The nurse walked out of the room. The expression on her face was solemn. Patrick’s death was imminent. It had been for quite a while. Every time the nurse or doctor had walked out it was to deliver more bad news. The night before, Patrick’s family had received a call,

“Hello, this is Greenwood hospital calling about Patrick Slate. This was the number written down in case of emergency. Do I have the right number?”

“Yes” replied Mary very somberly. “Patrick is my husband.”

“Well then Mrs. Slate, I regret to inform you that the doctors do not think your husband will last through the day. Goodbye and have a nice day.” the caller abruptly said. She didn’t care if someone was dying. Her job was to inform the patient’s relatives. There was no emotional connection whatsoever.

This time when the nurse walked out of the room, Mary felt different. By the expression on the nurse’s face, she knew that this was the end. She looked over at her two boys, Winnie who was six and Fred, who was eight. They knew that their father was dying but they didn’t understand.

“ It’s time to say your goodbyes,” said the nurse.

With a feeling of despair, Mary motioned for her two boys to follow. When they got to the room, she told them to wait outside. She wanted a moment alone with her husband. When she had gone inside, Winnie started asking Fred questions.

“Freddy, what’s wrong with daddy?”

“He’s dying”

“What does ‘dying’ mean?”

“It’s like going to sleep for a really long time.”

“If he’s just going to sleep, why are you crying Freddy?”

“I’m crying because I’m going to miss him.”

When their mother came back out, she could barely stand. She looked like a raccoon. All around her eyes was mascara that had run down. She couldn’t talk, all she could do was wave her sons into the room.

Winnie and Fred walked into their father’s room together. It smelled like cleaning products and cough medicine. They saw their dad lying on the bed. He looked like a skeleton. It was as if he were already dead.

Winnie and Fred slowly approached the bed. They were afraid. They were afraid because they couldn’t understand what was happening. Just last month their father was playing football with them, now, he could barely lift a finger. They were scared that this was going to happen to them.

“Winn....freddy...is that you...?” their father said. His voice was like a whisper. It sounded like the breeze in the fall. If you listened you could hear it but if you didn’t, you’d miss it entirely.

“Yes,” said Fred. His voice came out like a squeak.

“Come....here....”

They walked around his bed so that they were facing him. His eyes were open but just barely.

Fred couldn’t take it. He broke down.

“Freddy, why are you crying?” asked Winnie.

Fred couldn’t speak. His eyes were full of tears.

“Son, don’t be sad. I’ll always be with you,” their father said. He sounded stronger as though what he had to say next was very important.

“Under my pillow” he said.

Winnie understood. He slowly picked his father’s head up and searched under the pillow. His hand hit something hard. It was a box. A very small box. It looked like it had been left out in the rain. It was a very plain, black box with no inscriptions or symbols. If someone saw it sitting in the middle of the street, they wouldn’t look twice.

Patrick Slate looked at his two sons. It was the first time through this whole ordeal that he was sad. He wasn’t sad for himself. He was sad for the people he was about to leave. His sons would have no father to grow up with. With sadness in his heart he said,

“Don’t worry, you have to be strong for your mother.” He then pointed at the box. “That is for the both of you. It is a very special box. When you’re sad, look at it. It will remind you of me. I love you.” With that, his eyes shut and his body relaxed. You would have thought he had just fallen asleep.

“Daddy?” asked Winnie. “Daddy?!”

Winnie was waiting for his father to pop up and yell “April Fools!,” but he never did. His brother was crying harder than ever now. Winnie finally understood. His dad was gone. He was never coming back. Winnie felt his whole body go numb. He couldn’t hear anything that was going on. He couldn’t understand anything the nurses, that were now running around, were saying.

“Is this yours?” asked one of the nurses.

Winnie just kept staring.

“Excuse me, is this yours?” she asked again.

“Wha-?” Winnie started to ask. He looked down and saw that she was holding the box. He took it out of her hands without saying anything. He must have dropped it in his shock. It was all he had left of his father. He was mad at the nurse for touching it. It was if she were trying to steal his father away from him.

Winnie looked around and saw his mom and brother. His mom was holding his brother’s hand. She walked over and picked Winnie up. The three of them left, not saying anything. They didn’t need to.

In the car on the way home, Fred looked down at the box in Winnie’s hand.

“Open it.”

Winnie tried but it was stuck.

“I can’t.”

“Give it to me.”

