31 Days of Halloween

Family Secrets

It is perched on a branch, not far from my window, watching, staring with an unfathomable black eye. Peering back at the blackest raven I had ever seen, I knew it could see my thoughts. How could a bird know what a human was thinking? How did a human know that a bird knew?

Turning away from the backyard, I had to try to focus on current events. My grandfather had died – here at home, only a couple hours ago. In fact, the coroner just left. I guess you could say I am kind of numb. This was something we all expected, and had tried to prepare for, but are you really prepared at all for someone to die? I mean, someone you're close to, especially? My grandfather had always been my confidant, one adult I wasn't afraid to go to with anything.

Now my mom and grandmother were sitting in the living room, crying. Of course, one had lost a husband, the other a father. I'm the one that was sent to the kitchen to make the tea. I hadn't told them about my last minutes with grandfather, and I had no intention of ever telling them. Or anyone. I'll admit that I wasn't always comfortable visiting him in his room. Sometimes it was like it wasn't him, or he didn't know me, but I did it for my mom and grandmother, and honestly, myself, I wouldn't have been able to handle not having a chance to say goodbye. So, today, I sat in the chair next to his bed, like all the other times. Only this time, he began to speak. The clarity of his voice captured my attention.

"Ryan, I want you to listen to me carefully," he rasped.

"Yes, grandfather, I'm right here. Are you okay?"

"My boy, we both know the answer to that question. But quiet now, I need to talk, and you're gonna have to listen. You're going to have to protect your grandmother and mother. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, I'll take care of them, but you're going to be here for a while too."

"Nonsense, we know that's nothing but nonsense. Now listen to me carefully. When I was a much younger man, why almost your age I reckon, I had met this beautiful girl and fallen in love," he paused to cough, "Now the time had come to ask that woman to marry me."

"Grandmother!"

"Yes, your grandmother. Anyway, I worked hard for years at the paper mill and knew I didn't want to always live at my daddy's house. Needed to be a man and live on my own, with a wife and my own family."

I sat enthralled as he talked. It had been so long since I had heard anything as clear and concise come from his mouth. Ravaged by his health, it was difficult for him.

"So one long summer day after work I went down to the creek to contemplate just how I was gonna buy that woman a ring and a house to live in. Now I wasn' payin' any attention to my surroundings, and went and fell right off the edge of that hill. I hit my head pretty good, I reckon," his eyes glazed over with tears, but he continued, "Now, son, what I'm gonna say is gonna sound odd but hear me out and know that my mind is crystal clear."

"Okay, grandfather." It was all I could say. What could be so important that this is what he wanted to talk about?

"Anyway, where was I? Yes, at the creek. Son, I walloped my head on an ol' rock. So hard that it knocked me right out. At least I thought it did. Then some man, faceless he was, stood there over me, knowin' my name. Talkin' to me 'bout your grandmother and what I needed to do. How he could change everything and make it right. You know, the ring, the house, all of it," his breathing started to grow erratic. He stopped for a moment. "I asked him who he was, and he said to me – Don't matter who I am, what matters is you're dead, young man, now take my hand and allow me to fix it for you. You don't want to lose that lovely young thing you want to marry, now do you? – so I did what anyone in my circumstance would've done, and I took that bony hand."