My wife and I always wanted children. Seven years ago, we found out we were expecting a baby boy. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending. Elijah died soon after he was born due to complications from the pregnancy. My wife and I were crushed, but as time went on we decided to have another child. After countless attempts to conceive, we finally received the news we were waiting for– we were expecting.
Again, not everything is as it seems. There were complications with the pregnancy as well, and Autumn was born blind and deaf. That did not change how we felt about her– she was our angel. We were told of the hardships that would come her way. She would never be able to speak or do even the most simple tasks by herself. She would need constant care, and while that seemed like a burden to most, it was a small price to pay to have an otherwise healthy child.
Autumn was not a lost cause– she was our angel.
At times it was frustrating, but we never stopped loving Autumn. I would play guitar for her because I knew she could feel the vibrations from my amplifier. She always loved when I played “Ring of Fire” on the guitar; it always brought a smile to her face. She would never get to see how happy she made her mother and I, but I know she knows regardless.
For the most part, our day was always the same. I’d go to work while my wife, Melissa, would take care of Autumn throughout the day. Autumn needed someone there at all times, and while a babysitter would be a possibility, we didn’t feel it would be appropriate given her disability. Luckily for me, my job provided more than enough for the three of us. I came home one day after a twelve hour shift to find Melissa and Autumn on the couch together, asleep. I smiled and gave them both a kiss before placing a blanket over the both of them.
I rarely ever had time for myself, so I popped a frozen pizza into the oven and sat at the kitchen table to read a book on my kindle. Just as I was about to turn the last page of the chapter, I felt a tug at my leg– it was Autumn. She was standing by my leg, looking directly up at my face.
“Daddy..”
My heart sank. She had never spoken a word before, and this wasn’t possible. I thought for sure I was hearing things.
“I’m thirsty. Can I have water?”
I gulped my fear down my throat.
“S-sure sweetie. Give daddy one minute. Go lay back down with mommy, okay?”
She nodded and went back to the living room and curled up next to Melissa. I got up and filled a glass of water for her. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and started to laugh almost hysterically– this was all in my head. As I started to give Autumn the glass of water like I normally would, she grabbed the glass herself and began to do it as if she knew what to do. Again, I was dumbfounded.
“Thank you, daddy”
My entire body was numb. As I forced a smile and watched as Autumn went back to sleep, I walked back into the kitchen and felt physically sick. Unable to understand what happened, I sat back down at the kitchen table and started to read my book again. I must have fell asleep because I awoke in the chair with a pain in my neck from how uncomfortable it was. The first thing I thought of when I woke up was Autumn, so I went to check on her. Melissa was sitting on the couch watching television while Autumn slept on the love seat across from her. I thought about telling Melissa what happened, but I thought it was all just a strange dream; I did fall asleep in the chair after all.
The next few days went along as normal with no other strange incidents to report. I came home from work one evening to see Autumn sitting at the kitchen table while my wife made dinner. Autumn had the same blank stare as she always did, so everything seemed normal.
“Hey babe,” my wife said. “Could you do me a favor and go to Autumn’s room and grab her blanket?”
I nodded my head and went upstairs to grab her blanket. Sitting on her bed was her favorite blanket, but something else caught my eye. It was a piece of paper and a red crayon. She had drew three stick figures. The littlest stick figure had long blonde hair, like she has, the taller female stick figure had medium blonde hair, and the male stick figure had short brown hair. Above each stick figure was the names of who they were. “Me”, “Mommy”, and “Daddy”.
My eyes were wide in shock. There was no way she knew how to draw, or to spell for that matter. Something seriously strange was going on. I took a picture of the drawing with my phone and left the drawing as it was before heading downstairs with the blanket. Melissa noticed something was off with me, and I told her I’d tell her once Autumn was asleep. After dinner, Melissa and I went to put Autumn into bed. To my amazement, the drawing was not on her bed like it was when I went up there to get her blanket. I figured the drawing fell off the bed and was lost somewhere. At least, I hoped that’s what happened.
