A Child's Biggest Fear

I am now a 16 year-old boy, and these past years?

Well, I have never seen my mother this silent before. Ever since that night, my mother barely speaks to me and to anyone. But the most scary thing about all this is that our neighbors and other people doesn't even ask me or my mother about the Hen and the Harp. It's not like I want them to know about it. It's just that it's like time has rewind and we were invisible to other people's sights again.

I never planned to go back to the forest again 'cause if I do? I don't know what will my mother do..

Walking while holding a basket, he stops as he was in front of the lake. He puts the basket down beside him and sat on the grass holding a fishing rod that he snatched from the basket, rests it on the other side of him right down the grass and got a jar of worms that also came from the basket. He opens the jar, got a worm and using his other hand, he gets the fishing rod and threaded the worm along the shank of the hook, piercing through the worm two to three times. Leave a portion of the worm dangling off the end. He then started fishing and just 30 seconds later, he feels the fishing rod shrugging a little. So he woops up and saw this fish in it's medium or normal size eating the worm as it wiggles.

Jack now does that every time so he and his mother have something to eat. It's like a routine to him now, which he doesn't find weird. Not like the young teens farther from his position that bathes in the lake sometimes as he fishes.

When he caught 5 fishes, he wanted to catch more but his mother called to his name as she noticed it was getting dark, jack cleans his stuff and carried the things back to his house. His mother gets the basket from jack before jack went to the side of his house to place the rod just leaning on the wooded walls. And place the Jar of worms back inside of their house. While his mother prepares their dinner.

Jack washes himself with the water from the well that he prepared earlier that morning and just as he was done, his mother called. "Son! Food's ready." As he replied he was just dressing up.

After dinner, jack went outside and places a blanket on the ground. He lays down and puts his crossed arm behind his head as he stared at the moon, the shining stars, slowly closed his eyes and felt the cold breeze waving and waving.

It was cold that very night but jack wanted that night to last forever as if in his heart, it was as warm as it should be.

His mother looks at him secretly by the door and told him come inside and sleep as this day was tiring for him. He opens his eyes, tilted his head to look at her. Her face wasn't shone even though the moon shined so bright that night. He shrugs the feeling off and thinks to himself. "Mother" He gets up, folds the blanket and head inside.

Walking to his room, behind him was his mother. And when he finally reached his room, he went in and lied down on his bed as his mother hugged him goodnight. His mother goes outside his room and he sees just below the door that lights turned off and hears his mother's room door closed.

As he slowly closed his eyes, everything went dark and did not know that he was already sleeping.

He hears tweets of the birds and trees clashing altogether because of the wind but out of all of those, a voice stood out more. "Jack!" He hears a shout from a distance. It sounded like a female calling for his name. He instantly thought it was his mother as she was the only female who knows jack. So he follows the sound hoping to find his mother and he did. But…there was someone else too. His mother was sitting on the ground and in her arms was….him. It was jack. He went in front of her and knelt down as he saw his mother crying to life. He was worried sick and shouted. "Mother! Mother!!" Nothing. No respond came back from her. His mother was looking down at the jack in her arms as she is still shouting. "Wake up jack! Please!" Jack looks around as his sights were starting to get blurry. He looks down at himself who was in his mother's arms but when he blinked, he saw his mother right in front of him holding both his arms telling him to wake.

His mother looked worried. That wasn't the first time jack had that dream.

About a year later after that night, he started getting these weird dreams of a woman that looks like his mother crying wake up. And now, when he, again, had that dream, he wanted to make his mother know that he was right in front of her but didn't work. He wanted to figure out why he was getting all these dreams 'cause when he looked around of the setting that happened, it was the forest he went to before. But that was so many years ago. So, Why?

He sits up and his mother lets him go before she ran out and brought back a glass of water for him to drink. She gives him his water, jack holds the glass and drinks all of the water inside.

After all the commotion, Jack is now carrying a big container where all the water he fetches, goes there. He walks and walks towards a village just nearby and went towards a well by this big abandoned castle. While he was fetching water from the well and transferring it to his own container, a girl walks up to him saying her greetings. "As well, Valerie." Jokingly said jack, as he bows to her like she was a maiden of big respect given. Valerie is the girl that he met the first time he went to fetch water form the well and the first time he went to the village. Valerie is a year older than Jack but he never notices it when Valerie acts like a kid and not her age. Valerie always comes to the well to meet jack as if it was some appointments.

Well, no. Valerie comes by the well to protect jack because of some kids who insults Jack every time he comes there. While Jack is too kind and forgiving so he lets the children insult him or even throw their toys at him for no reason at all. Jack doesn't get mad or irritated at all. He even finds it cute. Because he believes that their just a bunch of kids not knowing what they're doing because they are kids after all. Valerie never commits to his belief. She believes that a kid can be respectful if taught to be one. Sure it is not their fault. But if a kid even is good when they were born, they will be. She trusts that Its the village's influence that taught the kids this kind of behavior.

