Post by Henry Spearman on Jun 24, 2016 12:33:40 GMT -5
The rain fell lightly on the Morning of April 23rd 2005. Clouds hung low in an overcast sky. 20 Year old Henry stepped out of the car and put his jacket on, pulling the bottom tight to make sure it didn’t wrinkle. His feet splashed in small puddles as he made his way up the stairs into the church building that his mother frequented.
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata played inside the church and the small gathering of 22 people stood. Henry placed his hand on the casket and gave his nod to the Pallbearers. Slowly they raised the casket onto their shoulders and walked out of the vestibule and into the church. Despite his size, Henry felt that it was the heaviest weight he had ever held.
Stone faced they marched down the aisle to the sound of the organ and the occasional sniffle from the women who knew that 42 was too young to die.
At the end of the asile they stopped. The men placed the casket down onto the stand and draped it with a beautiful red cover. Henry stepped back and took his seat at the front of the church. The priest stood and began the services.
“We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Maggie………”
Henry heard the priest begin but found himself unable to pay attention. His mind wandered through 20 years of life. Through everything his mother had been the one constant. When his world spun, she righted it. When his heart was broken, she mended it. When he needed a laugh, she provided it. As he sat thinking, he realized that he could not really think of a single happy moment in his life that didn’t include his mother. He had a hard time foreseeing his future now.
She had held on for barely a year. In that year Henry had cared for her. He had washed her, fed her, and sat by her side for days on end. In the end she was unable to speak and the doctors said she couldn’t recognize anyone around her. Henry knew she recognized him though. He saw in tiny fleeting moments the shimmer in her eye. It brought tears to his own but he knew that even in her worst day, she knew who he was. He felt love and appreciation. Henry vowed to care for her to the very end in the same way that she had done for him. The final months had consumed every waking moment of his life. Now he was at a loss.
Before long the priest stepped down and various friends of Maggies took to the podium to pay their respects. It seemed to go by in an instant for Henry. He remained emotionless as the priest called the services to an end. Henry rose with the pallbearers but instead of joining them at the casket he took to the pulpit. He had made one promise to his mother before she died and he intended to carry through.
Henry stared straight ahead and sang a beautiful rendition of “How great thou art” just as he had promised. He watched as his mother was lifted onto the shoulders of the pallbearers and carried down the aisle. Behind them, the gathering filed out. Henry sang until everyone had left the building. Then, alone, he walked out behind them. Several of his mother’s friends expressed their condolences. Henry nodded in acknowledgement and continued to his Limousine.
An hour later and Henry found himself the only person remaining in the small cemetery that was his mother’s final resting place. The crowd had long since departed and he sat alone at the foot of his mothers stone.
“Mom, I don’t really know where to go from here. I never thought I would have to do this by myself and frankly, I’m scared. You know I was never much of a talker so I don’t really know if I’m even doing this right but I really hope you can hear me wherever you are. I promise ill make you proud Ma. I don’t know how but im going to make you proud every day of my life. You were always there for me and I don’t really think I could ever repay you but I will promise you that somehow, some day I will pay you back.”
Henry stood up and brushed his pants off. He put his hand on the top of the headstone and looked down at it.
“I know that you will always be with me. I love you mom”
Henry turned and walked back to the parking lot. The limo had long since left and Henry realized he would have to walk. He was glad the cemetery was only a few blocks from his house. As he left the cemetery he realized the sun had come out. He looked up and thanked his mother for not making him walk home in the rain. Somehow he felt that he would be ok. He would get through this on his own. He knew he had it in him.
Henry made it to the front yard of his house and noticed a strange car parked in his driveway. It was a Mercedes that he had never seen before. As he approached the car a man in a suit stepped out and smiled at him.
“Henry?” The man asked
“Can I help you?” Henry asked cautiously
“Can we chat a minute? Im your father……………”
Henry wasn’t sure he wanted to believe the man.
“My father?”
“Yes. Your mother gave birth to you March 13, 1985. I was young Henry. I was scared. I couldn’t handle it. We weren’t married and I was just a kid myself. I was still in school and I just……I just had to run.”
Henry felt the blood rush to his face as he looked at this man in his tailored suit. His eyes darted from the clean cut man to the beautiful new Mercedes he was driving. Henry couldn’t believe this was happening today.
