The light inside the darkness

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It was raining when he got home, that Saturday night. His mother was waiting for him at the table in Lavender's drawing-room. Nobody else was around, a sign his mother wanted to talk to him. Ferry knew all too well what she wanted to talk about.


He took off his wet coat and put it to dry on a chair in front of the fire dancing in the fireplace with smaller or larger flames, animated by the wind coming down the chimney. He hated to see his mother sad, but above all, he hated to know she was sad because of him. He sat down at the table next to her and took her hand into his.


"I'm sorry, Mum," he softly said.


"Ferry, what were you thinking? You know you're not allowed there."


"I know," he said, looking away. "I just wanted to—"


"Your curiosity could make us both without jobs. And we can't afford that. We need to have enough money for when ..."


And his mother got up from the chair and headed for the fireplace. From her voice, Ferry could tell she was crying. He went to her and looked into her eyes.


"What's wrong, Mum?"


"They want to take you away from me ..." she softly said.


"Who?"


"A gentleman from Social Welfare came the other day. He wanted to see what conditions you live in, and if you are well taken care of, if I allow you to grow up in decent conditions ... And—I want to adopt you, Ferry, to be my child properly, even though I knew you were my child the moment I laid my eyes on you. But I'm a single parent now, that I've separated from your father. That's why I can't divorce him. If I don't meet all the conditions, they'll take away from me, " she said and burst into tears.


Ferry felt his heart broke. He held his mother in his arms just as she did when he was younger and scared, or sad.


"Nobody and nothing will take me away from you, Mum," he said. "I promise."


Her mother wiped away her tears and smiled, "You're a good boy, Ferry. Try not to get in trouble. That house ... it's giving me the chills. Those people ... are not like us."


"What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly intrigued.


"Money and power can destroy one's soul. That's why I never wanted it. It may seem like they have everything, but they're empty inside. I am sorry that, running after greatness, they destroy the innocent souls that meet on their way. Billy ... he's not a bad boy. His mother, the other Mrs. Pride, lived too little to be able to care for him properly. And the current Mrs. Pride is too lost into her world to see how much her son needs her. And his father is always gone ..."


"What about his grandparents?" asked Ferry.


"Well, his grandmother, Mr. Pride's mother, died in a misfortunate accident before he was born. After that, his grandfather, Mr. Albert Pride Sr., retired to a private island, away from here. No one has seen him since."

The Lost Son | Ferry's Tale # 2Where stories live. Discover now