MY SON WENT MISSING TEN YEARS AGO.
I remember the morning we lost him like it was yesterday. I woke up before my wife did, only to find the front door open. Panic ran up through my veins as I went to check my son's bedroom, but Eric was gone. He was only five-years-old.
The police searched for months on end to no avail. We put out hundreds of missing persons posters. A picture of Eric on his 5th birthday, wearing a blue and white checkered shirt, a necklace around his neck and a silver pendent with the letter 'E' engraved on it. There were numerous tips called in from different people, but none of them yielded any useful information to help us find him. I just couldn’t believe what was happening to us. How could the world be so beautiful yet so cruel?
My wife Chimweka, of course, was beyond devastated. She couldn’t sleep, and she barely ate. It got to a point where she was hardly functioning as a human being. If it wasn’t for me, I don’t think she would have survived the grief. I was her rock when our world was falling apart, and while she knew on the inside I was grieving over our son's loss, I stayed strong for her. We couldn’t both break down, right? And thankfully I never lost it like she did. Not in front of her, at least. Losing a child like the way we lost our son is hard, especially for a mother. We never got over our son's loss, we just learned how to live with it.
“We'll get through this,” I would say. "Do you think he's still out there?”
Chimweka paused before she answered, “I’m not really sure anymore.”
I don’t know what hurt worse, the possibility that Eric was alive but forced to endure some unbearably awful situation, or the possibility that he was gone completely, snatched away from us just like that. I didn’t like to talk about it, I shut my wife down every time she brought it up. We all grieved in our own way, I suppose.
Somehow, the hardship brought us even more closer. While this kind of loss would tear most couples apart, it only made us stronger. It was the way she was there for me, the way she picked me up when I was down. I made the right choice in a partner, she fought through it all.
A few years later Chimweka found out she was pregnant again. She was nervous while telling me, feeling as though she had failed once before. I reassured her that things would be alright this time around. I couldn't afford her having parenting insecurities.
“This time things will be different,” I stated as though it was a fact.
She gave birth to another son. We named him Ericsson, after his brother. As our son grew up, I noticed there were strange similarities between the two. They looked so much alike, that they even had the same birthmarks on their cheeks. When I had pulled out a few of Eric's old toys, it was like Ericsson recognized them. He even gave his brown teddy bear the same names that his elder brother had. They also liked the same foods, loved the same cartoons, and would even want us to read the same bedtime story. We felt like we were blessed with a second chance.
Ericsson was closer to my wife than he was with me. I didn’t mind of course, it gave me more time to focus on my work to provide for them. I was present as a father, but I wasn’t really fond of ‘babysitting’ as I would call it. To be honest, I think the similarities were too much for me. Maybe it was just too painful. I didn’t mind it though. I know it’s very selfish of me, but I liked the fact that our second son preferred to spend all of his time with my wife. I had even offered to take him to the play park one time, but he refused. He wanted my wife to go instead.
Yesterday something very alarming happened. I took Ericsson to the play park. It had a large play structure which he enjoyed, and was surrounded by peaceful bushes, which I enjoyed. I watched as he played the same way Eric did when I used to take him there.
He was headed down the slide when a buzz on my mobile phone distracted me. I pulled it out and saw it was a text from my wife. She was wondering what we were going to eat for supper. I replied her quickly, then returned my gaze to the play structure. To my horror, Ericsson was nowhere to be seen. I swear I had only taken my eyes off of him for a few seconds. But he was gone, just like that!
“Oh God no! Not again,” I whispered as I frantically began to search for him.
After running aimlessly through the bushes while calling his name, I finally found Ericsson. He was underneath a tree, and he was digging up something.
“Ericsson!” I shouted while rushing to him.
“Daddy?” He said when he turned to look at me.
His hands were covered in dirt, and he looked worried.
“What were you thinking coming out here?” I asked and I grabbed him by the shoulders, “Do you know how much you scared me, huh? You could have gotten yourself hurt, do you understand that?! Never run off like that ever again!”
“I-I’m sorry, daddy,” He frowned.
I hugged him and sighed in relief.
“What are you doing out here anyway?” I questioned while looking him over to make sure he was really alright..
He pointed his little dirty index finger to the hole he had started to dig. I raised my eyebrows with interest, and walked over to the shallow pit in front of me.
“Don’t play in the dirt, Ericsson,” I said.
“But daddy, I have to keep digging!” He exclaimed, “I have to show you something.”
“Show me what?”
“Daddy, just keep digging, you have to see for yourself. It’s a deep hole.”
I don’t know why, but I felt compelled, like I was under some obligation to listen to him. We stopped by the house since it wasn't that far, and grabbed my shovel.
“Do you want to stay here with mommy?” I began, “I’ll be right back okay?”
“No daddy, please don’t leave me here. I have to be there too,” he pleaded.
“Okay, okay, fine, but you need to stay right next to me,” I relented, “No running off this time, you really scared me.”
“I know daddy. I’ll stay close to you this time, promise.”
The two of us headed back to the play park. We walked through the bushes and found the shallow hole Ericsson had begun digging. I began to dig right away. I don’t know how long it took me before I hit something, maybe it was a couple of hours. Ericsson did as he was told. He stayed nearby, eating the snacks I had bought for him on our way back.
I dusted off the hard surface I had struck moments ago, only to find something that looked like a worn out blue and white checkered cloth. I dusted away the dirt, until I could make out what I was looking at. There— in front of me was a child-sized skull. Beside it, I saw something shining in the light. I picked it up to reveal it was a silver pendant with the letter 'E' engraved on it, one from a set I had bought Eric on his 5th birthday.
“Wh— what Hell is this?” I stammered, feeling my heart sinking in the pit of my stomach. I forgot how to breath as I held my breath. Feeling a ball of dread tightening around my chest. The sweat crawling down my back felt like the cold fingers of death. "What the Hell is this?!”
“It’s me daddy,” Ericsson started to say with a mouth full of snacks, “That’s where mommy left me after she put me to sleep.
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