White Roses Bloom

Chapter Seven

     Jack stared from the kitchen into the living room. His mother laid sprawled out upon a couch, her skin pale, and her consciousness not quite there. The young man flinched, fearing losing his mother. Next to the couch, Anna desperately slaved away on the table, trying to make some herbal remedy to save their mother.
     Jack felt a small frown come across his face. Anna believed that his mother was her mother too. Did he really have the guts to ever tell her that his parents were not her parents, and that they pulled her out of a river about eleven years ago? Jack sighed and glanced out at the window. “I really need you dad, I wish you were here,” Jack whispered, resting his face within his hands.
     About four years ago, all the men across the country were called to war. Jack's father never returned from that war. The boy had found it cruel and unfair that he had lost his father to a war he did not choose to fight, but kept his mouth shut.
     Jack flinched upon hearing his mother hacking away. His eyes opened and landed on his mother as she coughed up blood. Jack paled and stared at the ground. He was terrified. Jack's eyes drifted close again as he slipped back into thought. If he lost his mother, how else was he meant to survive?
     Suddenly the coughs went silent. Jack's eyes shot open. Anna was desperately pressing down on their mother’s chest, tears running down her cheeks. It was at that moment Jack knew it was over. He grabbed onto his adoptive sister, who thrashed around in his grip. Anna wasn’t ready to give up. She had been providing medicine to the town for so long, and she had never had a patient die before, she couldn't let her first dead patient be her own mother.
     Jack gripped onto Anna's wrists and pulled her face to her chest. Anna began to sob uncontrollably, her tears soaking through her brother's shirt. Jack gently stroked Anna's back and hummed soothing. He wanted to cry, but he knew he had to be there for Anna. Jack decided he would cry later, in solitude, once he knew that Anna was safe, fast asleep. “I failed….I...I'm sorry….I’m so so sorry….” Anna cried. Jack hushed her before scooping his sister up and carrying her to her room. “Just close your eyes, everything will be okay,” he murmured. Anna whimpered and clutched onto her brother. He sighed and laid her down upon her bed. “I'll be back, try sleep, okay Anna?” he requested. Anna bit her lip, tears still flowing down her cheeks. How could she promise that when all she wanted to do was cry her eyes out? She silently nodded, despite the voices in her head telling her to cry and hurt herself for her life costing failures.
     Jack hesitated for a moment then left his sister alone. He walked to his mother, dejected. She was laying upon a white sheet, Jack wrapped her up gently, feeling tears starting to run down his cheeks. He refused to make any sound, and just sat there silently as the tears soaked his face. Jack scooped his mother up into his arms and carried her outside. Around the side was a garden of roses. Jack found an empty spot and began to dig a five foot deep hole. Dirt covered his body as he dug.
     When he finally finished digging, the sky was lit up a magnificent orange thanks the approaching sunrise. Jack lifted his mother's corpse and laid her body within the hole. He murmured a quick prayer under his breath before he began to fill the hole back in. As he buried his mother, tears began to run down his cheeks again. Sobs fled the young man's mouth. His throat burned as he worked through his cries. Once the body was buried again, Jack plucked a single, white rose, and placed it upon his mother's grave. “May we meet again in another life,” he whispered before heading back towards the house, desperate to just get inside and away from his mother's corpse.