A traitor has turned up
– Whos this? No one expected you! shouted David Peterson. Then you can just go back the way you came!
– Dad, what are you doing? stammered Andrew. I havent set foot in this house for twenty years and now you act like Ive just walked in!
– If it were up to me, Id meet you with a leather strap! David grabbed at his belt. Never mind, well sort this out soon enough.
– Take it easy! Andrew stepped back. Im not a childI can answer for myself!
– Theres your nature! David snapped, letting his belt fall. Pick on the weak, flee the strong, deceive the good, and serve the wicked!
– What are you really angry about? Why are you accusing me? Andrew shrugged. If any sin sits on me, twenty years have passed. Time has healed it and forgiven it.
– Its easy to speak like that when youre the one at fault! Of course you want everyone to forgive you. I have no forgiveness to give you, David declared.
– What could I possibly be guilty of before you? In school I kept asking why my parents signed me up for the army and barred me from coming home! You never answered my lettersthough I wrote them!
– Dont you know? David taunted.
Andrews face showed total bewilderment and he tried to clarify, but the shouting of father and son was cut short by the mothers voice.
– Enough! shouted Mary Peterson. Youve brought trouble! Send him off, Tom, to his own neck! Shame on our grey hairs!
Andrew was so stunned he stood like a saltstiff statue. Mary added:
– If God gave me strength Id grab you tight! Id put all my might into that! Looks like the Almightys aiming a slap right at you, she said, pointing at the bruise under Andrews eye.
– Well done, someone! David chuckled. Give him a hand!
– Father, whats happened to you? Have you lost your mind? Ive been away for twenty years! Why this treatment? Andrew shouted.
– Who told you what to do? David asked. Well kick you out now and Ill thank the one who helped.
– I have no idea who that could be, Andrew snapped. I was on a bus home when my neighbour Pete recognized me and came over to greet me!
When the bus stopped, a young fellow leapt out, stared straight at me, spat in my face and ran off. By the time I recovered, the trail was gone.
– A mysterious hero! David smiled. We should ask Pete who ran into you.
– Dad, is that all you care about? Andrew shouted. Just because Ive been gone twenty years, does that mean I can disappear?
– What use do we have for a traitor like you here? Mary answered.
– Why am I a traitor? Andrew demanded.
– Because! shouted a voice from the back of the kitchen.
– And whos this brave one? Andrew growled.
A figure stepped into the light.
– That lad over there slapped me! Andrew pointed at the boy.
– Good lad, grandson! David beamed. You didnt miss the chance!
– What grandson? Andrew recoiled.
– Exactly this! Mary blocked him with her body. Your son! Abandoned!
– I have no son! Andrew replied, his voice shaking. Never have I had one! If I did, Id know!
– Remember why you fled the village twenty years ago! David shouted, his voice breaking.
***
Andrew never called his departure a runaway. It had been planned, only he left a little early, and there were several reasons.
He had to travel faralmost across the whole countryto attend a naval college. He wanted to earn a scholarship, but the money would barely cover a modest life. Asking his parents for help across the country was awkward; they could send food, not cash, and sending provisions was a nightmare.
There was a second reason. Just before he left, trouble was brewing in his home village. If hed lingered a week or two longer, the wedding season would have begun and hed have been stuck forever. The village girls were being courted en masse, and he preferred to escape that.
When asked Why? he would have said:
– I want my life tied to the sea! I wont stay at home while Im off on an expedition, only to return with nothing but regrets.
The sea entered Andrews life by chance. After school he first served his country, then was sent to the Royal Navy. Years at sea taught him that land life wasnt for him.
When he finally returned, a placement card for a shipmechanics apprenticeship was already waiting. Before starting, he decided to have a bit of a spree, just to make sure he never felt that pull again.
Young men after their service behave in predictable waysdrinking, fighting, boastingwhether at a pub, in a brawl, or with a lover. Andrew, once he began to understand, watched those revelers and saw how a proud eagle from the forces can be reduced to a chick destined for the pot.
