Summary: Ethan runs into the same man again and again throughout the years of his life, always noticing something new and different. It isn’t until he has all the pieces that the puzzle finally comes together.
Inspiration: Written for a college writing competition. [Won 1st Place]
Date: 12/22/17
Word Count: 1,983
The first time Ethan ever saw him was when he was eight-years-old and his feisty and headstrong mutt of a dog had just knocked him out of the way of a semi-truck that was meant for him and the rubber ball he had been chasing into the street. He remembered feeling the pain of scraped skin and the jolt of his head hitting the ground at a rough angle. He remembered getting ready to bawl his eyes out before there were warm hands gently lifting him up and setting him on his feet.
“Hush now, little one, you are alright.” It was hard to tell, but Ethan was pretty sure it had been a man to help him up. He could only hear the voice and as hard as he looked he couldn’t tell what the man looked like. He just knew he was wearing black. “Did you get hit?”
“Yeah! Snuffles ran into me!” Ethan had felt betrayed. How could his dog do something like that to him? Snuffles was usually such a good dog!
“He was saving you.” The man had turned Ethan towards the truck that had now stopped in the middle of the road, Snuffles lying on the ground and not moving. “You would have been hit if he hadn’t pushed you out of the way.”
“Oh, that explains it.” Snuffles was just being a good dog, then. “Hey, why is he sleeping? We have more playing to do!”
“He’s very tired.” Oh, that made sense, too. “Would you like to say goodbye to him? After saving you, he needs to rest. It will be a very long time before you see him again.”
“I’ll… I’ll see him again though, won’t I?” Ethan had to see Snuffles again! “Snuffles is my best friend ever, after all!”
“It will take time, but I promise that one day you’ll meet him again.”
“Okay.” The man had been so nice. He had gently held Ethan’s hand as he walked him over to Snuffles, letting Ethan bend down to pet him and coo over him before walking him back over to the sidewalk. He even handed Ethan his ball back to him!
“Try not to play in the street anymore, little one.” It wasn’t until that warm hand ruffled his hair that Ethan realized just how cold it had been.
“I won’t. Thank you, mister. Make sure Snuffles rests good, okay? Oh, I’m Ethan! My name is on his necklace there, but it’d help if you know it too, right?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Ethan.”
“You too! What’s your name, then, mister?”
The long pause hadn’t felt awkward when he had been that young, but it had taken minutes – hours? – for the man to finally respond. “You may call me Athan.”
“Hey, that sounds like my name! I’ll remember it, don’t worry!” In that moment, even though he couldn’t see a face or tell what he was wearing, Ethan knew that Athan was smiling at him.
The next time he saw him he was fourteen and in the nicest hospital they had been able to afford. He wouldn’t realize until much later why it made so much sense to see him there, but he realized the moment he saw him that Athan had blue eyes that reminded him of pictures of the really clear oceans on the other side of the world.
“Hi, you’re- Is your name Athan?” The other was surprised, but Ethan knew the recognition wasn’t something he had imagined. “Um, you probably don’t remember me, but we met a few years ago? Jeez, it was back when I was eight or something? You comforted me when my dog died.”
“I remember you, Ethan.” It was really surprising to hear that Athan had remembered his name – then again, Ethan had remembered his. “It’s hard to forget a name so similar to my own.”
“Oh, hah. You remember that too, huh? Sorry, I was kind of embarrassing as a kid.” The smile was familiar and well-known and it felt like something he had seen every day of his life instead of just that one time. “Are you here visiting someone, too?”
“I am, yes.” He wasn’t sure how, but Ethan remembered he had taken a seat next to Athan and had started talking about his mom’s cancer. He had gone on and on and on and said things he was pretty sure he had never even admitted to himself.
It felt like he had talked for hours before he finished, chest heaving and the tears he had been choking down for weeks finally coming up. “Oh, man, I’m so sorry. The last thing you probably wanted to deal with was a moody teenager, right?”
“While perhaps unexpected, it is not unwelcome.” The hand on his shoulder was warm and fought off the cold that had been weighing down on him for weeks. “Everyone needs to talk about these problems eventually. Yes, I am a stranger to you, but I hope you don’t find it strange when I say I’m honored that you chose to confide in me.”
“Oh, trust me, it’s definitely strange.” That smile was back with a warm, deep laugh to accompany it, Ethan managing a smile of his own. “Thanks for listening to a dumb kid.”
“I see nothing more or less than a growing young man who cares for others more than most. It is an admirable trait.” At the time, Ethan had wondered if Athan was foreign. There was definitely something to his accent that wasn’t American. It hadn’t been until later that Ethan realized he had even heard an accent. “You should go spend time with your mother. No doubt she misses you already.”
