The Saint

John Parks

It was beside a hospital bed that she sat holding her father’s hand as his life slowly drifted away from him. He had been suffering from illness for years and his calling was finally taking place. He spoke to her in a soft, loving voice reassuring her that she would see him again along with her mother who had preceded him in death. She began to hold on tighter to his hands that were scarred from years of inventing. Her other four sisters lined the edge of the small hospital room like vultures waiting for him to pass. He began to whisper in her ear simple words, "Emily," he said, "I want you to have all of my inheritance, as little as it is…" Emily was shocked at this, as she sprung back and said that she did not deserve it, that her sisters would be a much more logical choice in which to give his humble fortune to. "But father? My older sisters are better athletes, more intelligent, they hold more beauty than I, and they have more money. Why would you choose me?" He laughed then coughed in pain and pulled her close as to whisper in her ear, "Because my daughter, even though you are my youngest and you may not have as much as they do, you sit here beside me in my darkest dying hour as they stand waiting for my death for my material wealth. You have more heart than they ever will…" As he finished his sentence he slowly passed away and as the last breath left his body Emily laid her head across his chest in tears holding onto his hand while it still held warmth.

Shortly after a funeral came on an autumn’s day, a burial, and it was time to settle her father’s material wealth… Even though Emily was in the will, her father’s estate ended up in the hands of legality and red tape. All of the other sisters squabbled over it as violently as they possibly could--pulling lawyers, government officials, and trials into the "game" that they had made to who got her father’s estate and wealth. Emily became bitter to all of this in which she pulled herself out of the running only holding on to a few small trinkets to remember both her father and her mother by. She could not afford lawyers, or sacrifice the time to fight for something she really didn’t care about anyway. So she went on living her life as best as she could.

It was about a year after her father’s death before things settled down and the money of her father’s had been equally torn between all of her sisters when odd things started happening… Each sister of hers had started to mysteriously disappear without any evidence; Emily, trying as hard as she possibly could to succeed couldn’t understand this and sat hoping that it was not her that was next. After a few months she was the only one that was left and she began to live her life in fear of this mystery that had taken all four of her sisters very tragically.

She was careful about when she was alone, and if she could get someone to walk her to her car, or back to her apartment, or accompany her, she would. But many found it more important to go about their own business than to help a small young girl for even just a moment. It was a cold night in the city after she had gotten off of work at a coffee house and she walked back to her car after all of her co-workers refused to walk it with her. A stranger appeared out of the shadows and frightened her. She backed up against a cold brick wall of an antiqued building as the stranger approached her, she tried to scream but her throat had swelled so that she couldn’t make a sound. The stranger spoke in a calm, gathered voice, "Be not afraid… I am here to help you." It was a humble boy that had looked about her age.

This boy laid his hand on Emily’s shoulder and looked at her in her eyes with sincerity. Emily started to feel more secure in his green eyes and all of a sudden all of the previous fear started to leave her. She looked at him and finally was able to squeak out, "Who… who are you?" They boy smiled and in that same calm voice said, "A friend, a friend of your father’s, I have come to give you something your father wanted you to have." He handed her a small electronic trinket with a small screen on it as well as a slender device that looked to be a pen. Emily was confused as to what these things were and the boy shortly began to explain, "These are your father’s legacy, devices he has developed and created over years; but he never gave them to anyone because society was not ready for them. He gave them to me with specific instructions that if he was to pass to give them to you, knowing of your sister’s greedy nature. The electronic device will make you anything biological of nature, from cellular structures, to medicines, to food; and the pen is able to force anyone into subjection to your will. Use them wisely; your father always wanted these in your hands knowing you were the only one to use them to help others, not yourself." The simple boy then kissed her forehead and disappeared back into the shadows.

She then went back to her car, and drove quickly to her apartment where she began to fidget with these devices in utter fascination. She began to touch and look for buttons on the small gadgets that she had when she figured out that the pen shaped trinket only had to be touched to a subject’s skin in order for them to subject to her will, and the other larger trinket would give her what she wanted by thought alone. She began to think of foods that she had longed for in ages but could not afford, and as they were created right in front of her she realized that this meal was not for her--but for someone less fortunate than she was. She began help people by making them food, and giving those medications that needed them. She kept as secretive as possible because if anyone were to discover her and her seemingly magical devices, they could be taken from her and used for evil purposes. So Emily began to travel, all over the world to places good and evil, and to places rich and poor helping out how ever she could. She would travel to laboratories and anonymously donate containers of stem cells—to poor communities where she made clothing and fabrics for less fortunate children—then to third world countries to provide immunizations, medications, and sustenance. All of this time pledging never to live better than the people she was helping. She became disgusted as to what she saw returning to nations and cities with wealth, with the obesity and materialism while third world children were starving and their most valued possession was that of a shirt on their back. But Emily kept quiet, and kept as anonymous as she possibly could, slipping in and out of shadows just as the lad who had given her these gifts…

