Clark, 8, is heartbroken and lonely after the death of his twin brother. He misses him so much that one day he decides to run away to his grave. An act that would later become a nightmare for his parents when they realized that their little boy was still not home after 11 p.m.
Losing a child is arguably a parent’s worst nightmare. For the Wesenbergs, it became a reality when one Sunday morning, their little boy named Ted lost his life. Unfortunately, it happened in a place that was supposed to be the safest for the family, where nothing bad should happen, but it did.
The Wesenbergs found Ted dead in their swimming pool. Paul Wesenberg had dove into the water to save his son, but it was too late: neither his mouth-to-mouth resuscitation nor the paramedics he had called could bring the child back to life.
Linda Wesenberg couldn’t bear the grief of losing her son, and she sat as pale, numb, and still as he was at his funeral. Then, as a week passed without Ted in the Wesenberg home, things became chaotic, brutal even, and so hard that little Clark couldn’t stand it.
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Linda and Paul had a hard time coping with this loss, and they argued constantly every day. Every night, Clark heard loud noises coming from his parents’ bedroom, and his mother felt frustrated and ended up crying.
His father blamed his mother for Ted’s death, and his mother blamed his father for everything. Clark would hide under his blanket every night, clutching his teddy bear and sobbing every time he heard his parents arguing.
No loss is so deep that love cannot heal it.
When Ted was there, things were so different. Back then, their parents rarely fought, and his mom was never sad or upset. She would kiss him goodnight and hug him before putting him to bed, but she didn’t do any of that anymore.
She had also stopped making breakfast and often stayed in bed, telling him she was sick. Paul still made them toast and eggs for breakfast, and he had started coming home early to cook them dinner, but his cooking was nowhere near Linda’s.
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Clark missed his brother. He missed Ted so much that he wished he could have gone to where his brother was… because their parents no longer cared about their son, who was still alive.
All they cared about was who was responsible for the death of their other son.
One night, things went from bad to worse. Clark heard his parents arguing again, and he was so frustrated he couldn’t take it anymore. “Mom! Dad! Please stop!” he yelled as he stormed into their room. “Please stop! I don’t like it when you two argue!”
“Listen, Paul!” his mother would say. “I lost Ted because of you, and now Clark hates you!
“Oh really, Linda?” Paul retorted. “And what about you? I don’t think Clark is in awe of you!”
Clark’s parents forgot that he was in their room and continued to argue. They started blaming each other for Ted’s death again, and Clark decided that he didn’t want to stay there anymore. Their house had been filled with screams and tears since Ted left, and Clark had grown to despise the house.
“I hate you both…” he whispered, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I HATE YOU, MOM AND DAD! I don’t want to live with you! I’m going to find Ted because he’s the only one who loves me!”
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Ted ran out of his parents’ bedroom and out the front door. He stopped to pick up the dahlias he and Ted had grown in their garden before running to Ted’s grave in the cemetery a few blocks from their house.
“Listen, Linda, you made him cry again. I’m sure you’re relieved now!” Paul growled. “I don’t think we can go on like this!”
“Did I make her cry? Stop acting like I’m the bad guy!”
Linda and Paul continued to bicker, oblivious to their little boy who had run off to the cemetery alone. Clark sobbed as he pressed his fingertips to his brother’s headstone and ran them over the inscription.
“In memory of Ted Wesenberg,” the engraving reads.
Clark cried at the sight of his brother’s grave. He missed Ted so much!
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“You… I miss you, Ted,” he cried. “Can you ask the angels to take you back?”
“…and Mom and Dad are always fighting. Ted, they don’t love me anymore. They hate me and don’t care about me. Could you come back, Ted? Please? Nobody plays football with me, not even Dad…”
Clark had never felt so alone in his life. He placed the dahlias on his brother’s grave and sat on the prickly grass, telling him of his worries and how ignored and forgotten he felt.
Clark couldn’t help but cry as he told Ted how much he missed him, how hard life was without him, and how much their parents had changed. He complained about burnt breakfasts, how he’d stopped growing dahlias, and how lonely he was.
Clark’s heart was so at peace after finally sharing his worries with his brother that he didn’t notice the hours passing and the sky darkening. The cemetery was deserted and there was not a single soul in sight. Still, Clark decided not to go home, because it was the first time since Ted’s death that he felt at peace.
