The Visiting Stranger by James Gerard (most popular novels .TXT) 📕

George cried.  The throbbing aches would not cease.  The cancer had spread throughout his body and attacked where it wanted.  The attending physician had offered to alleviate the suffering with the strongest medication available and allow him to sleep, but he refused.  The pain was a reminder of the agony his loved ones had experienced before they left the earthly life, and he wanted to be of a sound mind and awake to feel every bit of it just as they had.

This was important to George since he had sat at the bedside for most of them while he was still relatively strong and healthy, but felt so helpless in taking away any of their aches.  Now he was the one in agony and believed that experiencing the intense pain firsthand would be a fair and just ending to his life.  Beyond that, he believed the suffering would somehow bring him closer to each one of his dearly departed.

As he lay in the bed and wept, the soft but steady tone of a beep to the left was annoying. The annoyance began shortly after a neighbor had realized she had not seen him for a couple of days.  Having a key to the front door of his house, the neighbor entered and discovered George sprawled out on the kitchen floor.  She made a frantic emergency call.  The paramedics arrived within minutes and rushed him to the hospital.

After he had been wheeled to the intensive care unit, George awoke and realized where he was.  He had watched helplessly as a medical technician attached various wires to his chest.  His primary physician, who had been called to the hospital, told him that the machine was being used to monitor his heartbeat and was for the benefit of the medical personnel.  He was well aware that the fancy contraption was intended to alert any of the nurses on duty if his heart stopped, which would be followed by a doctor attempting to bring him back from death.  George, however, knew the cancer could not be stopped and therefore to do so was useless.  Besides that, he just knew it was time to go.

After a few days of lying in agony, George came to view the monitor's somber hues of light just like a sunset at the end of a day, except the light's softness represented the sunset of his life.  But unlike the earthly sunset that is always followed by a sunrise casting its warmth on a new day, there would be no new day for him. This setting Sun would be the final sunset forevermore for George.

Without a warning knock or a voice asking permission to enter and disturb his desire to die alone, the door creaked thus interrupting his suffering.  A faint light shone through eyelids too weak to open.

Believing the unknown visitor had to be a hospital worker, most likely someone verifying that the medical monitor was still working, George moaned in protest.  He then weakly mumbled, "Nurse, I beg you to let me die in peace."

"I'm not the nurse," the stranger responded.

"Then please doctor, please leave me alone."

"I'm not the doctor either," the voice announced.  The unknown person then giggled and asked, "Don't you remember me?"

George barely had the strength to raise his eyelids but managed to open them a little bit. Other than a soft glowing light coming from the direction of the open door, the squinting eyes could not recognize the unknown visitor.  With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes and said, "Please, whoever you are, I want to be left alone."

"Now George, you know I will not leave you, especially now.  After all, I made a vow to you when you were still in your mother's belly that I would always be with you.  And guess what?  I have never broken that promise to you.  Never!"

"I don't know who you are or why you are doing this, but it is an awful and cruel thing to do to an old and dying man.  Please, I beg you to leave me in peace."

"Awful and cruel?  Why George Elsworth Chesterfield what a mean thing to say.  If I didn't love you so very, very much I would just leave this room and let you die alone.  Now you apologize to me right now."

"I will not apologize.  Huh, love me.  Everyone in my life who loved me has already passed away.  Maggie was the last."

"Yes," the stranger laughed, "Maggie."

Anger raced to George's mind.  His eyelids popped wide open.  With a burst of energy he sprung up in bed, looked toward the light at the open door, and through grinding teeth grumbled, "Now here here, if you are saying that you're the ghost of my dear Maggie, then that is rubbish.  I'd know Maggie's voice anywhere and you are not her ghost."

The stranger laughed.  "Of course I'm not Maggie.  But I came to visit you shortly after she had passed.  Don't you remember George?"

"No, I certainly do not remember."  George flopped back down onto the bed, closed his eyes, and cried, "My heart was so badly broken when she died.  I simply did not have the will to continue to live without her."

"Yes," the stranger laughed.  "You were completely hopeless.  How you managed to take care of yourself for all those years was just amazing."  The stranger laughed again and asked, "Or was it a miracle?"

"You horrid man," George wailed.  "How utterly cruel to laugh at my pain.  Maggie was my life and mere words cannot express just how much it hurt to sit in that lonely house knowing she would never come home again.  Now I demand an apology for your insensitive remarks."

"But don't you remember?"  The stranger went up to George and said, "I told you back then that your wife of sixty years would be plain mad to see you all sad and crying.  She'd be so mad that you could forget all of the love that she poured into your heart all those wonderful years.  A love meant to produce happiness even after she'd passed.  Don't you remember George?"

