Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

13. A STORY FOR A STORY

I told him everything. Mathias now knew the whole story and I waited patiently to hear what he would say.

"Well, I guess being bitten by a werewolf isn't the worst thing that can happen to you," wasn't the statement I expected to hear.

For some reason, he smiled at me. I smiled back.

"What is it like? Being bitten by a werewolf?" I asked, encouraged by his smile.

"It sucks," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"The man that was here on parent's day, was he your real father? Or was he the one who bit you?" I relaxed a bit, and some of the tension I felt in my body earlier, melted away.

"Yes. To both of your questions," he answered. The smile on his face was gone and his head bowed. It looked like a shadow fell over him.

"Oh, that really..." I was lost for words.

"...sucks," he finished the sentence instead of me.

"Will you tell me how it happened?" I asked him while my wide-open eyes watched him closely.

"I don't think so," he replied. He looked out the window, as if something outside was far more interesting than our conversation.

I wasn't ready to just give up. "I told you my story. It would only be fair if you told me yours. You know, a story for a story."

He turned his head towards me, stared at me in silence for a while, and then he said, "We were a normal human family, and then one day we weren't any more. Short and simple."

"Oh, no! You're gonna have to do better than that. After baring my soul, you're gonna have do a lot better than that." I looked right at him, refusing to get intimidated by his furrowed brows.

"I wouldn't know where to start," he said and turned his head away.

"You already started. You were a normal human family and then..." I prompted him to continue, willing him to look at me.

"And then Friday the 13th happened. They say it's an unlucky day. I didn't believe that but the events that happened made me change my mind."

I never comprehended human superstitions, and there were so many. But this was neither time nor the place to discuss them. I kept quiet, hoping that Mathias would get on with his story.

"On that ominous day, my father was returning home from the office," he started to tell. "It was early winter, so the days were short. He stayed late, wanted to finish all the work before weekend. The road he was taking led through a small wood on the outskirts of our town. On that day, a fallen tree was blocking it. My father had no choice but to pull over. He got out of the car to take a closer look, so he'd know what to say to the road maintenance. When they arrived, they found him next to the car. He was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood."

When he averted his eyes, I did not blame him. I knew what it felt like to lose your loved ones. But then I remembered that his father was here on parent's day, so I asked, "Was he badly hurt?"

He nodded. "When I saw him at the hospital, he was unconscious, with a needle stuck in his vein, connected to the IV bottle. The device that monitored his vital signs was silently beeping at his bedside. It was not a pretty sight for a five-year-old to see, but it was late and my mother had no one to leave me with, so she took me with her."

"It must have been awful," I said as my mind was being flooded by the images of hospital rooms which were once my residence as well. "What happened then?" I asked when it became obvious that Mathias wasn't gonna continue on his own.