An Unfathomable Boutade

There was knocking on the door. James’s mother stopped packing her son’s lunch and started walking towards the door. James paused in eating his breakfast as he wanted to see who was at the door. He got up and followed his mother.

Sarah opened the door to see and officer standing there.

‘’Sarah Myers?’’ The officer grunted out. Sarah nodded, confused.

‘’Yes. That is me.’’ The officer took a deep breath and continued,

‘’I’m sorry to inform you about this but, your husband, Wilson Myers, was caught in an explosion at The National Science Lab. An experiment went wrong. He is no more.’’ James’s eyes widened just as his mother sank to her knees on the ground.

‘’N-no... that can’t be…’’ she seemed to be in a shock and couldn’t form words. James hugged his mother from behind and buried his face in her shoulder. James just felt numb. He couldn’t cry nor could he speak. For the weight of the situation was still being comprehended by his 10-year old mind.

The officer knelt beside her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

He waited patiently for the sobbing woman to calm down. He knew the words he offered would do nothing but make her even more hysterical.

Finally, after what seemed to be half an hour, Sarah finally seemed to have calmed down.

The Officer looked at her in concern and asked,

‘’Ma’am, are you alright?’’ The woman nodded, though the man was not convinced. But he didn’t want to dig deeper and possibly upset the woman even more. While holding James, she shakily asked,

‘’What about the funeral?’’ The officer gently told,

‘’The funeral will be conducted tomorrow at the site a little further away from the LAB. All the families of the departed scientists will be there.’’

Sarah nodded and wiped her tears the best she could.

‘’I understand, Officer. I will be there.’’ The officer nodded and left with a salute to them.

That day was the gloomiest day in the Myers household. James did not go to school and Sarah did not go to work. They both sat in the master’s bedroom huddled together since they were finding it difficult to not collapse into tears. Well, at least for Sarah. James had neither spoken a word nor cried since the officer left. He just sat close to his broken mother, who couldn’t do anything but cry and sleep that day.

The next day, the land occupied by the Lab was filled with all of the dead scientist’s families, officers, the higher up’s and many more.

James stood with his mother in the back since they couldn’t sit in the front. They couldn’t sit because, Sarah was sure she would tear up at the sight of her husband’s smiling photo, which was being displayed along with the other scientists in the front.

As one of the higher up’s started a speech appreciating all the scientists for their hard work, their dedication to their research and so on. Many officers were standing guard all around the people. While all the people were focusing on the speech, James couldn’t help but notice the family’s sad faces, tears streaked on the cheeks, the quivering lips and the pure heartbreak in their eyes. He kept to himself and clung to his mother’s white dress.

They couldn’t see their dead loved ones again. That was the most soul crushing thing. Since, the explosion had incinerated all their bodies and the building was burnt too. No one knew what they were experimenting on or how far they reached on it. It was kept away from the public since it was top-secret information. At least, that was what was told to them.

After this sad affair, the Myers, moved away to another country. They started a new life in a new country, with a new language and at a new house.

It wasn’t easy. There were barriers between them and the natives. James was bullied at school and Sarah had a hard time finding a job and maintaining it. The starting years were tough. The distance between the mother and son has slowly increased. With Sarah not taking therapy for her PTSD, claiming she didn’t need one, and James becoming mute since his father’s death. The doctors had diagnosed that he was in shock from his father’s death. They said that with enough therapy sessions along with love and support from his loved ones, he will be able to get back on track.

But due to the distance between them, both of their sessions were put on hold. But the straw which broke the camel’s back was when James came back from school one day. He had gotten an ‘A’ in his science test and he was in a good mood. He did not see his mother, so he kept his bag in his room and silent, as a ghost, went to the living room to watch TV, with the snacks kept on the dining table. His mother came out from her bedroom and was about to go to the kitchen to make food but saw a paper lying on the floor.

It was James’s Science Paper. She picked it up and saw that he had scored an ‘A’ in this and this seemed to give her mind a jolt. Her mind put the words ‘Science’ and ‘James’ in a sentence along with ‘Will was also good in science.’

James suddenly heard a thud and turned to see his mother on the ground. He jumped up from the couch and ran towards his mother. He saw that she was convulsing and her eyes were moving frantically from side to side.

And for the first time in three years, James screamed.

Sarah is seen lying on a hospital bed after a good five hours. James was holding his mother’s hand with tears still clinging to his eyelashes. The doctor said that something had triggered Sarah into a panic attack, which brought back traumatic memories back to her.

James laid his head on the hospital bed and looked at his mother’s pale face. After hearing his scream, the neighbors had come rushing in, breaking the door down in the process, since he wasn’t able to part from his mother. When the neighbors finally came inside, James was crying while holding onto his mother and they had a difficult time separating them.

The doctors tried asking James on what happened but he only gave short sentences, as he was speaking for the first time in years. But that seemed to be enough for the doctors since they seemed to get the picture.