Fred tried and couldn’t open it either. He examined the box and found a keyhole. His heart sunk. They had no idea where the key was. Their father hadn’t told them. He didn’t think he should ask his mom. She didn’t want to talk about their father. Fred put the box in the seat between him and his brother. He put the seat belt over it. He treated the box as though it were his father.

Over the years, the sadness of their father’s death lessened. Sometimes Fred and Winnie would wake up in the middle of the night crying. Every year on their father’s birthday, they would go to the cemetery and leave a cake at his grave.

Fred hid the box in his closet. For a while, all that Fred and Winnie could think about was the missing key. They would come home from school and spend their nights searching. After they had searched the house top-to-bottom about ten times, they gave up hope.

They grew up, got married, had kids of their own. The brothers grew apart.

One day, exactly fifty years after their father’s death, they both received the same call.

“Hello this is Greenwood Hospital. We regret to inform you that your mother has passed away from a heart attack. Goodbye and have a nice day.”

Their mother’s death was different than their father’s. They were angry. Angry that they didn’t get to see her. Angry that they didn’t remember their last words to her.

They both went to the funeral with their respective families. Winnie and Fred hadn’t seen each other in years so they caught up on life. Winnie had become a dentist and Fred, a lawyer.

The matter of the Will came up. Their mother had left them her estate and her possessions along with their father’s. They agreed upon a date that they could both go to the house and sort through everything.

Neither of them had been to their childhood home in many years. Walking through the halls brought back memories of playing hide-and-go seek, wrestling, and sneaking down to the kitchen late at night for snacks.


They were starting to get bored searching through their mother’s stamp collection when Winnie found something,

“Hey Freddy, look what I found.”

Fred looked over and saw that there was a single key in his brother’s hand. Somehow he recognized the shape of the key but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Hmmm, that’s interesting. Where did you find that Winn?”

“I was looking through dad’s old suits and found it in a pocket.”

Then it hit him. Fred’s heart leapt. He ran into his old bedroom and frantically searched the closet.
There it was, the box. It was still there after all those years. It looked the same as it had when he had last laid his eyes upon it. How could he have forgotten about it?

“What is it Freddy?” asked Winnie. He had followed Fred into the room. Fred turned around with the box in his hand. He didn’t have to say anything. Winnie knew what it was. He started crying. It brought back a flood of memories. He handed Fred the key.

“You should open it Freddy. You remember dad better than I do.”

“What? No! I can’t do that. Let’s open it together.”

After all those years of not knowing where the key was they had finally found it. Together they put the key in the keyhole and turned it. They heard a clink as the box opened. They lifted the lid and looked inside.

It was empty.

Fred started laughing.

“Why are you laughing Freddy?” asked Winnie.

“It’s just funny” replied Fred.

“What’s funny?”

“Winn, the box is empty.”

“I know that.”

“You don’t get it do you? We spent our entire childhood looking for the key and the box was empty the entire time.”

“Are you saying you regret it?”

“No, I’m saying that chapter in our life is over. It’s hard to explain but I’m not mad or sad about this. I’m fine. I’m actually better than I’ve been since the day dad died.”

“Crazy as it sounds, I feel the same way. It’s almost like we can finally get over dad’s passing.”

The two brothers decided to bring the box to the cemetery where their mother and father were buried.

They both left their respective families at home. It was just the two brothers. It was like old times. Fred carried the box and Winnie carried the key. They took a stroll through the cemetery before reaching their parents’ graves. Along the way they talked about all the memories they had growing up.

At last they reached their parents’ graves. Their family had bought a plot so when one of the brothers died, they would be buried right next to their parents. It was quite beautiful. There were fresh roses on the tombstone from their mom’s recent funeral. Everything was peaceful. The birds were chirping, the breeze was rustling through the grass and trees.

“You know it’s times like these where I really feel like there is something greater out there,” said Fred, in awe.

“Yeah except mom would’ve liked it more if it was raining,” chuckled Winnie.

They both laughed.

Fred looked at Winnie.

“Are you sure you want to do this Winn?”

“I’m sure.”

Fred looked around. They were the only ones in the graveyard. He looked back at the bo1x.


Together they set the box gently down on their parents’ tombstone. They stood in silence, saying their last goodbyes. A huge weight had been lifted off their chest.

“Winn...Freddy...”

Fred heard it. Winnie heard it. It was their father. They both whirled around. There was no one there. They looked back at the tombstone.

The box was gone.