Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Write in the MYSTERY genre (04/05/07)
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TITLE: A Dream or Warning | Previous Challenge Entry
By Joshua Moran
04/05/07 -
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Last week they found the problem that caused his symptoms, an inoperable brain tumor that was causing convulsions out of nowhere. Justin was only twenty-five years old, and was not prepared for the news that he would live only three to six months more. As he grabbed his backpack and headed towards the parking lot where his mother, Lisa, was waiting, he felt a heated sensation on his scalp. Justin could only think that maybe his time was shorter than the doctors said. He stepped out of the elevator and bumped into a short, old man that smiled at Justin. “His burden is light, son. His yoke is easier than you think”, said the old man with an Irish baroque.
Justin hugged his mother as he approached her car, and felt like giggling for some reason. Justin thought of the old man, “Mom, this short old man who sounded like a leprechaun, said something weird to me.” As they discussed the old man Justin’s mother remarked about how they have not been in church for years, “Ever since your father passed away, it’s been hard to believe that God exists at all.”
Months had passed and Justin could barely get around the house, and the convulsions were getting worse and more frequent. His fevers were high and severe, and Lisa was not able to work in order to care for Justin. Lisa knew these were Justin’s last days, and a feeling of despair fell over her. Lisa went upstairs to check on Justin. She did her best to prepare herself mentally for the day this would happen, yet she was so overcome to his lifeless body on the bed. She held him in her arms, and cried out to the only one she would listen. “God how could you! He is all I have! You took my husband and now you want Justin too!”
The doorbell rang and Lisa went to get up, but she could not move easily. She felt as if chains were strapped to her ankles and wrists, and they were anchored to the floor. Her vision began to blur, and color just seemed to fade. “ I must be ready to pass out”, she thought as she fell to the floor.
Darkness, laughter, weeping, and heat were all she could sense as a falling sensation came over Lisa. Suddenly a sweeping wind surrounded her and stopped her descent, and a still small voice began to speak to Lisa. “You have to tell him the truth,” the quiet voice told Lisa. Lisa awoke from the dream, but she was now in the kitchen. She heard footsteps upstairs, and Lisa ran to Justin’s bedroom.
Justin was sitting on the floor watching a cartoon with a short old man telling Bible stories. Justin ran over to his mother and hugged her hard. “Mommy, I miss daddy a lot. Why did he die?” an eight-year-old Justin asked of his mother in uncontrolled tears. Lisa pinched herself, and thought she had been dreaming. She realized that today was the day they would bury Jake, her husband and Justin’s father.
Lisa sat down next to Justin and explained as best as she could that her father died on a mission’s trip to Indonesia. She told Justin that his father was hero because he saved a young girl and her mother from death and slavery. Justin said something remarkable to his mother; “Then Daddy is in heaven right now? The short old man on the TV said that Jesus gave His life for us. So Daddy was just like Jesus?”
Lisa walked out of the room in tears thanking God for a second chance with her son. Lisa knew that either God rewound the clock 17 years or she saw the future for her and her son without God. She felt as if the future was so real, yet knew that only God knew the answer.
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