The Worry Of A Mother

10

Mrs Bennett sat staring at her cellphone, her insides feeling like worms. Or last night's dinner not settling well, she didn't even know why she had eaten when her son and daughter were out there with god knows who. She buried her head into her hands as the worst scenarios came to mind, they could have been kidnapped, taken away from their family and friends never to be seen again. They could have gotten lost, which was the only scenario that didn't make her want to cry because it had been two-almost three days since she had last seen her children. All of the days had felt like they had blended into one long hour. She wasn't even sure on how time was passing, how was it passing when you wanted time to stand still? It would have given her more time to think about where her children, where her babies had gone.

She had first woken up with a hole in her chest, knowing that something had wrong. Mrs Bennet had run into her children's rooms to see the bed unmade and the window open. She had ran outside hoping that Jamie had decided to get up early but when there was no sign of him, she had fallen to her knees in the snow. It had felt like a hole had been torn through her chest.

The phone called to the police had been the worst because it confirmed that they were missing. The woman on the other end of the phone had listened, taking notes as she had blubbed down the line. Her neighbours, her friends had come to help ploughing through the snow, looking and searching for signs.

She looked out to the window to see the snow and wondered if it would snow again, she hoped it didn't. She needed to see where their tracks were. She had spent all day at the police station telling them the descriptions, giving witness statements wondering if this was just a horrible dream that she was living through. If the neighbours hadn't been there, comforting her then perhaps she would have so but their presence solidified that this was real and was currently her reality. So here she was sitting by her phone, waiting for any news. She could go out and look again but it was so dark to see and the snow too deep in the woods.

It was strange how just a couple of days she was picking up Jamie and Sophie from school, how he had been talking about Jack Frost. Those days had only been a couple of days ago but she missed them already. She would have never thought that something like this would never happen to her. Her children were always well behaved and listened to her, so the likelihood that they had been kidnapped was very real. Mrs Bennett looked outside again, her eyes drifting to the woods where a strange light was glowing. Wait..a light? Her heart was racing, could it be her children coming back to her?

Without a second thought, she picked herself up from her seat and grabbed her coat off it's rack and slipped boots on before running into the snow. The light was flickering over the trees looking very much like a flashlight, she knew her son was smart so he could have taken a flashlight with him. It was a logical conclusion. As she raced even further into the trees, she saw the source of the light and almost cried. It was a man holding the flashlight through the trees.

"Mrs Bennett!" He said in surprise as he turned around.

Mrs Bennett didn't know the man, so she had no idea how he knew her name. It was too dark to make out what he really looked like, but he had long brown hair that she assumed was tied back. She couldn't make out how old he was but she could see he was wearing a t-shirt and jeans which was much too cold to be wearing out in this weather.

"Who are you?" She asked, not moving any closer to this strange man.

"I was helping out with the search party, it's such a shame what happened to them isn't it?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head. The way he spoke, it put her on edge as if there was humour in my voice.

"Yes, they are my children. I want them home." Mrs Bennett spoke, puffing her chest out. She would not be intimidated by this man.

"Well I must go, it's quite cold. I assume it's quite cold where they are." The man said turning away from her.

The last sentence caught her attention, it was if he knew what had happened to her children. Could she perhaps be looking at their kidnapper?

"Where are my children?" She shouted running towards him, however she was all of a sudden stopped in her tracks. She tried to move her body but she was frozen into place. She looked at the man, her heart beginning to hammer and coming through her chest. What on earth was happening?

"They are safe at the moment, Jack Frost is protecting them. He is a good guardian." The man said and she watched how his body began to fade into the dark.

Okay, it was official. She was going crazy. She was pretty sure it was like he was a shadow and why on earth was he talking about Jamie's imaginary friend?

"I've lost my mind, I've actually lost it!" She said with a laugh, it came out as half laughter, half babbling.

"You haven't. Your mind is probably struggling to see me, I've always had a problem with adults seeing me. I tried to copy someone's form, but you saw right past it. I suppose that is where Jamie gets it from, he is quite famous for saving the guardians." The man said, his voice filled the whole space around them.

