You're feeling sleepy. You're feeling that there's nothing wrong. You feel nothing at all. These feelings came over Willem. How strange. He was wearing his normal clothes, but, what? How could this be? A moment ago, he was full of pain and now his body is fully intact with no visible injuries.
A sudden voice asked, "So, how are you? Did school go well? And how is that old man of yours?"
"Huh????? I've never heard that voice from anywhere else!" he thought.
He quickly turned his head to the left and froze when he saw it.
A figure of a beautiful young woman with brown hair and brown eyes sitting beside him with a smile.
As Wille gazed upon this figure, his body started shaking. Willem suddenly fell onto the woman with his arms spread and held the held her in a warm and tight embrace. He could feel her warm skin and body. It was really her. But how could it be?
"Mother?" He spoke out with a soft and weak voice.
"But how can it be?" he asked lifting his head up and looking into her eyes.
His mother didn't reply. She patted him on the head and just nodded with that same smile.
Willem was speechless and turned a whiter shade of pale. His mother was not only healthy, but also younger unlike the the last time he saw her. Those memories never left him. That bright afternoon when his father suddenly came to pick him up during class leaving Willem with many questions. Even on their way to the car, his father who seemed as if he was staring into the distance refused to elaborate further. When reached the car, father hastily started it with his fidgety hands. Willem who felt a sense of hopeless dread continued to push his father for further elaboration.
"Let me concentrate on the road." He replied frustrated.
Willem who stole a glace at his father, was only met with wide unblinking eyes, the sweat on his forehead that soaked his shirt and the awkward silence that caused Willem's feet to fidget nervously. The silence shattered when his father spoke, his hand half-covering his mouth : "Uhm, Willem." with his hand on his mouth and then sighed and said "Your mother..... she had a terrible accident and is in serious condition." while tapping his fingers on the wheel.
"Might not make it." with those final words, his palm pressed onto his face.
Then briefly glanced at Willem : "Just.....don't worry. Everything will be okay." in a feeble attemt to reassure Willem.
Willem sat in the stunned silence, his gaze locked onto the floor, struggling to process it. As the weight of it started to sink in, he instinctively turned his gaze toward the window. He could feel his heart racing, suffocating on his own thoughts, in a labyrinth of disbelief and despair.
The breeze from the wind brushed against Willem's hair and face, cooling him off. The car then took a left turn and stopped in a crowded parking lot. They finally arrived at the hospital. It was full of people that had their own set of troubles. Willem who held his father's hand both rushed to the receptionist and were then guided to the place where they wish they didn't have to be.
"Please, we have to see her. It doesn't matter what state she's in!!! Please, please understand!" Willem's father pleaded with a stern voice. The doctor sighed and nodded. "This way please."
Swallowing their worries, they both slowly approached the patient who laid there, all in bandages and life support. Their face was unrecognizable and an arm was missing. The sight was horrible and deppressing.
"I-Is that....mom?
Both staring at the woman with vacant looks, the father reached his arm out to touch his wife in her last moments. She was in so much agony and all her injuries made breathing difficult for her.
Willem watching all this, started to feel something in his eyes. When he wiped them, it all came flowing out, falling onto his shirt. Slowly, he walked towards his dying mother. She then reached out to him with all her fleeting power, her hands that were shaking. Willem sobbed and held onto her arms with the father watching.
With her weak and faint voice she then said "I love you, I love you both." The father nodded and put his arms on Willem's shoulder. "Me too Fenneke. Me and Willem both. You don't have to worry, I will take care of him."
"I promise!!"
Willem didn't say anything. He felt that if he did, it would all come out and he would cry. He was trying very hard to hold it all back, but his body just did what it wanted. Like a fountain, all his tears just came out and soaked his shirt.
His mother who heard him then said, "Willem, i-It's alright. You have to be strong. For me. Please promise me that okay? That's all...t-that's all I'm asking from..you." When she finished that sentence, her chess started shiverring from the pain. Her breathing went faster.
"Mom!!!" Willem screamed sticking his arm out to her,
His father turned around and rushed out the door to call the doctors. Willem in his mother's last moment watched in horror as it happened. The father came back in a hurry and rushed to his wife, holding onto her hand. As he realized what happened, Willem and his father observed with pale expressions in their face, as she just laid there motionless with barely any sign of life. Suddenly in this dark and depressing moment, her chest slowly went up, taking a deep breath. They both took a step back and watched her chest then slowly descending as her last breath exited her lungs. The room was in complete silence except for the heart rate monitor that displayed flat. A few seconds later, the door barged open with specialist carrying their sophisticated equipment. There they saw the father embracing his son, trying to comfort him from this traumatic situation. The specialists that stood beside them then all ceased what they were doing and took off their headwear in respect for the desceased.
After this, Willem wasn't the same, happy and charming individual he was before. His whole world came crashing down. His father sometimes found him staring at the treeline as if in a trance.
Slowly, all the friends and bonds Willem had faded away. In this depressing moment the only friend that stayed with him since was Joep.
All these horrible memories, the fact that he already accepted the death of his mother came in conflict with what now sat before his eyes.