Chapter Three: Many More

Chapter Three: Many More

It seemed like every week or so Jack would find some needy traveler, stranded somewhere. Apparently he felt compelled to help others. I thought he and Emma were just kindly people who gave these lost travelers a meal and a place to stay for the night. The routine was always the same. Prepare a meal for the traveler, discussion, forgetting to eat supper with the traveler and gardening in the morning after a quick snack. I mentioned to Emma and Jack once that we probably didn’t need to discuss the lost staying anymore, as it seemed no matter what they always stayed. Emma argued that it was important to share our first opinions of the guest. It also seemed like every week the flower beds grew. I never thought anything about it. Except once, I guess.

I had been there about a month or so when this incident occurred. The guest this time was a man by the name of  “Nick.” Nick was a rather large man, and looking back on it,  Emma must have underestimated with his dosage. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the sound of someone retching. I opened my door and looked out. Across the hall was Nick’s room, the door flung open, a candle casting an eerie glow. Seeing the tableau that unfolded before my eyes, I was stunned. Nick was sitting up in bed, vomiting copious amounts into the mixing bowl that Emma held under his chin. The stench of human sickness pervaded the air, curling in putrescent tendrils across the hallway. Emma wiped his forehead with a wet cloth and helped him lay back down.

The next morning Nick was sitting at the table, eating oatmeal that Emma had set out. The three of us ate toast with jelly. I guess Emma got the dosage right that time because when I woke up from a nap that afternoon she told me Jack had taken Nick back into town. I could have saved Nick, if only I’d known.

We continued to live that way for months. Sometimes I would ride in the truck with Jack down the nearby roads, presumably checking the fields. We almost always found a lost stranger. Often the stranger would be more than happy to hitch a ride from a farmer and his daughter. Eventually Jack had to clear a nearby field for Emma’s flower beds.

Knowing what I know now, I wish I’d never gardened with Emma, never laughed with Jack, never eaten from their table, never accepted the offer to stay. I wish I’d never gone down that road, never bought that van. I used to try and figure out exactly where I went wrong. I now think that it was wanting to believe there is good in everyone. There is not. More often than not you will be fooled by silver tongues and dazzling smiles. Just remember that not everything is as it seems to be. Nothing can be trusted when it comes to deception.