The Most Valuable Thing I Ever Gave Away By D.I. Jolly
“Hello Jeremy”
The soft voice caused the boy to look up sharply. He’d been so lost thinking about nothing, that he might as well have been asleep. But he wouldn’t dare do something like that. A look of surprise gently drifted across his face as he saw the man standing in the doorway.
“Hello, Mr Jones.”
The older man smiled sadly and turned his attention to the woman lying in bed.
“How is she doing?”
“The uummm… doctors say it’ll be any day now, and that they’ve done what they can do to, make her comfortable.”
Mr Jones looked back at the boy, still not daring to enter the room.
“And how are you?”
Jeremy’s voice went flat and it sounded older suddenly.
“I don’t know. Tired, but I can’t sleep. Turns out I hate coffee. But… I think I’ve had 4 cups today.”
He looked back up at the man and in a sudden flash of realisation said.
“Please, come in, sit down.”
Mr Jones did and looked at the boy. Although he’d known him for years and knew that he was the same age as his own son, he battled to see the boy he knew. Instead, he saw someone stuck between too young to be an adult and too experienced to be a child.
“You know, I know how you feel.”
Jeremy let out a snort and in that same too old, and too cynical voice rasped.
“Do you?”
Mr Jones locked eyes with the boy and held his gaze for a few seconds, then his vision grew distant and his voice softer.
“Yes … I do. Only it was a car accident that took my parents, not a disease. I never had to watch them suffer, but it was so sudden, for days I … I couldn’t believe it had really happened.”
“I don’t know which is worse.”
“Neither do I … And on top of it all, there were my little brother and sister to think of, suddenly I was the eldest member of my family and had to take care of them, or thought I did.’
Mr Jones turned his attention back onto the boy.
‘That’s actually why I’m here. I have something for you, but only if you want it.”
Jeremy looked into the eyes of his best friend’s father and for a moment almost broke. This was the first conversation he’d had with anyone who wasn’t hospital staff for what felt like a lifetime and he’d almost forgotten about the world outside.
“O…Okay?”
“When my parents died I had to give up my childhood and become the responsible adult. I was older than you are, but not by much. Now, what you’ve done here over the last month… is incredible. Don’t think I don’t know that. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be, and you’ve weathered it like a champion. It’s aged you, I can see that. But I’d like to give you the opportunity to hold on to a piece of your childhood.”
The words hit with a strange combination of pride and near overwhelming burden washed over him. One giving him strength and the other ripping it away.
“I don’t know that I fully understand.”
“Social serves have been talking to you correct? Explaining your options for what happens after.”
“Yes.”
“I’m here to give you another option. You move into our house. You are one of my son’s closest friends and we’ve known you most of your life. You will get to stay in the same town, the same school and as close to your normal life as is now possible. You won’t have to worry about money, food, a room, there are no conditions. You will simply call me when it’s time to come pick you up, and I will take you home, and it will be your home, for as long as, and whenever you need it to be.”
Jeremy stared at him for a moment, and tears welled up in his eyes for the first time since being told there was nothing more they could do for his mother.
“But…But why?”
“Because hard work should be rewarded, and because you can only be a child once. I gave up my childhood, and although I know you’ll never be the same, perhaps you can maintain some semblance of it.”
Jeremy swallowed away his tears and took a deep calming breath.
“Thank you, Mr Jones, I… I think my mother would have liked that.”
A thin smile slipped across his face and Mr Jones rose.
“Then it’s settled, call me when you need to be picked up and I’ll come get you.”
He half turned towards the door but stopped.
“Oh, my friends just call me Jones.”