Reflections:

They were young, rich and very bored of life and the Ivy League school that mom and dad had paid for. They had money to spend and time on their hands. One summer weekend Jim and Paul talked their girlfriends in accompanying them on a ride through the old and secretive Vermont countryside. They said it would be fun, laughing the whole time, to see how the ‘Other Half Lived.’

The girls seeing only dollar signs readily agreed, after all Jim and Paul came from old money and even though secretly they really didn’t in their hearts like them all that well. Paul had a mean streak and Jim being the more submissive one, tagged along. Paul had called that Friday night and told Sam, (short for Samantha) to be sure that she and Tiffany would be ready to leave by 9am the next Saturday morning and not to worry about a thing. In fact he had hired a stretch limo and driver for their weekend excursion. Sam thought to herself Paul just had to show off his perceived eminence.

Exactly at 9am the next morning a huge stretch limo pulled up in front of ‘Carson Hall.’ Both Sam and Tiffany stared momentarily at the extravagance before their eyes. As their gaze was lifted to the elderly looking gent, he exited the driver’s side to open the door for the young ladies. Paul becoming impatient of the old man’s slow gait shouted out, “hurry up you old fart.” Sam blushed and shot the old man an awkward smile as she and Tiffany climbed into the back seat. With the closing of the door they were soon on their way into what Paul loved to call Hicksville.

Three hours out of the city Paul already high on scotch buzzed the intercom and screamed at the driver, “stop here you old bastard, you hear me, I said stop.” Sam shuddered inwardly at Paul’s rudeness. The old driver being ever diligent slowed to a stop. “Back up,’ screamed Paul, ‘back up.” Never missing a cue the driver did as commanded until he was told to stop once more. Sam looked out the side window of the limo and saw what appeared to be a well. Attached to the top of the well was a crudely painted sign that read, “Wishing Well, Wife suffering from terminal cancer, please make a wish as all donations will be used for final expenses.”

Paul then jumped out of the limo calling everyone out to the well. ‘Look and behold’ he cried aloud while raising his arms towards the heavens.

Sarcastically said “We must give our due.”

Sam pondered this strange change of heart. That was until Paul reached into his pocket and tossed a small bag of cocaine into the well. “Shit’ cried Paul. ‘That was supposed to be a dollar bill. Now I got to go get it.”

“Don’t do it” piped the old driver.

“Shut up old man, just shut up.”

Reaching for the rope that hung from the cross beams Paul began to lower himself into the darkness of the well. Minutes went by with nothing but the silence of a few echoed grunts from Paul as he descended. Suddenly the silence was broken with screams of terror coming from the blackness of the well. Jim approached the edge of the well in an attempt to try to rescue his friend, but the old driver pulled him back from the edge telling him that it was of no use, that it is over. Almost at once the screams died away save only a few weak whimpers and then nothing but the silence again.

“Why didn’t you let me help him’ cried Jim, ‘why?”

It was then the old driver broke his stony silence and began to tell the story behind the well. He talked about how a farmer in the early 1900s built the well to raise funds for his ailing wife. After failing to raise enough for a proper burial after her passing he shoved her lifeless body into the well.

To this day this well is known by the locals as the ‘Well of Reflections.’ For when one whose heart is filled with darkness peers into the well of reflections and they see their true self. They are consumed like that of the lifeless body of the farmer’s wife who was cast into the eternal darkness.

The old man then motioned everyone back to the limo and returned the stunned passengers to city. Sam and Tiffany got out at their dorm. Sam turned, walked to the drivers door and seeing the old man gone, walked back to the passengers door and looked into the tinted windows of the limo, but something was missing…her reflection. Sam wept and knew her fate was sealed.

J. Allen Wilson © 2/11/2014

* Seek not silver and gold and those things that corrupt for they are only temporal and love through Christ is eternal.