He didnt want that fate. No matter how much he partied, he kept his belt tight, even stitching it himself before any outing, tightening the buckle with a bolt.
There were complications, but better to suffer there than to waste a whole life later.
His reputation grew among the villages eligible maidens. He was young, promising, with a clear plan, and, most importantly, his name stayed clean.
He was besieged from every sideinvited to tea, offered sweet words, while other families sent delegations to his parents, hoping to arrange a match through them.
Andrew saw the trap. He knew he couldnt defend his position. Either theyd break him, or his parents would be swayed. So he slipped away from the village a month and a half early.
As the old saying goes, A watched pot never boils, or rather, Better safe than sorry.
He arrived at the port, booked a bunk in a hostel, submitted his papers, got his enrolment letter, and wrote home to say hed arrived, got a job, and was fine.
His parents replied with a furious letter, calling him a traitor, a coward, and a host of other vile names, insisting the paper would hold the truth.
They even wrote that he no longer had parents, no home, and that his place was in the deep sea.
Andrew, baffled, kept writing, begging for an explanation, but never received a telegram back.
He could have stormed back, but his studies kept him afloat. He kept writing.
When he finally earned his diploma, a single, crumpled note arrived from home, half a sheet of notebook paper:
May you drown! Traitor! Coward!
Signed not by his mother or father, but by David Peterson and Mary Peterson.
He never learned why, but it was clear they no longer welcomed him.
He signed a naval contract and left for the sea. About every six months he would set foot on the mainland, send another letter home, then sail away again, no longer waiting for replies.
At forty, the need to understand why his parents had turned against him outweighed any new voyage.
The reunion turned out to be anything but warm, full of unexpected twists.
– Why did you run? Andrew mimicked. Why did you think you could hide me from a marriage? Did you think I wouldnt see you plotting with half the village to find a convenient match?
I saw the gifts, heard the promises! You knew I was going to study, yet you tried to trap me! David snarled.
– We wanted a good match for you, but you chose Natalie and fled! Mary hissed. Found an orphan, did you?
She claimed shed come to us after I left, asking for advice about a child she was carrying. We, what, throw our own grandson to fate?
– When did she come? Andrew asked. A month after I left I wrote to you, and you told me not to return!
– Natalie told us she was pregnant with your child! David replied. You told her to have an abortion and disappear from your life!
– Interesting, Andrew said. And you? After I was banished?
– We took her in! She was an orphan, no one else. She now carries our grandsons blood! Look, we raised Thomas! Mary said.
– Call Natalie over, Andrew demanded. Well sort this out.
– Theres no one to sort with, Thomas replied. My mother died ten years ago. My grandparents raised me.
– Fine! Andrew shook his head. And my son met his dad eyetoeye!
– Youre lucky we didnt kill you for abandoning my pregnant mother! Thomas shouted. At least my grandparents turned out decent!
– So youre all right, and Im the traitor and coward! David added. You ran from responsibility and even sent a poor girl to an abortion!
– Natalie wrote to you saying she gave birth to a son! Mary said. And you called her a liar in your last letter!
– Did you see the letter? Andrew asked.
– Unlike you, we believed the girl! Mary said.
– If youre all about truth, lets do a DNA test! Andrew suggested. Otherwise I cant prove my innocence. If Im the father, you can crucify me at the gate!
The test came back negative. Andrew handed the results to his parents.
– Is that clear? he asked. Natalie knew I wasnt the father, but she came to you.
The real problem wasnt that they believed a false story, but that they accepted their son as a coward and traitor.
For twenty years they never forgave me. Now I dont need your forgiveness.
I could pity you, but I wont. So farewell! You said goodbye to me twenty years ago, after all.
Andrew left, and Thomas stayed, continuing to milk the old folks, insisting he was their beloved grandson, that the test was wrong, that his mother was saintly.
In the end, the tale teaches that holding onto grudges only poisons the heart, and that truth, however painful, is a bridge we must cross before we can ever find peace.
