He sobbed for hours for his lost wife, and now as a man with sanity, Mark began to speak.
“Mary,” he said, “you’ve always told me that it was okay to cry. Well here I am…crying. If only you could see.”
There was life after death. There was happiness after despair. There was Mary, after her last day, and there was a dull moan.
The nurses ran toward Zack, forgetting everything about his injury once setting up Mark on the bed. He was in shock, with a huge lump on the top of his cap. It almost seemed like a cartoon. He stood up slowly, as flimsy as silly putty. He forgot where he was, and who he was. This memory loss lasted for an entire week, and Zack forever disliked even the slightest thought of Mark, if he could remember.
Yes, children, Mark felt despair when Tyler died. He was still a body on earth with limited flesh and time, if you can remember far enough, past this beautiful bliss and glory—death was a tragedy. But of course, you see the boy everywhere, a child of God and a jokester, as we all are well aware. I’ve never, in all my years, seen such a genuine and loving child for God and mankind. He saw angels before he was under those trials on Earth, from those dreams of his accomplishments in changing people’s souls, because Tyler knew about his sickness before, knew of what Satan wished to do in order to destroy any random child, like he does. Tyler rejoiced in his soon-to-be accomplishments, succeeded from the sickness. He knew his death, and Tom, beloved Tom, blessed him with his company through it all. In total, Tyler saved five souls. This included his bitter and heartbroken mother that soon found God after understanding that Tyler would have wished only for that. His father that suffered from the divorce soon found God after facing tiny trials of drugs and alcohol, ending up in the hospital, and finding a second wife who brought him to love what his son loved. Then there was Mark, a man who found his past in time to build his future, and through the past, his wisdom was increased and his love for God began as healing took place, which became his new passion. Then, without physical connection, Tyler saved Aaron. A man who lived in fear that he would be caught for what severe crimes he had committed, while charging others off the street day by day. Aaron felt obligated to allow Mark a job on the police force, since it was what Mark believed to be his life was every morning, and Aaron was to blame for it all. When the news spread out that Mark’s lost knowledge randomly sparked in his brain, Aaron cried with joy and partial relief, then praised God for forty years in prison. The final saved soul was Kenny, who felt the guilt of a thousand sins for slipping one lie into his son-in-law’s ear. Kenny felt as if he needed control of this situation, all control, while not being involved at all. He wished to ignore the entire day-to-day conflict Aaron fought while solving the difficult situations that needed his assistance. Truthfully, Kenny felt the blood of Mark’s quick hand of lead into Aaron’s body and the blame of every mistake that came from Mark. Seeing Mark was like glaring at his imperfections. Kenny couldn’t face the guilt he stored up in his body for decades. No punishment was worse than Aaron and Mark’s sentences combined, because he knew it was his one choice that had begun the domino effect. Kenny lost it all: his acknowledgment as a doctor, his riches from those checks, and his determination to stay away from soup lines. He found God through poverty, knowing that God’s glory never left, and because God’s love never left, he felt as if he never needed to please a man again. A year passed and he became an employee at a gas station, then lived eight more peaceful years in an apartment until he left the earth with humbleness and thoughts of God. Kenny faced his guilt because of his poverty-stricken life from Mark’s rampage, which came from the epiphany of Tyler’s immune deficiency. Tyler saved Kenny, and although Kenny never knew until he joined us as a young man again, he was thankful for his poverty.
Kenny and Mark are easy examples of Satan’s quick hand on a man who fights to accomplish what is right but fails because the world is wicked. I am an example of Satan’s attempts to weaken others. Kenny married, had a child, and continued to do what was correct and morally right. Then his wife faced a trial and fell into the earth. So Kenny fought to understand how to save his daughter during a time of little understanding. Scars were dormant but healed as his daughter married. They grew for only five years, then Kenny’s son-in-law fought obstacles, which made his goal to find a cure even more meaningful, because Kenny loved his son-in-law. Then he obtained his doctorate in time to watch his daughter face what seemed like the end of her earthly life. At this point, Kenny threw away God and didn’t return until he repented for his one lie to Mark two decades later as a poor man. Of course, you all know he faced death and now walks through our trees and through our grass with youth forever in his soul.