Was this man crazy as well? The way she talked about her son as if he knew her personally and the fact that he was famous? Jamie may have won some spelling competitions when he was younger but he wasn't famous. The only logical conclusion that she could come up with now was that she was dreaming. Yes, she must have fallen asleep at the table and was having this strange dream.

"This is a dream. You're not real." Mrs Bennett said with a determination that she hadn't felt since her children had disappeared.

To her surprise, the man laughed and if she was to describe his laughter it was like it was filtering through the whole of the sky and time.

"I forgot how adults try to comprehend magic. They forgot-, they deny and lie. When you were a child, you believed in the Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus didn't you?" The man asked.

"They are stories told by parents to their children, just like I told mine." Mrs Bennett said, although she wasn't sure why she was debating childhood icons with this dream.

"The loop continues, on and on for centuries. They are real, just like you believed long ago," The man said. "In fact you can see part of me, which means you never really lost that childhood belief properly. You only accepted it because everybody else was denying at the time. Your son had to get it from somewhere."

Mrs Bennett thought back to her childhood and when she had turned thirteen. It had been her thirteenth birthday party and a week before that it had been easter. She remembered speaking about the eggs the Easter Bunny had brought and hoped that next year he would hid them even better for a challenge. She would never forget how her best friends had frowned, looking at her like she was insane. It was probably at that moment that she realized that maybe they hadn't been real, but a part of her for years had been so sure that they had. It was nice to think that there was magic in the world. Magic that looked after the children, and gave them hope, ideas for the future and delighted their imagination. Yes it would be nice to think that was real. She really wished this dream wasn't reading her subconscious, but it was her dream.

"Yes I suppose he did, but this is just a dream and you are a figment of my imagination, so please let me wake up." Mrs Bennett tried to move again but she was still rooted to the spot, why couldn't she move?

The man said nothing for a few moments, she expected to hear him breathing but there was nothing accept the wind and her breathing heavily. There was something nagging in the back of her mind that maybe this wasn't a dream, because one she was very cold and two this didn't feel like a dream at all. Dreams for her usually faded and everything felt strange. This did feel strange, but there also seemed to be a realness about it. Could this actually be happening?

"I can feel your belief now, it's becoming stronger. You don't believe in what you're saying at all do you?" The man asked.

Mrs Bennett didn't reply as she was staring at the man's face. She could see him clearer now, he had a long white beard that trailed to the floor and was adorned in a long cloak that belonged to someone from the middle ages. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought he was a historical reenactment actor. She couldn't make out the rest of him because he was still too hazy.

"Keep believing, I know you can see me better. Ruth Bennett everything is real." The man said.

She couldn't recall the last time had someone had called her by her first name. Maybe her husband before he had left her and their two children for another woman and she had lost hope back then, believing the world was rotten and what had she done to deserve something like that. It had been Jamie who had brought her out, and show her the magic of childhood again. He had babbled on endlessly for hours about the Easter Bunny and recently it had been Jack Frost. He had tried to tell her about the battle with the bogeyman. It had been when she had a bottle of wine, and she had put it down to her son's fantasies.

The way he talked about it though, it was like it was real and his imagination was great but he had talked about some things she wasn't even aware that he knew about. The more she thought about, the more it seemed real. Could magic actually be real? The man started to appear more in front of him and she could finally see his face. She couldn't tell if he was young or old, it was like he was an amalgamation of the two. He had wrinkles but his skin was also impossibly young. It was like he wasn't supposed to see.

"You finally believe, Ruth Bennett." The man smiled and waved his hand.

She could move again and she flexed her fingers with happiness.

She couldn't believe it. Magic was real? The child in her was delighted and the adult in her was terrified.

"Who are yo-you?" She stammered.

"My true name has been lost but I do believe human children call me Father Time, I am responsible of all of time."

Deep in her memories, she had heard of Father Time but he had never really been a relevant figure in the myths of childhood except for those that truly researched into him, and children didn't really want to to that.

"What do you want?" She asked looking up at him.

"You're going to go back in time, three hundred years ago. Your son and daughter are there, you shall bring them home. You're the last piece I need to fix the time-line." He said.

"Timeline? What?" She asked, confused.

"No time now, go!" He shouted.

The next thing she knew her world was spinning.