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Suddenly, he heard the rustling of dry leaves behind him, as if someone had crossed the cemetery. Clark looked around, frightened. Who could have come to the cemetery at this hour? He jumped up, terrified, as the noise grew louder, still looking around.
Terrified that he wasn’t alone, Clark turned to run, but it was too late. He saw several men in black robes approaching him. Their faces were hidden by hoods and they were holding firebrands.
“See who has come to our dark kingdom! You shouldn’t have risked coming here, boy!” one of the men shouted as he approached Clark.
“Who… who are you?” Clark asked in tears. “I… I was about to leave. Please, let me go!”
Clark was shaking with fear and didn’t know how to get out of this. The men wouldn’t let him go.
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Clark was terrified of the robed men, but then he heard a man’s powerful voice. “Chad, back off! You’re not going to hurt that kid! How many times do I have to tell you not to gather in my cemetery with your idiot buddies in cult robes?”
Clark noticed the man approaching. He was a tall, well-dressed man in his fifties. “Don’t worry, boy,” he said to Clark. “Those boys won’t do anything. They’re worse than children!”
“Oh, come on, Mr. Bowen!” The guy standing in front of Clark pulled back his hood and sighed. “Where else are our cult activities supposed to take place if not here, in a cemetery?”
“How about you stop burning your bad report cards in my graveyard and start studying instead? And don’t even think about getting close to that kid, or I’ll tell your mother you smoke here a lot with your friends. I’m sure you wouldn’t take that chance. Now, you,” he said, gesturing toward Clark. “Come here, kid. We’ll get you home.”
Mr. Bowen seemed to be a nice man to Clark. He rushed over and grabbed his arm. Mr. Bowen took the boy to a small cabin and served him hot chocolate. Then he asked where Clark lived so he could walk him home.
“And what were you doing here at this hour?” the old man asked Clark.
Clark was suddenly overcome with emotion as he remembered that he had come to the cemetery to get away from his home, his bickering parents, and the constant chaos and noise in his life since he had lost Ted.
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So Clark told him about his parents and his brother, how their life had become hell since Ted died, and how he didn’t like his parents and didn’t want to go home.
***
At home, Linda panicked. She called Paul’s number several times, but he didn’t answer. Paul had left the house more than two hours after their argument, and he hadn’t returned.
She had been sitting at the kitchen table, venting on the phone about her friend the entire time. Not once had she noticed that Clark wasn’t there. But as soon as she hung up and looked around, it hit her. Where’s Clark?
Linda’s heart was pounding as she looked at the clock. It was past 11 p.m. when she checked Clark’s room and found that he was gone. Linda then went to the other bedrooms, the bathrooms, and the garden, but Clark was nowhere to be found. To her, it was as if he had vanished into thin air.
She called Paul again and again, but he didn’t answer. “Pick up your phone, Paul!” she shouted. “What do I do now?”
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Linda paces nervously in her living room, looking out the window at the street Paul had left on a while ago. She had no idea where to look for Clark until she remembered that he had come into the bedroom while she and Paul were arguing.
“The graveyard!” she remembered. “He wanted to find Ted!”
Linda took the house keys, locked it and rushed to the cemetery. As she turned onto the first street, she saw Paul’s car. He parked and rolled down his window.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Clark isn’t home yet!” she replied as she got into the car. “Drive to the cemetery now!”
“What’s going on?” Paul shouted as he started the engine. “But when… he never came back?”
“No, Paul! We were, well…” she paused. “We were so busy arguing that we didn’t notice anything!”
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Paul and Linda rushed to Ted’s grave as soon as they arrived at the cemetery. But there was no sign of Clark.
“Clark!” Linda cried. “Honey, where are you?”
At that moment, Paul shook Linda. “Linda!” he cried. “What’s going on here? Look!”
Paul and Linda were surprised to see a fire in the distance and hear voices singing. As they approached the gathering, they saw several teenagers dressed in black robes performing some sort of ceremony.
“Oh my God,” Linda cried. “Could they, could they have done something to Clark? Oh no, we just lost Ted, and now…”
“Linda, no,” Paul comforted her. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Wait here. We need to ask them if they’ve seen Clark around here. Excuse me, boys,” he began hesitantly, approaching them. “Is it possible that you’ve seen this boy here…”
One of the boys smiled as Paul showed them a picture of Clark. “Your son came to the wrong place at the wrong time,” he shouted. “Darkness reigns here, and we are protectors of the dark world. Your son should not have come! It’s all his fault!”
