Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho
Jack and Cate lived in a pleasant apartment building. Jack and Cate were high school sweethearts. They married young and neither had a job nor family to support them. Jack's father died last month while his mother developed Alzheimer's. Cate's parents were close to having a divorce. The last thing Cate wanted to do was trouble them about any money she needed from them. Jack and Cate were just two poor but happy couples. Even through all the trouble they faced they were still happy because they had love for another. True love that only appeared in the movies and the fairy tale books.
Jack and Cate had one neighbor. She was an old wrinkly woman. She moved in much longer than Jack and Cate. All the kids believed she was a witch. Her face was hideous. Every morning she would go outside with a bowl of cereal and milk. She poured the cereal into the bowl and the milk, so she can then burn the bowl with a light-and eat the warm cereal. Her room was pristine at first glance, except for the jars of leaves from every country she kept in her pantry and the pile of black books in her bathroom. Jack had a friend who worked on her broken sink. His friend told him everything about the woman. How from noon to 2 o'clock she would be melancholy. The woman wanted a child of her own. No man would go near her wizen, hideous body and terrible personality.
After three years of being faithfully married, Cate was pregnant with a child-a baby boy. But alas, she was very sick. The doctors couldn't describe what was happening to her. She had a kind of sickness, her face turned green like goblin skin, a small trickle of blood dropped from her eyes, and she was always tired. With no money or insurance Jack couldn't afford any medicine for his wife. Then one morning when the woman left to have her cereal, Jack snuck out of his apartment and attempted to steal medical lettuce from different countries. Jack pulled the jars from the cupboard and snuck back into his apartment. Jack made a plate of lettuce for his sick wife Cate.
" Jack, where were you?" Cate said.
" I was...looking for a job," Jack lied.
" Okay." Somehow Cate knew Jack was lying. But she was so sick she didn't want Jack to have anything else to worry about on her conscious. Cate ate every piece of lettuce. Not a single piece was uneaten. When Jack turned around to put the plate in the dishwasher, Cate said, " Aren't you going to have any, darling?"
" I-I am not hungry."
The next day Jack took Cate to the doctor's to have her examined. The doctors were amazed. Cate's fever was down and she looked healthier than before. It almost looked like she was glowing. Hope was no longer a pinnacle of nothingness for Jack. Every day he would sneak into the witches apartment when she walked out for her cereal and take more jars of lettuce. He bought ordinary lettuce and replaced it with the medical lettuce making his wife better. Three months later her fever was nearly gone. He just needed one more jar and she would be healed. Jack walked through the door prepared to take lettuce from the jars-he felt the bony hands of a skeleton and a hideous women looming.
" Thief!" she snarled. The witch was suspicious since the first day. She didn't know how her first jar of lettuce could disappear. Everyday the remaining lettuce felt like soot in her mouth. And everyday she was getting weaker. It didn't take a scientist to know it wasn't the same lettuce she was eating. How someone was stealing from her was hard...until now. " I will call the police about this!" She yelled. " You're going to jail!"
" Please don't call the police!" Jack begged. " I was just trying to help my wife. She's very sick. Your lettuce is the only reason she's still alive. She's having a baby."
" What type of baby?" She asked, the magical lettuce no longer seemed important.
" A baby boy," he wept.
" I won't tell the police about you, thief. Take all you want. Every lettuce and flower is yours. But when that child is born...he will be mine."
Jack didn't think about the witches' deal and nodded his head. He was just happy he wasn't going to jail. Jack took every jar the witch had and walked back to his house. In a strange way Jack was giddy. The time came when his wife gave birth to their son. Just like the witch said, she appeared the day after the boy was born. Jack and Cate never saw their child again, but they had two more children-one boy and one girl. They told their kids about their older brother, but they said he died from a miscarriage. Their son was raised by the witch and in time he grew up to be a great fighter.
To Be Continued...