r/nosleep
My Father’s Gifts by reddit user becauseisaidsotoo
When my father died he left us time, joy, and understanding.
My eldest brother, a nostalgic man, was given time. Time in the form of a dented tin pocket watch which he could wind back or stop at will. We don’t know how he used the gift. When he used it, he was alone and it only worked for him. To us, on the outside, we saw him age rapidly and he died too soon. A man, young in years, shriveled with age. We found his body laying among the shattered pieces of the pocket watch, with a claw hammer clenched tightly in his gnarled liver spotted hand. From our eldest brother we learned that the gifts should not be used and that, perhaps, they could not safety be destroyed.
My other brother, a vigorous man, received joy. It was in the shape of a small rusted brass flute. Blowing into it could invoke within him a range of emotions ranging from contentment to ecstasy. He didn’t handle the gift well, I don’t think anyone could. Having the ability to summon joy like that, ruined him. He claims that he’s tried to get rid of the flute, to give it away, throw it away, find any way to be free of it. But, it keeps coming back. I don’t think he’s tried hard enough. The last time we talked, he called me on a borrowed phone. He said he’d stashed it out of sight, nearby, but in a hard to reach place. He said he wasn’t using it. But, I don’t know, while we talked he seemed short of breath and he’d pause at times, and I think I heard the flute softly playing its eerie, strangely mournful notes. I didn’t call him out. I didn’t know what to say. I tell myself I just imagined it, and that it’s just static on the line. From him I learned that the gifts could not be given or thrown away, nor could they safely be kept close at hand.
I was and am, I admit, a sensitive man. I was given the gift of understanding. It was in the form of a brightly colored plastic kaleidoscope with a narrow neck, a crack along the side, and a missing eye cap. I raised it to my face and peered into it and I felt my father’s presence. Within it’s swirling depths I saw, unfolding before my eyes, the key to understanding my father and his terrible magic. And I did not want it. I do not want to better understand my father. I know what he was. I have my memories and understand him well enough.
I too sent his gift away. I put it in a shoebox, wrapped it, and I wrote fake sender and recipient addresses on it. I then covered it in stamps and placed it in the mail. I have moved several times since then. Sometimes I get a shoebox sized package in the mail. It’s battered, but covered with fresh stamps featuring photos and drawings of my father’s face, obscured by shadows and odd postal marks from places that appear on no maps. Though, I know I could visit them if I wanted too.
When the gift comes back, and it always does, I create another mailing label, with another fake address. Sometimes I scrawl “DOES NOT LIVE HERE” with a permanent marker across the package - taking pleasure in drawing the dark lines over the stamps baring my father’s likeness. I then put the package in the outgoing mail and within a day or two it’s gone again. Each time I send it away it’s gone a little longer. This time it’s been gone a while. Perhaps it’s gone for good.
At times I think about that battered and lost package, with it’s strange stamps, odd markings and the magical broken thing rolling around inside of it. I wonder where it goes and how and why it keeps coming back. I am curious, but only idly so. As a child I learned that there were different types of magic in the world, and as an adult I learned that not all of it is welcome in mine.
I made the right choice. I do not want my father’s gift, or perhaps I want it a little, but I do not need it. Because, over the years, I have filled my life with shared joy and I am learning how to wield a gentler form of magic of my own, one strong enough to hold my father’s broken gift at bay.
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/85425n/my_fathers_gifts/
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❕Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Becauseisaidsotoo/?sort=top&t=all
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❗d i s c l a i m e r ❗
- I personally sent a message to the author asking if I could share his/her story in the page and he agreed.