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Paul looked closely at the teenager, then at his friends. In those robes, they all looked naive and stupid, and they were burning what appeared to be their report cards. Paul understood that these boys were nothing more than buffoons.
“Oh really?” he asked, putting his phone in his back pocket. “Well… If you don’t tell me where my son is, I’m sure you’ll regret meeting me for the rest of your life.” Paul grabbed the boy’s collar and pulled him forward.
“Listen, kid, I’m going to send you into the dark for at least an hour with one kick. So you better talk, or you’ll go home with a broken nose and limping legs!”
The other boys got scared of Paul and ran away. “Whoa, whoa, okay! Relax!” said the boy Paul had warned. “I’m Chad! And I saw your son. We didn’t do anything to him! Mr. Bowen, the cemetery caretaker, took him away.”
“What ?”
“He… he took your son, sir. I swear it. He lives just outside the cemetery! We come here every night to scare people, that’s all!”
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***
When Paul and Linda arrived at Mr. Bowen’s cottage, they saw Clark and Mr. Bowen sitting on a couch through the window. The parents wanted to rush inside to pick up their son, but they stopped when they heard him talking.
Paul and Linda were embarrassed. They listened in tears and shock as Clark talked about his troubles, and Mr. Bowen advised him to make amends with his parents. “They still love you, little boy,” the older man said. “What happened in your family is the worst nightmare any parent could ever have. What if we were kinder to them?”
“You’re right…” Clark nodded at one point. “Mr. Bowen, are you really the cemetery keeper?”
“Oh!” He laughed. “Why ask that?
“Because you are well dressed and you understand people well. Even mom and dad don’t understand me so well. What’s your secret?”
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The old man’s eyes filled with tears. “You’ve told me your story, Clark,” he sighed, “so let me tell you mine, even though it’s been a long time since I’ve had company to share my heartaches with. I was a psychologist. I helped families and couples survive crises. But I was so involved in my patients’ lives that I forgot I had a wife and daughter at home, too.”
“Did they… leave you?” Clark asked.
“No, no,” Mr. Bowen said. “Not anytime soon. But my wife was very upset. One day she packed her bags and took our daughter with her. They were on a flight when… the plane crashed and they died.”
Mr. Bowen could no longer hold back his tears and began to cry. “So,” he sniffed, “So I quit my job and became a guard… here. At least now I’m still near my wife and daughter. Oh, how I miss them!”
Instead of mourning the loss of what you no longer have, take the opportunity to appreciate what you do have.
Paul and Linda couldn’t wait to hold their son in their arms. Mr. Bowen’s story reminded them that they still had a reason to live, to be happy, and to do their best every day… because they still had a child, a boy who was their own flesh and blood and who needed love and attention.
“I’m so sorry, honey!” Linda cried as she and Paul entered the house. She hugged her son tightly as her tears flowed freely.
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Paul looked at Mr. Bowen apologetically and thanked him for saving Clark. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done for our family. And now I’m really asking you to help us. I’ve heard everything you’ve said. I think we need your help. You were an expert… you still are, and we need you to help us cope with our loss.”
Mr. Bowen wanted to refuse, but he looked at Clark, then at Linda, who whispered through tears, “Please save our family.”
Touched by the family’s plight, Mr. Bowen agreed. He decided to become the Wesenbergs’ therapist, and within months, peace returned to their home. They were able to heal from the loss of Ted and finally look at life in a positive light.
Mr. Bowen, meanwhile, realized that he could still save other families who had suffered the same wounds as the Wesenbergs, and so he resumed his work as a psychologist. He still visits the graves of his wife and daughter, and each time he finds fresh dahlias on their headstones.
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What can we learn from this story?
- No loss is so profound that love cannot heal it. Although it was difficult for the Wesenberg family to accept the loss of Ted, the love and support of each other allowed them to heal and move forward.
- Instead of grieving the loss of what you no longer have, take the opportunity to appreciate what you have and cherish your family. Working with the Wesenbergs, Mr. Bowen learned that while he can’t bring his family back, he still loves them with all his heart and can help others rebuild, so he decided to start over.
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