The hospital room went silent.  George vaguely remembered something like that but could not remember who told him.  He was sure it had to be a neighbor or an acquaintance from one of the neighborhood stores he and Maggie used to shop at, but the person had been forgotten.

"Are you listening George?"

"I'm listening.  I may be dying but I'm not hard of hearing."

I said," the stranger continued, "to just be patient and one day you just might be reunited with your loving wife Maggie."

Suddenly a smile lit up his face.  "Yes...yes," George laughed, "I remember the words.  I remember I smiled, picked myself up by my bootstraps, and shouted to the heavens above, 'Thank you Maggie.'"

"Yes George," the stranger declared.  "Then while you were laughing a laugh of such utter joy I began to cry tears of sadness.  And do you remember it was at that very moment that I left?"

"That's right, you did leave."  George sighed then said, "Oh my.  I don't remember you."

"Of course you remember me.  You're just being stubborn."

George, suddenly frustrated by a mind made feeble by the steady dose of pain and lack of sleep, lashed out at the stranger.  "Confounded man, I command you to identify yourself at this instant."

"I'm the same person that came to you when your son died.  Don't you remember George?"

George began to weep.  "Now why did you have to bring up Johnny?  Oh my precious son taken so early in life."

"I know.  You were devastated.  But I kept my promise to never leave you and was right there by your side to comfort you.  Don't you remember George?"

"Yes, I think I actually remember.  Yes I do.  You...you laughed did you not?"

"Yes George.  You do remember."

"And you told me to stop being so sad because Johnny had poured so much love into my heart that it would produce nothing but wonderful memories."

"Yes George.  And I also told you to be patient and that one day you just might be reunited with your loving son Johnny.  Do you remember George?"

"I remember.  Then I smiled, picked myself up by my bootstraps, and shouted to the heavens above, 'Thank you Johnny.'"

"Yes you did," the stranger laughed.  "Then I began to cry and went away crying."

"I remember," George announced cheerfully.  "Through that joy I found the strength to comfort Maggie and to tell her the exact same thing you told me.  But please, please tell me who are you?  For some reason I just cannot remember."

"Oh George, quit being so silly.  I know you inside and out.  You could never forget me." 

"Oh my Lord.  Are you a spirit sent from the heavens above?"

"George, come on and just remember.  I'm the same person who was by your side when your best friends since childhood Clarence and Charlie and Otis passed away.  I'm the same person that was there when your dad and mom died. I'm also the same person that was there when Grandpa George and Grandma Esther passed away.  For heaven's sake George, I'm the same person that kept my promise to you when Grandma Louise and Grandpa Raymond passed away.  Now do you remember me George?"

"Grandpa Raymond," he stated with an inkling.  The stranger's name was on the tip of his tongue but he could still not name him.  "Confounded man, just identify yourself and end this silly game."

"How could you forget me George?  At one time we were as thick as thieves.  We were inseparable.  And talk about silly games?  We used to play all sorts of silly games together."

George gasped.  "Wait!  You are...you are...but you couldn't be."

"Oh no?" the stranger giggled.  "You know, they decided if we were boys that the first one to come out would be named after Grandpa George and the second one out after Grandpa Raymond."

"Wait!  You can't be."

"The doctor didn't need to slap you on the behind to get you to start breathing because you were crying knowing I wouldn't be joining you.  Now do you remember George?"

"Yes, I remember now."  He reached out and took hold of the man's hand.  From the big bright smile and the glowing white gown George looked up to the visiting stranger and instantly recognized the face.  "Then you told me that everything was going to be okay.  That through my darkest times you would be right there with me.  And I stopped crying as Mother cradled me in her arms, but she cried so hard when the doctor told her that you died in her belly.  I remember Raymond."

Raymond began to cry.

"Now why are you crying?  Are you going to leave me now?"

"Holy cow George, you are just as silly as you were when we were together in Mommy's belly.  I cry for a different reason.  I cry not because I have to go back to Heaven by myself again, but I cry tears of joy because my twin brother is going with me this time."

All of a sudden George noticed that he had been floating above the bed.  He looked down and saw a couple of nurses and a doctor standing at the bedside just staring at his body in silence.  He also noticed that he too was glowing like his twin brother.  And even better, the pain was gone.

"Oh my.  What is happening?"

"I told you that I would never leave you."  Raymond smiled brightly then whispered, "Our Lord is calling us now.  It's time to go."

Before he knew it Raymond was towing him toward the ceiling.  After passing through many floors of the hospital they came out of the roof and into the starry night.

"Will it take long to reach Heaven?"

Raymond smiled. "Be patient. We'll be there soon enough. Everybody is going to be so happy to see you."