“Yeah- Yes, thank you. Um, I hope we can meet again, I guess. Maybe have a conversation that doesn’t deal with something so depressing.” Ethan had given a bright smile in response to the one given to him, running off to check on his mother.
She had died later that night.
He was nineteen and scared and panicking the next time he came across Athan – or, more accurately, Athan came across him. Ethan wasn’t sure what had happened besides the fact he was in pain, and everything hurt, and he was having trouble breathing right and it was cold. Then warm hands touched his skin. “Ethan? Can you hear me?”
“I- I don’t- What happened? Where am I?” His words had been interrupted and wracked by coughing, a sharp jerk of him falling making him scream as things moved in ways they weren’t supposed to.
By the time the pain dulled to something he could manage, he could taste bile at the back of his throat and feel cool ground underneath him. The warm hands hadn’t left. Shaking and looking back as best he could, Ethan saw that it had been Athan. The man was looking worried with those bright blue eyes shining in concern and a sheen of sweat on the dark skin that was hidden behind swatches of smoke. Smoke. That meant fire. “A- Athan?”
“I was worried.” Athan’s smile had been soft and full of concern for him. “Don’t move, Ethan, you’re badly injured. Aide will arrive soon. Can you tell me what you last remember?”
“I- I was driving Samantha home?” It had come out as a question, Ethan struggling to recall even that much. “We had just finished watching a movie we wanted to see. I think I remember headlights.”
“You were in a car crash.” Oh. That- Sammy! “Hush, little one. Samantha will be well, but you must rest if you are to recover. You sustained quite the amount of injuries.”
“Are you sure? I was trying to be careful, but- This is my fault.” He had been the one driving, after all, and he was almost certain Samantha had kept telling him to slow down.
“This was an unforeseen accident you could have done nothing about. It could have been worse, Ethan.” Athan had soothed him down so easily, Ethan just barely realizing that the man looked the same as when he had last seen him. He also looked the same as when he had first seen him. “Rest, young one.”
“Will- Will you stay with me?” Because he had been scared. There had been fire and smoke filling the air and Ethan had barely been able to breathe, and no matter what he couldn’t help but feel as if he had lost something. “Just until the ambulance gets here?”
“It would be my pleasure.” That was the last thing Ethan had truly remembered until he woke up hours later and learned Samantha had died on impact. They said there had been no one with Ethan when they found him on the side of the road.
He was twenty-two when he had seen him outside his grandmother’s house on their Christmas visit. They talked about their favorite colors and animals. He had noticed that Athan wore half-suits that he didn’t seem to put much care into. His grandmother died two days later.
He was twenty-four when he saw him at his co-worker’s funeral on a rainy spring day. Athan had shared his umbrella and Ethan had noticed that the man’s nails were clipped short and almost seemed as if they were sometimes chewed.
He was twenty-seven when he fell into a river on a shortcut through the woods in the dead of winter and saw Athan after dragging himself out of the river with everything in him. He had almost been swept away by the rushing water before Athan pulled him the rest of the way out and sat with him, holding him close until a hiker found him and rushed for help. Ethan had noticed that Athan had freckles on his skin that reminded him of star constellations. The hiker hadn’t seen Athan.
He was thirty-two when he realized who Athan was.
“I died, didn’t I?” The two were leaning against a building on a busy street, tucked out of the way of people rushing about. He distantly heard screaming, but Ethan instead focused on the man next to him that he could see clear as day. “You’re Death.”
“In a way.” Athan’s smile was as warm as it had always been. “Everyone sees Death differently and it was long ago decided that just one person couldn’t do the job.”
“So you’re my Death.” Ethan probably shouldn’t have blushed at that, but Athan’s smirk could be completely blamed. “You know, that makes a lot of sense.” A quiet whuff of a bark at his side had him reaching a hand down to run it through Snuffles’ fur, the motion the most natural thing in the world. Ah… Athan had been right about that, too. He had almost forgotten about Snuffles.
“I am here to escort you to the other side.” Athan spoke softly, gently taking Ethan’s hand and pulling him down the street. The hand was warm and grounding, Snuffles’ fur thick and real against the fingers of his other hand. “Just as they all see Death differently, they all see where they go differently.”
“I don’t know where I’m going- I don’t even think I know what I believe in.” He had never given much thought to the after of his life.
“That’s alright. You have plenty of time to decide what Death means to you, after all.” Huh. He did, didn’t he?
“Right. Right, okay.” Ethan grinned, finally laughing. “So, um, if there’s a place we can get a coffee I know this pretty nice spot just outside of town. We can sit and talk and you can tell me what kind of Death you believe in.”
The silence between them was warm and comfortable this time, Ethan smiling wider as he felt the hand around his tighten. “That sounds wonderful, Ethan.”