Now, Mark was born in poverty and fought for social justice as a child. Since his heart was large and understood what his inner personality was, it was never difficult to understand whose advice was right, whose advice was wrong, and who was at a loss of identity. Mark grew up without mental bruises, as the worst childhood memory was a shattered arm. Then he married, adopted a child about four years younger than him, and lived for the Marines while loving his wife and adopted brother that, through time, called him “Dad.” Satan, like the lion he is, stumbled upon Mark and gave him cancer. When Mark rejoiced and praised God for Mary’s wellbeing, Satan stumbled upon him and his son and took away Mark’s brother from earth. Mark fell but recovered, and while his cancer faded away, the community began to love Mark’s redemption and strength. Satan, angered at his failed attempts at devouring the Wegmans’ confidence, threw his wife in a trial of pain. Mary won as she praised God while Mark lost his mind in agony. This has always been the war between Good and Evil, and even though free will is given to man, the fate of many sometimes lies in the decisions of the powerful; sometimes cancer cannot be cured. Sometimes meningitis cannot be avoided, and sometimes insanity burrows itself into your mind. Aaron called it The Passenger Effect, as he soon found out that at a certain point in situations, no one can stop the inevitable, no one can stop the hatred, no one can separate love. We simply called it spiritual warfare and the stubbornness of man. Satan whispered into Aaron and Kenny’s ears to lie, which with their free will and weak hearts, they did. Then, wanting Mary to die without God, Lucifer waited, circling the sheep for years as they grew, while the sheep hugged the shepherd. Then a man drank and smashed into their vehicle. Satan failed as Mary concurred her trials and left earth. He threw a fit since God won again. But he saw Mark and kept him in his one month of hate toward God. The snake loved his craftiness and laughed as Mark cursed at God every morning for a story he partially knew. Although Mark walked into the community, acting as if he were still a Godly man, Satan knew what he said in silence.
This cursing and praising is constant in many lives, with the length of waves depending on the strength of your heart. When Mark found the note from Tom, he began to praise God once again and taught the Gospel for ten years in jail as Satan spit and whined for not getting his way, while circling him again, whispering to weak men and beating them up. Finding sneaky ways to put Mark down, make him feel as if no one cared for the Wegmans’ existence.
Now why do I care? Why tell a story about Mark and his struggle through Satan’s Earth? What makes me associated to such a story? It’s because I’m his Hand Mitten. I was the art in his everyday life. I fed him while Satan whipped harshly. I kissed his lips as God joined us in marriage. We found lovely Tom at a foster home together and loved him like a son. I was always there for Mark, even when my vessel from earth became a nest for worms to grow. I watched him grow, I watched him fight, and I held his hand through it all as a promise for warmth we vowed long ago. Now he is ninety-five years old, and Satan once again beats his chest and screams angrily with another failure. Because Mark did it! My Hand Mitten beat Death’s sting! Now with his final earthly breaths, I prepare to descend and take him with me to the bliss of our painless world. Children of God, I am blessed to have my husband join me for eternity. I’m ready to f
inally tell him everything! To look him in the eyes and feel his attention on mine. I don’t miss the earth, but I do miss Mark’s smile, his love toward me, and our conversations. Oh! It’s time, it’s time! I can’t wait, I’m so excited! I’ve waited so long! It’s time.
Epilogue
Mark was eighty-five, Aaron was eighty-four, and they walked through a narrow hallway colored by the bland steel of an old prison. The chains across his wrists were of the same design as forty years ago, except they now seemed more for decoration than restraints. The prison officers were on their lunch break while they followed Aaron through the hallway, eating sandwiches with mayonnaise and avocado. Aaron saw the avocado, forgetting the taste of such a thing, though he knew the taste of mayonnaise very well, the taste of bread, milk, pizza, ham, meatloaf, and sometimes, on every blue moon, a cold Coke or a slushie from the staff room.