Sarah woke up the next day. James wasn’t able to sleep a wink the night before and when he saw his mother wake up, he cried as he hugged her. Sarah didn’t let go of James even when the doctors came inside to check her vitals. Both mother and son had the same thought in their mind,

‘If I let go, James/Mom will be taken away from me.’

And this sad beginning had given way to a healthy recovering process. In a matter of two years, with therapy sessions and the bond between them increasing, the two of them were finally able to return back to being as normal as they could be. Of course, there were times James suddenly loses his ability to speak, when he remembers his father and there were times when Sarah would get nightmares that James would end up like his father, but they pushed through these to the best of their ability.

When James was 18, they had a big fight. It was about James choosing what he is going to study for his career. Sarah wanted her son to choose whatever he wanted. But James chose to become a scientist. Sarah, when she found out, shouted at James for this.

‘’NO! YOU WILL NOT BECOME A SCIENTIST!’’ James screamed back,

‘’WHY? I THOUGHT I COULD BECOME WHATEVER I WANTED!’’ What his mother said next made both of them quiet,

‘’I don’t want you to become a scientist because I don’t want you to end up like your father.’’ James stood there, silently, not knowing what to say after that.

‘’Mom, you know that just because Dad died, doesn’t mean I would too.’’ He spoke softly. Mrs. Myers looked sadly at James, still not convinced. Her son walked towards her and hugged her.

‘’Mom, you know that this is my dream. I want to become a scientist. Please don’t let the past hinder the future.’’ He whispered. Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself and to think rationally.

She hugged her son back and silently nodded into his shoulder.

‘’Go, my son. Do what you want to do. I believe in you.’’ James could hear the trembling in his mother’s voice but chose not to comment on it. He just pulled her closer and said,

‘’Thank you, Mom. I’ll make you proud.’’ He heard her chuckle breathlessly,

‘’You have already made me so proud, James. No matter what you will do in the future, it will still make me proud.’’ James smiled at that and it seemed like the future will be bright.

James studied science. He worked hard and never slacked off. Whenever he felt like giving up or he was just too stressed, his father and mother would come up in his mind’s vision. He would make them proud.

It felt like forever when he finally got to pursue his career as a scientist. He could still fondly remember the day when he was accepted and his mother cried tears of joy for him. He felt like his father would be proud of him and clap on his back when he was accepted.

He never felt like his father had left them. He always felt his presence in his heart and he knew that he would always be behind him, encouraging him forward.

As he grew, him and his mother had gone back to their country. They were finally strong enough to face their past demons. Once there, he wanted to know what his father had done his research on. He was finally declared to be eligible to know what his father had wanted to speculate on. There wasn’t a lot to start from since a lot of the paperwork was gone in that explosion. But he had gotten the basic gist of it.

With enough research and a lot of dead ends, James had finally produced on how far the venture had reached. As he was thumbing through the last few papers, with the conclusion, there was a knock on the door. His mother had gotten up but he gently sat her back down. His mother was no young woman anymore. Sarah gave him a mock glare and James laughed.

He went and opened the door only to see two women, one old and one young, and a man. The man stepped forward and said,

‘’Hello. Are you the Myers?’’ James nodded, with a perplexed expression on his face.

‘’Can we talk to you?’’ James nodded and welcomed them inside.

‘’Of course, of course. Please do come in.’’

Within a few minutes, all of them were sitting in the living room with a shocked Sarah and James, who was in disbelief.

‘’Are you…’’ James squeaked but quickly cleared his throat.

‘’Are you certain?’’ The family of three nodded with solemn looks on their faces.

‘’Where did you find these?’’ Sarah asked. The elderly woman spoke,

‘’My husband had them in his study room. We didn’t go into that room since his death but we had recently wanted to renovate it and found these papers. As your son is a scientist now and we know that both our husbands were co-workers, we thought to share it with you.’’ By the end of her talk, the woman was taking deep breaths, to calm herself.

James took a few shuddering breaths, when the family of three went home with a few tears. No one understood the set of circumstances except James because these papers were like a missing piece to his take on his father’s research.

‘’James. What does this mean?’’ He heard his mother ask. James held out his hand to his mother, to wait a minute, so that James could come to terms with what was happening. Sarah understood and waited patiently for his son to explain.

After an excruciatingly, long minutes, James finally stood up and went to his desk. He brought his papers and sat across his mother.

‘’Mom, Dad was working on how to evolve the present-day human mind to something more. The selected ten scientists had done lots of research but they still needed to see if what they did so far actually worked. So, Mr. Myers and Mr. Thompson, volunteered to do a trial run on it.’’ He paused as he saw his mother’s eyes widen.

‘’The papers which were given by the Thompson family proved that both of them were the participants. But during this trial, something went wrong and I think I know exactly what went wrong.’’ He showed his mother his notes and explained to her the mechanics behind it.

‘’So, the overload to their brain became a counter reaction to the fluid being supplied to keep them alive. This resulted in a malfunction and thus the explosion.’’

‘’Then… what happened to Will and Mr. Thompson?’’ Sarah asked, with a shaking voice.

‘’Mom. Dad and Mr. Thompson are still alive.’’ Silence followed that statement.