“I know this is a tough day for you Henry. I tried to come back and see you a few times but your mom never let me. She was always so stubborn. Now that shes gone I thought we could have a relationship”
Henry felt his blood boil and without thinking he lunged at the man standing in front of him. He tackled him to the ground and delivered four punches to the mans face before he knew what happened. He grabbed the man by the head and pulled him up to his feet. Henrys sheer size and strength yanked the man like a rag doll.
Henry dragged him over to the car and smashed his head through the side window of the car.
“NOW?!!?!?!?!? YOU CHOSE NOW TO TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!”
He slammed the man onto the hood of the car and punched him again.
“FOR TWENTY YEARS WE STRUGGLED TO MAKE ENDS MEAT AND YOURE DRIVING A MERCEDES?!!”
Henry shoved the man into the car and fumed. The man looked up at him with terror in his eyes
Henry suddenly became much more calm
“Put this car in drive, and get the fuck out of here. My mother was not stubborn. My mother was a saint. You spent twenty years living in luxury while we lived in poverty and despair and now on the day my mother is buried you decide to come back? Get out and don’t ever come back. If I ever see you again. I’ll kill you…”
Henry stared at the man as he struggled to get behind the wheel, slowly the car pulled away. Henry stared at it as it drove down the street and turned the corner.
Something inside him had snapped…………..
_____________________________________________________________
A blue sky is overhead and in the distance, birds can be heard chirping. Neforian walks among the rows of headstones in this small cemetery. In his left hand he is carrying a bouquet of flowers. In his right hand a small tool box. He makes his way across the lawn until he arrives at his mother’s stone. It is obvious that no one has visitd this place for quite some time now. The stone is covered up by long grass and weeds have sprouted up from the corners. Neforian stands above it and looks down at it.
“Oh Mom, what have I done?”
Neforian drops down to his knees and opens his toolbox. He pulls out a set of weed clippers and begins to cut the weeds out of the ground around the grave. He painstakingly pulls the small ones out by hand and brushes off the stone. When all the weeds were pulled and he could finally see the stone he touched the inscription under his Mother’s name.
“Maggie Spearman- The purest heart of all”
Henry sprayed the stone with a squirt bottle and wiped it clean. He polished the top of the stone until it looked brand new and then placed the flowers down next to it.
“Mom, I hope you’re still listening. It’s been eight years since we put you here and I have really dropped the ball.”
“When I left here that day and I met Dad in the driveway my whole life changed. It was like years of pent up anger and frustration just exploded in one shot. Honestly, it felt good. I am ashamed to say it but when I saw the fear in his eyes that day I felt powerful. I finally felt in control. I guess I just got addicted to it.”
Henry lay next to the stone with his head at the bottom
“I really need your help now though mom. I realized the other day that I have done to you exactly what he did to you. I was scared and so I ran away. I ran away and I hid from the world and I left you here by yourself. I am ashamed of myself. I need to get back to you. I need you to help me get there”
A small butterfly gently landed on the stone above Neforians head.
“I started wrestling ma. I’m with the WCF and I’m the TV champion. I haven’t lost yet. I think being able to take out this pent up rage in the ring has really helped me relax. Its actually helped me realize where I went wrong in life. This week I am defending my title on a PPV called Blast.”
“For the past two months I have beaten everyone they threw at me. Triple threats, singles, everything and everyone. This week though theyre throwing the toughest opponent I’ve faced so far at me in Brent Alpine.”
“I’m going to win, Mom. I’m going to win because eight years ago right here I sat in front of your freshly covered grave and I promised you I would make you proud. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I knew that when I had the opportunity to do it I was going to make you proud of me. This Sunday at blast, I’m going to defend this title for you and when I walk out of the arena as the winner it will have been done in your memory.”
Neforian stood up and kissed the gravestone
“I am going to try and be better Ma. More like you. I promise”
Henry grabbed his things and turned to walk away from the grave. Walking home he spoke directly to Brent Alpine
“Brent, Let me give you an idea of just what is going on inside this head of mine. You see for 8 long years I have lived inside a black hole. A black hole so powerful that only darkness existed. I found comfort in this darkness. I found strength there. I found power there.”