Valerie sat on the grass her back facing the bricked wall of the well.

"Did you dream of it again?" Valerie asked as she hugs her knees that are close to her torso looking down at the grass.

Jack sighs. "I never stopped." He says while he is still fetching and transferring the water.

"Did you find out why yet?" She says with a look of disappointment.

"I try to. But every time I even think of going back to the forest, i remember mother." he says with a worried look on his face.

She tilts her head and looks at him. He stopped as he noticed. "Do you have mommy problems?" then scoffs as she tilted her head back grinning a little.

Jack rolls his eyes and went back to what he was doing. "I just don't think I can do that to mother again. I told you. Ever since that night, she went silent like some wind that only blows when it wants to." she stands up and went around the well in front of him. He stops his work again. "I can't do anything about that then." He acted obviously. "All I can do is make sure you have fun in life" She says smirking at him. And about just 10 seconds, her smile went away after he continued what he was doing and never said anything to her statement.

She loudly walks up to him as he stopped and looked at her. She stops in front of him and held his wrist, pulled it closer to her and puts on a bracelet on it. Lets his wrist go and he takes a look. He looks back at her. "What's this for-?" And he sees her arm rose from where it was and using her other hand, she points to her wrist. "Matching bracelets!" leaving jack in silence not knowing what to reply to that.

He didn't know what else to say, so he comes back to what he was doing until he was finished, he holds the hands of the container and slightly pulled up and walked away. "I'll just see you tomorrow. If you're here." He says leaving her in that position with her still smiling not knowing what to do. Valerie rushes to him and sprinted in front of him making him stop. He then puts down the heavy container and breathes for air a little. "Wait wait wait wait wait! Where are you going?" He puts on a confused face. "Home? Why?" She tries to pull the container up but it was too heavy so she puts it back down. "Why don't we have fun first? Go here and there around the village?" He sighs and bent to carry the container again. "for he hundredth time, Val. I can't." He walks beside and went past her. "But-!"

"I can't leave mother in the house alone." he interrupts and left her as she sighs and smiles a little. He loves his mother too much. She thinks to herself.

Walking with a container carrying is pretty tiring because of how heavy it is and how long it is gonna take for him to get home. But he was pretty used to it.

Thinking of what Valerie said as he walks, It'd be like a dream to roam around a different place and not always doing these kinds of things. But every time he thinks of even doing something simple like that, the horror comes to him of the face of a worried mother that he saw that one night. This, what he's doing, is a thanks of saving him that night. But of course a mother would look for his son. Its Normal! For Jack, It wasn't. The way his mother acts bothers him so he doesn't want to make the same mistake again and leave her behind because saving him that late at night could put an individual in danger. He didn't want his dreams to come true that he would carry things around and fish all the time just to not bring his mother to the woods or some forest when being surrounded by those are enough. I couldn't care less about myself. He thinks to himself reconciling the past memories of her mother being silent and some of her smiling.

He was walking back home when he saw a big smoke from afar. He was stunned at how it was smoking so bad that he gently places the container down and slowly stepped forward. When A person he knows came to him dragging him up front trying to speak as the man was stunned and couldn't speak straight. The man decides to take Jack to the fire and to Jack's horror, It was his house burning to ashes. He rushes up front worried about his mother and went in the house as the people putting out the fire couldn't stop him. Jack searches the whole house for his mother as his clothes were burning to ashes. He shouts and shouts for her while tears were dripping down his face from his emerald eyes. "Mother!!" He calls for her from the top of his lungs but nothing. He searches again and again hoping he would see her when he was looking inside her bedroom, the ceiling crashed down and he was able to avoid it. He knelt down screaming for his mother while crying loudly as people watched him from afar silent as his great sadness spread.

The fire was put out and while jack is asking for her mother to the people. "I'm sorry, Jack. Didn't see her." That's everyone's respond to him. While some, looked down in sadness with the respond of "no..". Everyone knew about jack's great care for his mother and was hoping not to even say they didn't saw her. But he needed to know the truth.

He couldn't accept it and roamed his ruined house again to find her. No Sign still..

One of the men who put out the fire found something and gave it to Jack as they roamed the house for some things that can be used still.

A ribbon.

All of the people left and Jack silently went to his mother's room. Sat on the floor, rests his head on her bed and cried, holding the untied ribbon his mother used to tie her silky beautiful hair. Soon, It rained and jack puts up a camp using his mother's bed as his sleeping cushion. He cried the night out holding the ribbon close to him until he slept.