The giant's prophecy.

A giant's prophecy changes a boy's life.

Chapter one.

It was that evening when jack first met the giant. He was walking down the hill, kicking at the grass and shivering a bit from the cold winter air blowing at him. Something thumped behind him and he turned and looked. Right in front of him was the towering shadow of a giant.

 

The shadow seemed to melt over the ground and mingle faintly with the dark blue sky over head. Jack shrugged at the shadow and said, “what do you want?’ The shadow moved towards jack, struggling a bit as he walked over a steep part of the hill. “I guess that you mean why I am here?”

 

“Fine,” Jack said, “I mean why you’re here”

 

The giant approached jack more and Jack dropped to his back. “I’m here to warn you. Your mother will die soon.”

 

The words crashed like a ton of bricks over jack’s head. He cannot loose his mother. She was the only one that remained for him, the only one he could depend on, the only one he loved.

 

“Please, I don’t want to loose her,” Jack said to the giant, ‘I can’t loose mom,”

 

The giant placed a finger at his lower lip and turned his head to the east. He remained silent as he watched the stars, thinking. “It’s not easy at the beginning. Then the pain of the loved one vanishes with time. You realize how stupid you’ve been to cry that much while your loved one has just traveled to a far country where you’ll go someday.”

 

Jack did not understand what the giant meant by far country. “You told me mom will die, she won’t travel anywhere.”

 

“No, she’ll travel.” The giant sat down and crossed his legs. “When my dad died he traveled to this country and he never returned. But my older brother told me that we’d go visit him one day,”

 

Jack thought for a moment. “May be giants are different from humans. May be you can visit your dead parents but we can’t.”

 

“What do you mean?” The giant looked offended. He frowned at Jack, got to his feet and walked away. Jack ran after him. “Wait, I didn’t mean to say something bad.”

 

The giant stopped and turned to jack, wiping a tear at the side of his eye with his a huge knuckle. “I miss father and you’re telling me that I can’t visit him. That was so cruel of you.”

 

Jack shrugged and patted giant’s brown, leather sandal. “I’m sorry. I really hope that one day you’d visit your father, but you still didn’t tell me about how I can save mom from her death,”

 

The giant sat down on the grass once again and Jack sat this time nearer to him. “You must tell her that you love her. If you tell her that you love her she’ll invite you someday to the country where she’ll travel after her death,”

 

Jack frowned and got to his feet. “I can’t tell her I love you,”

 

The giant was taken aback. He shivered and scowled at jack. ‘Why, don’t you love your mother?”

 

“No,” jack yelled at him, ‘I didn’t say so,”

 

“Then, what?”

 

“It’s just, I...” Jack struggled for words. He couldn’t say to his mother that he loved her so easily. Although his mother told him many times that she loved him, he never thought of doing it himself. It was as if a big hole would get punctured in his heart if he spoke his feelings to anyone.

 

“It’s your job boy,” the giant said, “you must have the courage to speak your feelings to her, or else, you’d never visit her after she dies.” The giant dispersed into silver grains of sand and the wind carried them far down the hill.

 

 

If you want to hear the rest of the story, turn for the next chapter. There will be more surprises. If you feel already bored, then just throw the book and go turn on your PS.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2.

 

On his way back home, Jack thought of how his mother would look if she died. He never saw someone dead before, but he imagined her lying in her bed with the quilt over her face and her hands cold and pale.

 

He struggled with the images that followed and when he reached home he felt like he was about to burst. His mother should never die, he would protect her, he would fight for her, and no one would take her away from him.  

 

Jack went into the house and dashed to his mother’s room. He found her sitting in her bed with a TV humming at a small table beside the window.

 

“Mom,” jack ran at her as if he found a treasure, “Mom, I missed you.” He threw himself at her chest and wrapped her in his arms.

 

His mother laughed briefly, “Have I missed you so much in that small time?” Jack nodded and kissed her at the shoulder.

 

He thought of telling her about the giant and what he told him, but when he was about to speak the bell of the main door rang.

 

“I’ll get it,”

 

His mother nodded at him. He was halfway down the stairs when his mother got off her bed and called at him. “Wait, I’ll do it.”

 

Jack followed her to the door.

 

“Who’s there?” she said. No one replied.  “Who’s there?” she repeated more vigorously. “I won’t open unless you tell me who you’re.”

 

“I have a letter from your husband.” The voice behind the door spoke. It was raspy, cold and dark like the shadow of the giant.

 

Jack felt his heart falling deep into his body. This could not be true. His father? He had not seen him for three years. His mother told him that he went to fight at war and he would return as soon as the war ended.  But for jack’s father the war never ended; it was permanent.

 

Jack’s mother shivered and smiled with quivery lips.  She could not believe that the man held a letter from her husband.

 

“Wait a minute,” she adjusted her shawl round her shoulders and opened the door.

 

A tall slender man, wearing a black, leather coat  stood at the door.

 

“Hello,” he said, smiling thinly.  “Sorry for coming late, but I guess that business is business.”

 

The man’s wide, blue eye sparkled against a mysterious source of light and slowly, the man stepped forward and pushed jack’s mother from her shoulder with the edges of his fingers. Jack’s mother rose high up in the air and collapsed down on her back.  

 

“What are you doing?” Jack yelled at the man and suddenly he felt a surge of energy running through him as the man approached his mother. He ran at the man and grasped him from the neck. “Leave us alone.” He yelled at him, “leave us, you liar.”

 

The man smiled his thin smile and with the edge of his gloved finger, he pushed jack to the wall. Jack dropped to his face and lost conscious for a minute.

 

When he woke up, he found the door of the house open with the rain pattering outside. He rubbed his eyes and beside the stairs, his mother’s body laid silent.

 

“Mom,” he said dashing at his mother, “No, don’t die.”

 

He held his mother’s cold hand with tears swelling in his eyes. “Don’t leave me,”

 

He placed his head at her chest. “I love you,”

 

It was too late; she did not hear his confession.

 

The giant’s prophecy was fulfilled and Jack felt nothing but anguish tearing at his heart. His mother would not allow him into the secret land where she went. It was over.

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

It's my best story so far. I enjoyed writing it.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Oh my.. this is sad, so sad. You've spun this story almost like an old myth .. something way back in history. I'm not sure how old Jack is .. but the piece about being able to show his feelings is pretty accurate for a youngster, it makes him real. Then when he rushes into see his mom and says he's missed her .. that really touched me. As for the giant, not sure if he's death or live or what but there are some lovely touches,
'The giant stopped and turned to jack, wiping a tear at the side of his eye with his a huge knuckle.'

The ending of chapter 2 is really tear-jerking .. and pushes home what death means, how people all the others gone from sight, in that other land.

There are some sweet phrases in this post ... 'The giant dispersed into silver grains of sand and the wind carried them far down the hill.'

Hope you post more of this soon.