She had particularly been disgusted in the American government’s actions in the middle-east when she was discovered. She would go around and help the innocent children, women and men of the Muslim faith as much as she could; providing bandages, medications, and sustenance for the wounds and physical burdens they carried from merciless bombings. She learned as much as she could from them and gave them her ears and heart as she apologized for what her people had done to them. Helping them out as much as she could she was still helpless to stop the bleeding of these people’s hearts… for they had been caught between a militant faith and a government who’s economy was being fueled by dispute and warfare in the name of "democracy," and "freedom." She hid her tears until night, where all she could do was cry in these horrible living conditions.

One fateful day she was caught in the act of giving and everyone all around her spread the name of the kind hearted Emily that gave of her self. People praised Emily as no one had seen someone who gave so much of themselves. Press and media followed her as much as they could and made stories up to either glorify her name or bring it down, what ever suited what the peoples of this world wanted to hear. Emily was forced into hiding, and her good deeds could not continue because she was constantly followed and called such things as "a Saint." One afternoon as she was hiding with a family she had helped earlier on in a far corner of this Earth, she was approached by a man in a suit--which was quite out of place considering the environment she was in. This man offered her a visit with the "most important man in the world," which happened to be the president of the United States of America. She at first declined well knowing it was just a publicity and popularity stunt to shake a hand of a "hero" and then remembered a small pen shaped object that had been in her pocket for ages. She put on the best face of "excitement" as she could and agreed to go with the man back to the nation she anxiously left.

She took the trip sick of the things she was seeing and hearing from these men in suits and camouflage. As she got off of the helicopter near what appeared to be the nation’s capitol she saw the president… a fake man, an empty man that had hundreds of suits behind him pulling his strings like a limp puppet. She walked up to him and in the lightning of camera flashes she shook his hand and touched this pen to his skin saying "meet me…in absolute privacy." They both smiled as the cameras flashed an then came an empty interview for the press and she was put in some ritzy hotel with all of her "needs" catered to.

As she slept on the floor, because the comfort of the bed only made her sick to her stomach there was a small rapping on the door. She stood up and let the stranger in who happened to be that same empty man, but this time, without the strings pulling him in each direction. He was confused as to why he had agreed to come in absolute privacy and secrecy and upon entering almost left until Emily touched the same pen to his skin and made him speak as to what was really going on. He talked for hours about things that were being held secret from the millions of "free" people of the United States and finally she started to influence him. Influencing him to pay more attention and that he had to use this pen shaped object to make everyone in his cabinet, and those in power to start withdrawing innocent soldiers from a land that does not need any more war; with scared people that had lived a lifetime in fear… but to continue to support them in the ways that best fit their needs and security, rather than support troops in the best way to give more wealth. All of a sudden this man--and only a man--agreed to her terms and left the room with that object from her father. She couldn’t sleep that night, or the many nights afterwards wondering what was going to happen; she knew very well she had to leave it up to him and the other members of the government to change things, not her. Then day by day stories of confusion began to appear on the news, and in the papers… news of withdrawing troops, and corporate leaders being prosecuted for evil things that they had been doing to these innocent people, and how America was bleeding peoples of different lands for economic gain…

Years had passed, and the lands she once visited that were poor had adequate education, housing, food, and living conditions; and the lands she had visited bloated with greed and money had become humble in helping their fellow man. She began to travel again, thinking about how she wanted to proceed, and she met a man in which she had helped ages ago and fell in love. They had five daughters, all beautiful in their own unique ways and all brought up with love and heart. She hadn’t seen the pen shaped object until years later when it showed up at her feet randomly one day while still helping those that were suffering… and she picked it up and started looking around in confusion as to where it had come from, and all of a sudden she saw that very boy, not aged a day leaning against a primitive wall of a primitive house smiling at her. She yelled out at him and began to chase after him and he simply turned around and walked into a shadow disappearing… Somehow she knew she that her days were growing closer and closer to an end, and that her children were going to have to take up what she had started. So she found a child, who had needs in which she could fulfill and she helped him, touching his skin to the pen shaped object and told him, "My days are growing to an end… When I pass away, give these things to my youngest daughter, but tell her that she is to share them with all of her sisters in love for uses of good, not evil." After a few short words as to what to tell the daughters she slipped off into a home with her husband at the far corner of the Earth only to pass away months later, as all of her daughters surrounded her bed in the love in which their mother had taught them.