Infinity In Ink

Gail had looked everywhere for her husband, but there was no sign of him anywhere. She knew he'd been ill, he'd been fighting it for months. Maybe he lost his fight, but if he did, wouldn't he be somewhere? He certainly wouldn't have been gone without a trace, nowhere to be found. 

Gary fell to his knees the moment the policemen left, closing the door behind them and leaving him on his own. Completely on her own. How could this be happening? His baby, gone forever? Bridie, dead? Why her? Why him? Why was this happening? Why was this happening to him? Why was this happening at all? Just, why?

A wife, distraught she hadn't had the chance to say the goodbye she'd been preparing for for months. A father, desperately searching for answers that were nowhere to be found. Gone, snatched. But the question remained, where had they gone so suddenly? 

Isaac's mother became suspicious when the family dog disappeared all of a sudden. Duke had been old. Perhaps he'd gone off somewhere quiet? Dogs did do that, she'd read. Only, when she went up to tell Isaac, he didn't seem at all fazed by the news. 

"It's ok Mum," he said instead. 

"What?" 

"Duke's ok," Isaac said. "He's right here," he pointed to the paper on his desk. 

"Isaac, you're starting to worry me," said his mother, coming closer to rest her hands on his shoulders. "No, really. Look Mum, he's right here." 

His mother lent forward, looking at her son's drawing. On the page, there was a dog, who looked exactly like Duke. He was sitting down, tongue poking out, tail wagging. She blinked. Was he actually moving? Couldn't be, she reasoned with herself, it was a drawing. But no, his tail flicked sideways again. He was moving! But how? 

Next, Isaac's mother noticed her brother in law in the picture, or what looked like her brother in law. He stood, hands in his pockets, smiling back at her.There was another girl she didn't recognize on her knees on the opposite side of Duke with her hand extended toward him, as if she were waiting for him to come to her for a pat. 

"Isaac," she asked, looking at her son again. "What is this?" 

"It's Duke, and Uncle John and Bridie Mum," he answered simply. 

"What are they doing there?" she asked. "And... moving?" 

"I saved them Mum," Isaac said simply, shrugging. But the bright look of pride in his eyes didn't go past her. 

"What do you mean you 'saved them' Isaac?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"I've sort of got this power," Isaac explained. "When I draw people, it gives them life on the page. Uncle Jon didn't want to fight anymore. He told me so himself, Bridie asked me too, and I could tell Duke was getting bad. I didn't want him to suffer." 

"That's... That's nice of you," she said. It was all she could think of to say. The whole thing, it was a little strange, and sort of unbelievable. Yet, it was there, on the page, right in front of her. She could see it with her own eyes. The drawn figures of people they knew, moving. Living a life on the page. 

"It's a second chance Mum," said Isaac. "An infinity in ink."