“Years and years went by and I felt safe inside my darkness. People were afraid of me and that was the way I wanted it. I enjoyed being the outcast. I had accepted long ago that that was who I was.”
Neforian turns onto his block and begins to walk up the hill
“And then I arrived in the WCF and made an immediate impact. I found that even here, the darkness that I lived in was far stronger than what could be stacked against me. One by one they fell in front of me until I found myself with the gold around my waist. Still they came and still they fell. Helpless against that power.”
Henry walked up to his childhood home and opened the door. He walked down the stairs into the basement. The basement is dark as Neforian turns on the one hanging bulb that we have become familiar with.
“I spent years of my life down in this darkness and told myself that this is what life really was. This is what I am. This is what the world is as a whole and you know what? It worked for me. I was successful. For the first time in my life I had found something that I was good at.”
“But no matter how many matches I won. No matter how many helpless WCF stars fell at my feet something was missing. Something in the pit of my stomach kept pushing itself up and I fought to keep it down.”
“It took me months to realize what that something was……..it was shame”
Henry pauses for a long moment
“Finally I realized that for the last eight years of my life I had been letting down the one person who NEVER let me down. The one person whos opinion actually mattered to me. The one person that I had ever made a promise to that I intended to keep. I realized in one moment that I had let down Maggie Spearman. I had broken the promise I made to my mother. I had forgotten who she was. I had forgotten who I was.”
Henry turns off the single bulb and plunges the room back into darkness. Suddenly the room is blasted into illumination by floodlights and the entire basement can be seen.
“This is my moment to change all of that. This is my moment to make good on that promise. This is the moment for me to correct eight years of mistakes.”
“Brent, you have stumbled into the lions den. This Sunday at slam you will find yourself in the ring with a man who is fighting for something much bigger than himself, much bigger than the TV title, much bigger than the WCF. You will step in with a man who is fighting for something much bigger than life itself. This Sunday I fight for redemption. This Sunday I fight for Maggie. This Sunday I fight for everyone who has ever let themselves down. My victory this week will be the biggest victory of my career. It will be the most important moment of my life.”
“This Sunday, Neforian is dead.”
“This Sunday…..I am…..Henry Spearman”
Henry stairs into the camera as the scene fades to black
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata played inside the church and the small gathering of 22 people stood. Henry placed his hand on the casket and gave his nod to the Pallbearers. Slowly they raised the casket onto their shoulders and walked out of the vestibule and into the church. Despite his size, Henry felt that it was the heaviest weight he had ever held.
Stone faced they marched down the aisle to the sound of the organ and the occasional sniffle from the women who knew that 42 was too young to die.
At the end of the asile they stopped. The men placed the casket down onto the stand and draped it with a beautiful red cover. Henry stepped back and took his seat at the front of the church. The priest stood and began the services.
“We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Maggie………”
Henry heard the priest begin but found himself unable to pay attention. His mind wandered through 20 years of life. Through everything his mother had been the one constant. When his world spun, she righted it. When his heart was broken, she mended it. When he needed a laugh, she provided it. As he sat thinking, he realized that he could not really think of a single happy moment in his life that didn’t include his mother. He had a hard time foreseeing his future now.
She had held on for barely a year. In that year Henry had cared for her. He had washed her, fed her, and sat by her side for days on end. In the end she was unable to speak and the doctors said she couldn’t recognize anyone around her. Henry knew she recognized him though. He saw in tiny fleeting moments the shimmer in her eye. It brought tears to his own but he knew that even in her worst day, she knew who he was. He felt love and appreciation. Henry vowed to care for her to the very end in the same way that she had done for him. The final months had consumed every waking moment of his life. Now he was at a loss.
Before long the priest stepped down and various friends of Maggies took to the podium to pay their respects. It seemed to go by in an instant for Henry. He remained emotionless as the priest called the services to an end. Henry rose with the pallbearers but instead of joining them at the casket he took to the pulpit. He had made one promise to his mother before she died and he intended to carry through.
