It pained him to see the smashed up state of the house, noting that the windows were boarded up due to being smashed and that the door had cracks and even a hole in it. Astalan wasn’t sure why this old woman had been tormented so, but he could sense that she was coming to the end of her rope and her death clock was ticking away. He felt horrible that a simple old mother had been mistreated in such a way and knew that he had to step in and do something for her so that she would feel that someone cared about her and would miss her when she was gone.
He knocked at the door and waited for her to respond, and when she came to the door he could tell she was holding some form of weapon. She nervously said “Who’s there?” in a shaky voice and peeked through a crack in the boards that were covering the windows on the door. He held up his hands to show her that he wasn’t armed and meant no harm before speaking “My name is Josh, I’m one of Jason’s old school friends from when we were kids. I used to come over and play with him, and I thought I’d drop in and see how you were doing.” He was hoping that she would believe him. He had pulled the name from her mind and looked about the right age for him to be telling the truth. After he spoke she lowered her weapon and opened the door, Astalan quickly noticing it was a baseball bat that had been in her hands, and she smiled at him with a weak and tired smile.
“Oh you should have said so dear, I hope you’re doing alright. Come on in, I’ll make you a cup of tea.” As he stepped into the house and looked around he felt great sadness and despair. He noticed that the rooms of her children were kept preserved, as though she was waiting for them to come home to here, while he sadly knew that it was unlikely that something like that would ever happen. Her house otherwise was fairly tidy considering the state of the outside, and she clearly didn’t do much else besides clean. He sat at her table and she brought out a pot of tea and a couple of cups and the two of them sat together and began to talk.
They talked for hours about random subjects, Astalan counting every smile on the old woman’s face as a victory. He tried not to notice her dwindling death clock, knowing that she was very close to the end, and instead focused on making sure that when he left here she would be truly happy for the first time in a long time. She eventually served him dinner, and he thanked her and enjoyed the food deeply, smiling and patting her hand. When he was finally about to leave he walked up to her and gave her a hug, feeling the warm tears running down her cheeks and onto his shoulders. “You really are an angel, you know that?” He tried not to chuckle at her words, smiling and simply whispering “Same time tomorrow?” before waving and walking away from the old woman’s house, feeling like he had done something truly good in her life.
564/500+ Job Complete!~