They stopped at a bland white desk with spots of black, shown by half a century of wear that can’t be wiped off, since it was the color under the white.
A woman behind the desk was drinking a Frappuccino while typing on a keyboard made of light. Aaron was starstruck by the sight, although it would make sense, since the year was now the spring of 2053. She didn’t look up to speak, and her attitude was different than that of the children her age when Aaron was last outside. She carried an annoyance of a ten-year-old, with what seemed like little respect for anyone.
“Aaron…Hudson?” the woman said with a bitter sting that fell off her lip. Aaron hesitated from the sound of his name and smiled lightly.
“Y-yes ma’am.”
“Well, Mr. Exitus…” said the woman as she starred with strain at the paper-thin computer screen. “You are a free man.”
The prison officers walked Aaron to another room while he was immensely touched to be called with the prefix of “Mister.” The officials spoke casually to each other while this next room with the same chipped white walls came nearer.
“My wife is very nervous,” said the tall blond officer with pale white skin and a bent nose.
“She’s afraid that the Japanese and Turks will crack their orbiting missiles any day now.”
“There’s no way war can’t be prevented,” said the officer on the other side. “The United Nations can’t prevent this. The time for negotiations was years ago.”
Aaron walked with his head half to the ground, with wonder still flooding through his eyes toward this war. He continued to quickly glance up without being detected, fearing that the prison officers still saw him as an inmate.
When they arrived to this next room, there was a high table in the middle. The blond officer unlocked the handcuffs while the trim bearded one played a game on his phone. Then the blond walked through an old automatic door that immediately recognized his face, coldly beeped, and swung open while they walked. The bearded man continued to play on his phone, knowing Aaron was too fearful of a slipup to even move, and he was right. Aaron stood there speechless with his head half down, keeping his hands in the exact position of where they were cuffed. He couldn’t believe what was happening! He was leaving! An event Aaron believed his mortal life wouldn’t see. Aaron was now very old and frail, with gray hair, and muscles from youth stripped. He’d lost track of time decades ago, yesterday believing that he still had years of time.
“Agh!” yelled the officer to his game. Aaron hesitated from his reaction but calmed down once he understood that it was toward his phone. The officer was an older man, although every staff member still used phones, so age wasn’t the factor.
Aaron wanted to go back to his cell. He knew that this day was Friday, which meant that it was meatloaf day, and time turned it into a meal of luxury. Take me tomorrow! He thought. So at least it can finish on a day of normality. Aaron was in a crossroads of feelings, wondering if his heart wanted to stay or go. Anxiety came with the thought of leaving the horrific prison, with the idea of his death in his cell still logged in his thoughts. Then there was joy in seeing the outside world and what it had become, although Aaron didn’t know what to think of the joyful feeling he carried.
The blond came back with a dusty cardboard box full of belongings. When Aaron looked inside, he was struck with emotions to find so many memories. There was an old Fossil watch that had run out of batteries long ago, a leather wallet with the wear from Aaron’s use still visible around the corners, and a smartphone, which the blond gazed at with a glance and knew about its little worth in technology. There were keys to his car that was long ago scrapped, with a keychain of a bunny sticking out of a hat, coincidentally matching the magnet Mark had on his fridge many years ago. The bunny held a carrot with rosy cheeks sticking out from its face. There was a pair of clothes, off-brand denim jeans and a Guns & Roses shirt that was now too ancient to be played and enjoyed by the new generation. Then, finally, there was a pack of very ancient Bazooka Bubble Gum.
The bearded man continued playing while the blond began naming the items very blandly on the table. When naming off Aaron’s phone, the bearded man heard and commented gleefully that the software was made around his birthdate.