Henry stared straight ahead and sang a beautiful rendition of “How great thou art” just as he had promised. He watched as his mother was lifted onto the shoulders of the pallbearers and carried down the aisle. Behind them, the gathering filed out. Henry sang until everyone had left the building. Then, alone, he walked out behind them. Several of his mother’s friends expressed their condolences. Henry nodded in acknowledgement and continued to his Limousine.
An hour later and Henry found himself the only person remaining in the small cemetery that was his mother’s final resting place. The crowd had long since departed and he sat alone at the foot of his mothers stone.
“Mom, I don’t really know where to go from here. I never thought I would have to do this by myself and frankly, I’m scared. You know I was never much of a talker so I don’t really know if I’m even doing this right but I really hope you can hear me wherever you are. I promise ill make you proud Ma. I don’t know how but im going to make you proud every day of my life. You were always there for me and I don’t really think I could ever repay you but I will promise you that somehow, some day I will pay you back.”
Henry stood up and brushed his pants off. He put his hand on the top of the headstone and looked down at it.
“I know that you will always be with me. I love you mom”
Henry turned and walked back to the parking lot. The limo had long since left and Henry realized he would have to walk. He was glad the cemetery was only a few blocks from his house. As he left the cemetery he realized the sun had come out. He looked up and thanked his mother for not making him walk home in the rain. Somehow he felt that he would be ok. He would get through this on his own. He knew he had it in him.
Henry made it to the front yard of his house and noticed a strange car parked in his driveway. It was a Mercedes that he had never seen before. As he approached the car a man in a suit stepped out and smiled at him.
“Henry?” The man asked
“Can I help you?” Henry asked cautiously
“Can we chat a minute? Im your father……………”
Henry wasn’t sure he wanted to believe the man.
“My father?”
“Yes. Your mother gave birth to you March 13, 1985. I was young Henry. I was scared. I couldn’t handle it. We weren’t married and I was just a kid myself. I was still in school and I just……I just had to run.”
Henry felt the blood rush to his face as he looked at this man in his tailored suit. His eyes darted from the clean cut man to the beautiful new Mercedes he was driving. Henry couldn’t believe this was happening today.
“I know this is a tough day for you Henry. I tried to come back and see you a few times but your mom never let me. She was always so stubborn. Now that shes gone I thought we could have a relationship”
Henry felt his blood boil and without thinking he lunged at the man standing in front of him. He tackled him to the ground and delivered four punches to the mans face before he knew what happened. He grabbed the man by the head and pulled him up to his feet. Henrys sheer size and strength yanked the man like a rag doll.
Henry dragged him over to the car and smashed his head through the side window of the car.
“NOW?!!?!?!?!? YOU CHOSE NOW TO TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!”
He slammed the man onto the hood of the car and punched him again.
“FOR TWENTY YEARS WE STRUGGLED TO MAKE ENDS MEAT AND YOURE DRIVING A MERCEDES?!!”
Henry shoved the man into the car and fumed. The man looked up at him with terror in his eyes
Henry suddenly became much more calm
“Put this car in drive, and get the fuck out of here. My mother was not stubborn. My mother was a saint. You spent twenty years living in luxury while we lived in poverty and despair and now on the day my mother is buried you decide to come back? Get out and don’t ever come back. If I ever see you again. I’ll kill you…”
Henry stared at the man as he struggled to get behind the wheel, slowly the car pulled away. Henry stared at it as it drove down the street and turned the corner.
Something inside him had snapped…………..
_____________________________________________________________
A blue sky is overhead and in the distance, birds can be heard chirping. Neforian walks among the rows of headstones in this small cemetery. In his left hand he is carrying a bouquet of flowers. In his right hand a small tool box. He makes his way across the lawn until he arrives at his mother’s stone. It is obvious that no one has visitd this place for quite some time now. The stone is covered up by long grass and weeds have sprouted up from the corners. Neforian stands above it and looks down at it.
“Oh Mom, what have I done?”
Neforian drops down to his knees and opens his toolbox. He pulls out a set of weed clippers and begins to cut the weeds out of the ground around the grave. He painstakingly pulls the small ones out by hand and brushes off the stone. When all the weeds were pulled and he could finally see the stone he touched the inscription under his Mother’s name.
“Maggie Spearman- The purest heart of all”
Henry sprayed the stone with a squirt bottle and wiped it clean. He polished the top of the stone until it looked brand new and then placed the flowers down next to it.
