Relief by R.M.C. (book recommendations website .TXT) 📖

The day Tom was born was like any other day. It was in mid-October, it was starting to get cold and it was raining outside. Since his mother had left the house unprepared and the rain had came down suddenly, she, Lynette McGregor, had gotten soaked on her way home and didn’t realize that her water had broken and her child was ready to be born. Only when the sharp contractions began did she face the inevitable – she was going to have her child any minute and needed to get to a hospital.

She arrived at the hospital safely and the delivery and post birth all went well. Her son was baptized and given the name Tomas McGregor, who was completely healthy. He weighed around three and a half kilos and had fine black hair like his father. Apparently his eyes were brown but within the first few days of life they turned green like his mother’s.

Contrary to his normal birth, Tom was a highly unconventional boy. Some people said that he had an air of mystery, others called him crazy and others simply thought he was eccentric. The fact is that Tom did have something different and no one would every have imagined what it was.

Since Tom’s birth, he developed a strange ability: he could feel what other people were feeling and this affected him in a number of ways. It took a little time for Tom to realize exactly what was happening to him, sometimes he would begin laughing uncontrollable while other times he was absolutely furious or even began crying at the most unusual times. None of the other children dared go near him and even adults didn’t enjoy his company very much because no one knew what his next reaction would be.

Tom could not understand what his feelings were all about nor could he understand why he had cried at the circus or why he had hit nearly all of his school colleagues. But one thing was certain: he always noticed when someone was lying.

Let me make a few things clearer. Tom could never believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, because he knew when his mother was making up stories for him. Now, imagine how tough his childhood was. His classmates always wanted to play games related to fairy tales and children’s stories and he kept trying to convince them that they didn’t exist. And when some kid got mad at him, he could feel their rage and became aggressive and soon he realized that it would be better for him and other people if he simply stayed away from other people.

As he grew up, he began to understand where all those feelings were coming from and they weren’t his; they came from other people. As the years passed Tom learned to separate his feelings from those that didn’t belong to him, but he never stopped feeling them. For a long time he tried to ignore other people’s feelings, but this was becoming increasingly difficult.

Tom, by the age of 12, had long lost any respect for his parents. Only he knew the capacity of humans to simulate and as much as his parents tried, they were unable to love Tom for the person that he was. It was more than obvious that they were growing more and more disappointed as Tom grew older and also thought he was very strange and were afraid of him.

He never really understood what friendship meant. He had never succeeded in trusting anyone nor did he want to. Because of his special condition, Tom thought he was unique and didn’t need anyone else to fool him.

His luck in love was the same. At the age of 19, Tom began longing for female companionship, but no girl was good enough for him. Sometimes, he realized that a girl liked him more than he liked her, other times he knew that had fallen in love but she hadn’t. But this wasn’t the worst of all; it was knowing exactly when they wanted to hide something away from him.

Throughout his life, Tom tried to find someone who was truly real, but never succeeded in his task. He met a good woman and married her but their marriage didn’t last nor did any of his other romances since that time.

He worked as a detective in the homicide department his entire life, interviewing suspects for the crimes he investigated. Of course he always knew who was innocent or guilty, but many times justice was not carried out for lack of evidence and he often had to take innocent people to prison owed to falsified evidence.

His life was very difficult, much more difficult than the life of any other person in the world. On his 83rd birthday, death came calling and when he saw her he asked, “Why did you take so long?”

She smiled and took him away forever.

Matthew McGregor was the son of his first marriage and also my father. Matthew or Matt, as he was called, made a point of using his abilities for other purposes. Addicted to gambling he used his gift to scam casinos throughout the world and had great fun at parties and an abundance of women. The fact that he never succeeded to love anyone or be loved never bothered him.

I only saw my father once. When I told him I was his son, I immediately realized that he didn’t want to know anything about me, so I never looked him up again. But before parting, he gave me his father’s telephone number, Tom, and told me to find him.

When I met my grandfather I could feel that he was truly glad to know me but I also sensed a deep sadness like I felt. I asked him if one day all this would stop and he told me that I could get used to living like this but that wouldn’t ever stop no matter how much I wanted it ended.

I was angry for years about my situation and tried for a long time to change it somehow. I tried using this “gift” as I carefully referred to this “curse” for the good of people, like my grandfather had done, but there was no way to put an end to my own frustration.

The story I have just told you, was the story of my grandfather Tom, that he told me shortly before he died. Look, my story wasn’t very different from his. This is why I hope that you will all understand my suffering and understand that I can no longer pass this curse on.

I am going to abandon my life because this is not living, but a slow death. This way I will be doing a favor to the child I will never have.

It is with a great sense of relief that I write my last words.

Goodbye.

Publication Date: 01-28-2010

All Rights Reserved