Mr. McGeehan

Chapter 4

              After about an hour of silence Mr. McGeehan spoke, "Son tell me, why were you attempting to hurt my tree?"

I didn't know how to answer the question and I was so filled with rage and hatred towards God for letting my life be this way I just yelled at him saying, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT REAL PAIN IS LIKE!"

He looks at me like 'you have no idea what you're talking about' I started to feel bad about yelling at him so I ask barely above a whisper, "Do you?". All he does is nods and tells me to listen.

"Oh son believe me I know pain. Pain that hurts so much you can barely breathe. No it wasn't physical pain. No it was heartbreak." He looks at me with a serious expression and continues, "It was true love... we were like peas in a pod. It was us against the world in it till the end together. She was my everything... but all good things must come to an end. Do you understand son?" I look at him nodding my head as he continues with his story. "We were married the summer after WWII had ended. We wrote each other all the time while I was stationed in the pacific. We were married for ten years. Those ten years are as close to heaven I could imagine there being. But heaven soon turned to hell. Mary was diagnosed with a very serious heart tumor and only had a few months to live. Oh how we cried.", He paused. I looked up from my painting to see that he had a single tear rolling down his right cheek. he wiped the tear away quickly and blinked a few times to clear his eyes. "Anyways," he continued "The day Mary died was the saddest day of my life. I still remember being in her hospital room kneeling beside her in her hospital bed as she took her final breathes. I was holding on tightly to her hand as if I held her tight enough she would stay. She looked at me with tear filled eyes and put her other hand on my cheek and told me something I with never forget. "Martin, everyone has a dream, you were my dream." And with that she was gone. She had died in room 127 in the Hillstone Hospital. I hear the heart monitor go. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeep. When I heard that final beep that's when I lost it. everything fell apart. I became dizzy I started to fall. I grabbed on to the machines unplugging everything, tangling up all the cords. I had destroyed the whole room. Millions of dollars' worth of equipment I destroyed out of pure rage. I fell on the ground yelling at God asking him why he let me lose someone who meant so much to me. How could he take the person I love the most in the world.", Mr. McGeehan looks at me with tears in his eyes and says something that I will never forget.

"Never take anything for granted because one day it will all be stolen from you," and with that he got up and walked inside. Leaving me to finish painting the first coat of paint onto his front porch.