“Mom, I hope you’re still listening. It’s been eight years since we put you here and I have really dropped the ball.”
“When I left here that day and I met Dad in the driveway my whole life changed. It was like years of pent up anger and frustration just exploded in one shot. Honestly, it felt good. I am ashamed to say it but when I saw the fear in his eyes that day I felt powerful. I finally felt in control. I guess I just got addicted to it.”
Henry lay next to the stone with his head at the bottom
“I really need your help now though mom. I realized the other day that I have done to you exactly what he did to you. I was scared and so I ran away. I ran away and I hid from the world and I left you here by yourself. I am ashamed of myself. I need to get back to you. I need you to help me get there”
A small butterfly gently landed on the stone above Neforians head.
“I started wrestling ma. I’m with the WCF and I’m the TV champion. I haven’t lost yet. I think being able to take out this pent up rage in the ring has really helped me relax. Its actually helped me realize where I went wrong in life. This week I am defending my title on a PPV called Blast.”
“For the past two months I have beaten everyone they threw at me. Triple threats, singles, everything and everyone. This week though theyre throwing the toughest opponent I’ve faced so far at me in Brent Alpine.”
“I’m going to win, Mom. I’m going to win because eight years ago right here I sat in front of your freshly covered grave and I promised you I would make you proud. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I knew that when I had the opportunity to do it I was going to make you proud of me. This Sunday at blast, I’m going to defend this title for you and when I walk out of the arena as the winner it will have been done in your memory.”
Neforian stood up and kissed the gravestone
“I am going to try and be better Ma. More like you. I promise”
Henry grabbed his things and turned to walk away from the grave. Walking home he spoke directly to Brent Alpine
“Brent, Let me give you an idea of just what is going on inside this head of mine. You see for 8 long years I have lived inside a black hole. A black hole so powerful that only darkness existed. I found comfort in this darkness. I found strength there. I found power there.”
“Years and years went by and I felt safe inside my darkness. People were afraid of me and that was the way I wanted it. I enjoyed being the outcast. I had accepted long ago that that was who I was.”
Neforian turns onto his block and begins to walk up the hill
“And then I arrived in the WCF and made an immediate impact. I found that even here, the darkness that I lived in was far stronger than what could be stacked against me. One by one they fell in front of me until I found myself with the gold around my waist. Still they came and still they fell. Helpless against that power.”
Henry walked up to his childhood home and opened the door. He walked down the stairs into the basement. The basement is dark as Neforian turns on the one hanging bulb that we have become familiar with.
“I spent years of my life down in this darkness and told myself that this is what life really was. This is what I am. This is what the world is as a whole and you know what? It worked for me. I was successful. For the first time in my life I had found something that I was good at.”
“But no matter how many matches I won. No matter how many helpless WCF stars fell at my feet something was missing. Something in the pit of my stomach kept pushing itself up and I fought to keep it down.”
“It took me months to realize what that something was……..it was shame”
Henry pauses for a long moment
“Finally I realized that for the last eight years of my life I had been letting down the one person who NEVER let me down. The one person whos opinion actually mattered to me. The one person that I had ever made a promise to that I intended to keep. I realized in one moment that I had let down Maggie Spearman. I had broken the promise I made to my mother. I had forgotten who she was. I had forgotten who I was.”
Henry turns off the single bulb and plunges the room back into darkness. Suddenly the room is blasted into illumination by floodlights and the entire basement can be seen.
“This is my moment to change all of that. This is my moment to make good on that promise. This is the moment for me to correct eight years of mistakes.”
“Brent, you have stumbled into the lions den. This Sunday at slam you will find yourself in the ring with a man who is fighting for something much bigger than himself, much bigger than the TV title, much bigger than the WCF. You will step in with a man who is fighting for something much bigger than life itself. This Sunday I fight for redemption. This Sunday I fight for Maggie. This Sunday I fight for everyone who has ever let themselves down. My victory this week will be the biggest victory of my career. It will be the most important moment of my life.”
“This Sunday, Neforian is dead.”
“This Sunday…..I am…..Henry Spearman”
Henry stairs into the camera as the scene fades to black