Aaron quickly grabbed the items like a child grabbing candy and began rummaging through them. Aaron began to remember everything that was in his wallet while surveying the contents and saw it as bitter joy to see the items from his last day of freedom on his first. The money didn’t seem to matter, but the items and cards had half a life. Aaron quietly asked to change out of his plain orange clothes and was granted his request mostly because of his age. It took ten minutes for him to change into the dusty, forty-year-old outfit that reeked of dust, and he grinned very gleefully to see himself in clothes that weren’t orange. Aaron knew he was stalling to leave. He knew he was afraid to leave. He knew he never expected to leave, and yet here he was. Aaron sat with his clothes on in the staff bathroom until there was a knock on the door by what sounded like the bearded man with black hair.
“The man who’s here to pick you up has arrived.”
Aaron opened the bathroom’s white door very slowly as it squeaked in a light tone from extensive use. He attempted to dust off as much of his clothes as possible, although it would take a washing machine to properly clean the faded look of sitting in a box for four decades.
They walked through another hallway of solid metal, and it led to outside where it was spring, with flowers on trees and bushes and a thin layer of grass that would be soft on bare feet.
Then there it was—the door that led to freedom. It was part of the wall that surrounded the prison and the size of every other door. Metallic like the wall, except perfect, since there was no anger involved with this door, just excitement and fright for what was waiting outside.
Aaron wondered what waited outside. He wondered who would pick up an old man that had no family and how he would kindly thank them. He wondered where he would live outside of the jail and if welfare still existed for an old man like him. The bearded officer walked over to the metallic door, and the door recognized his face, so it opened. The sun was the same as it was on the other side of the prison wall, but what stood there was different. It was another old man, who wore an old Arizona Wildcats cap with a black-and-white suit, which had been purchased long ago. His shoes were Nike sneakers, and it was obvious that this man was very poor when it came to matching. Aaron knew who this man was, and he began to cry, remembering his first life as a liar and a hypocritical police officer. He began to speak, but words didn’t leave his lips while they moved, only slight syllables that were close to murmurs. Mark looked up from his long wait of standing at the door and saw his old friend coated with age as well.
“Sorry,” spoke Aaron as he looked toward the ground. “Sorry,” Aaron spoke again while weeping with pain, but before he could say it a third time, a pair of arms lightly wrapped around his chest. He opened his eyes to find himself in a hug with Mark and was shocked to see that he was forgiven. Then he engaged in the hug and re
alized that it wasn’t forgiveness in the embrace, but a sense of missing his best friend. Aaron was already forgiven long ago.
Mark drove Aaron back to their town, and on the way, they ate at Domino’s for lunch. A medium pizza was now twenty dollars—inflation—and people paid through fingerprints or thoughts.
“It’s an implant in their brain,” said Mark blandly with his aged voice while tapping a spot just above the eardrum. “It also records all vital signs and knows any sickness that you get in your body right when you get it. It is said that with the device, the age of death will go from ninety to a hundred and twenty. If you see close enough, there’s a colored ball that sticks out of their head.”
“Why didn’t anyone at the prison have them?” Aaron asked with quick words.
“Because if someone smashed it hard enough, you could go brain-dead,” Mark added with frustration and a shake of his head. Then Aaron joined him in frustration, and they laughed subtly. They were old men; it wasn’t a worry for them.
They spoke calmly as they ate greasy food, and Aaron enjoyed the delicious pizza, since the prison’s was healthier and staler. Mark spoke of his adventures around the world, preaching his story and acting as an activist for cancer and PTSD patients, then retiring to be a local pastor who began every sermon stating that he was going to preach like it was his final day on earth. This was Satan’s final defeat, when his interferences only became annoyances like pesky gnats, which never affected Mark again. He spoke of the community that became his family and his present status of living alone as a bachelor.
“There is a room for you, too!” Mark said with comforting words. “It was your dream, right? The Amazing Aaron and Mark, bachelors in the city.”
Aaron smiled with an expression of excitement and joy, and the offer made him blush to be treated with such respect again. “Y-Yes…I’d love that.” Aaron humbly stated.
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