandfather has a lot of work to do. Cheer up, Emanuel! I did buy you a wonderful gift for you!" She showed me a small gift box in her hand.

"Open it, it's a very special gift. I want you to take care of it." 

Aunty smiled, I felt Cilan move inside me a little.

"I wonder what this is?" He said as I opened the box to reveal a detailed pocket watch.

The interior of it was glass. I could see the inner workings of the watch moving. It had a gold case and a long fog chain. I will treasure it forever. From there she would teach me more and more. My days seemed a lot less bleak compared to before I forever felt awful about the fire. Aunt assured me that my Grandfather will be able to resurrect the family business with the Christianson's help, which also meant a new establishment was found. As for the coffins and everything was rebuilt, the white one I longed I once again gazed upon longly. It took a long time during that time I never really heard much from Anna-Maria at all. I started to forget what she looked like, sounded like everything.

I spent days with my Aunt helping her out, enjoying trips out of the house to pretend what happened in the past never occurred at all. Cilan became quiet, it was hard to tell whether he was still inside me, he rarely came out much though he was hungry. It was his fault that everything happened and he remained sulking away. The amount of times he was trying to sway me to find someone to cleanse, I reluctantly ignored him.

End of timeline - next part 1927