After Autumn was asleep, we turned the baby monitor on and left her room.
“Alright, what’s going on? You’ve been on edge all night,” she said with a look of concern on her face.
“I don’t know how to explain it, so I’ll just have to show you. Let’s go to the kitchen,” I said.
Melissa and I sat down at the kitchen table. My entire body was numb and my hands were shaking. I pulled up the photo on my phone and handed my phone to her.
“What the hell is this, Zachary?” she said in an angry tone. “This isn’t funny. Who did this?”
I gulped.
“I found this in Autumn’s room when I went to get her blanket. I think– I think she drew this”
Melissa scoffed.
“Don’t be stupid. She couldn’t have drawn this, and she doesn’t know how to spell. If this is your idea of a joke, I don’t like it,” she spat.
“Babe, I would never joke about something like this. There’s one more thing you should know,” I said with a soft tone. “The other night when I came home from work, you and Autumn were asleep on the couch. I was in the kitchen reading when she tugged at my leg. She spoke. She said “Daddy”, and held an actual conversation with me…”
Melissa looked as if I were feeding her of bullshit. After a few moments, she looked into my eyes and realized I wasn’t kidding. She began to hyperventilate, but I assured her it could be explained. Like how someone can suffer an injury and become a savant at the piano, despite never taking lessons– maybe this was the case.
I know it sounded insane, but I had to say something to calm her down. She cried into my chest for what seemed like hours, and all I could do was brush her hair and softly sing her favorite song. We talked about discussing this more in the morning, as both of us were exhausted. We checked on Autumn in her room to find her sound asleep curled up in her blanket. Seeing her as cute as she was made everything that happened recently seem like it wasn’t important, even for a split second.
Melissa and I hopped into bed and turned the baby monitor on that way we could hear if anything happened to Autumn while she slept. Sometimes she’d wake up and become restless, and one of us would comfort her.
I awoke in a cold sweat around 4 in the morning. My eyes were groggy, but I could hear a soft buzzing sound coming from the baby monitor. Everything seemed calm, until I heard Autumn’s voice. I woke Melissa up immediately and told her to listen. This is what Autumn said.
“Mommy and daddy don’t know. They can never know.”
We listened in horror as Autumn spoke fluently, and upon hearing her voice, Melissa cupped her mouth and began to cry.
“I love you”
The closer we listened, the more we realized she was talking to someone, not to herself.
“Melissa, I–”
Before I could finish my sentence, a voice was heard from the baby monitor. It wasn’t Autumn, nor a voice I had heard before.
“They’re listening”
CLICK
The sound of the baby monitor clicking off caused us to jump out of bed and barge into Autumn’s room. There was no one there, but Autumn was awake, but was staring at the wall where her bed sat. I slowly approached Autumn, a bit scared as to what we heard. As I touched her shoulder, she turned around and stared right at me. She smiled and said, “I love you, daddy. I miss you”. Melissa began to cry, while I forced a smile and responded. “I love you too, sweetheart,” to which Autumn smiled again.
“I’m tired, daddy. Good night. Good night, mommy”
Melissa was choked up and whispered “good night” in between sobs. Autumn fell asleep almost instantly. We couldn’t leave her alone again, and we had no idea where the other voice came from. Quietly, we searched her room to find if anyone was there, but to no avail. There wasn’t a single person in the room– or the house– other than us three.
As if her speaking fluently wasn’t weird enough, perhaps she made the strange voice herself. Could this really be happening?
Melissa and I stayed in her room with her, eventually falling asleep on the floor. When I woke up, Autumn was still asleep, but off to the side was another piece of paper. I looked at the paper and was completely dumbfounded at what I saw.
Two stick figures, one male and one female. One had really long dark hair and no face, while the other had long blonde hair and a smile. They were holding hands. Above the female was the word “Me”, and above the male was a name that made my entire body freeze.
“Elijah”