Corban’s Life was a Series of Sorrows

By: Brianna Lee Hubler

Copyright © 2022 Brianna Lee Hubler. All rights reserved.

__________Corban’s father walked out of his life before he was born. He was the type who wanted all the fun of courting with none of the responsibility. The news that Corban’s mother was pregnant was more than he bargained for. He swiped a framed photo of himself and his girlfriend from its place on the windowsill and threw it against the wall. The frame shattered. Corban’s father retrieved the photo, snipped the photo in half, and cut himself out of his girlfriend’s life.

__________He left the vandalized photo on the coffee table of their shared apartment with an angry, unjustified, handwritten letter. The cruel letter accused Corban’s mother of cheating on his father, of getting pregnant by another man. The letter was bogus.

__________Corban’s mother returned home from her first ultrasound appointment. She found the letter and read it. She hugged her stomach, dropped to her knees, and sobbed. She wiped her eyes, whipped out her smartphone, and dialed Corban’s father.

__________An automated voice answered, “We’re sorry but your call cannot be completed at this time.”

__________Corban’s mother gasped; her boyfriend had blocked her number. She could not reassure him that Corban was his child nor argue against the sudden breakup of their longstanding relationship. What reason had she given her boyfriend to believe her unfaithful?

__________While the automated voice repeated its pseudo-sympathetic phrase, Corban’s mother replayed her and her boyfriend’s mornings and evenings together in her thoughts, until she accepted, she had done nothing to mislead him. She tapped the red circle on the call screen and ended the call.

__________She panicked and dialed another number: Corban’s grandfather. She relayed to him her fears of raising Corban alone.

__________“I hear what you’re saying, Baby. Way I see it, you’ve got two choices left: You can run after that boy, let him pressure you into doing something stupid to keep him around, or you can forget him and take care of that precious life inside you,” Corban’s grandfather replied. “You’re a smart girl, so I’m sure you know which choice is right.”

__________Corban’s mother paused for a moment. She glanced at the snipped photo on the coffee table. She sighed and looked away. Her eyes travelled to her belly, and she remembered the sound of Corban’s heartbeat. The doctor had said it was a healthy, hardy beat, and although it was too soon to tell, he guessed the child was a boy. Corban’s mother placed a hand on her belly and raised the phone again to her ear.

__________“Thanks, Dad,” she said. “I think we’re going to be all right without Devon.”

__________“That’s my girl,” Corban’s grandfather replied.

__________Father and daughter said their goodbyes and ended the call. Corban’s mother carried him and raised him. For the first fourteen years of Corban’s life, he and his mother lived together happily. Corban’s grandfather paid the tuition for Corban to attend a prestigious boarding school. Although Corban was nervous about attending a school away from home, he knew the value of the opportunity, and his mother encouraged him.

__________She and Corban planned to celebrate this next chapter in their lives. The evening before the start of Corban’s first semester at his new school, his mother walked to the local grocery store to rent a movie and buy some microwave popcorn. She walked in on an armed robbery.  The clerk glanced at her, signaled for her to escape and call the police. The robber noticed. He turned and shot Corban’s mother. The bullet pierced her heart. Another customer heard the shot from the parking lot. The customer called 911, but Corban’s mother died before the police and the paramedics arrived.

__________The police arrested the robber. The mugshot in the paper revealed the robber was Devon, who never outgrew his hatred of responsibility. The police informed Corban of the incident and asked him if he had anywhere to go or anyone to turn to. Corban nodded solemnly and called his grandfather. His grandfather drove to his house, helped him load his things into the car, and drove him to his dorm.

__________Corban organized his things in his dorm room and befriended his roommate. Grief crippled Corban’s focus. He struggled to study and to connect with most of the other students. Corban conveyed his troubles only to his grandfather and his roommate. He fought to maintain his grades and hide his hardships. He wanted to honor his mother’s memory by doing well in the school she and his grandfather chose for him.

__________On breaks, Corban lived with his grandfather on a country estate. His grandfather taught him how to hunt, fish, and garden. Corban loved the way the pine trees smelled when the morning dew bespeckled their needles and wetted their roots. He preferred his and his grandfather’s ventures into the woods, over the grueling chores of upkeeping his grandfather’s estate, and the desperate fight to focus on his studies at school.

__________His heart sank the day his grandfather forgot the way home from one of the trails they regularly hiked. Corban led them back to the manor and called the hospital. The doctor confirmed his grandfather’s onset of dementia.

__________Corban offered to drop his classes and attend the local country school. His grandfather refused. Corban reluctantly returned to his studies. He managed his grandfather’s disease and cared for his grandfather’s needs whenever he was home, but the disease ate away at his grandfather’s mind more and more with each passing day.

__________When Corban was seventeen, his grandfather’s housekeeper went out with the groundskeeper for a long-awaited date. His grandfather assured the housekeeper that he could take his afternoon pills himself, but forgot the dosage, took too many pills, and passed out. He died in his sleep long before his staff returned.

__________When an officer knocked on Corban’s dorm room door, Corban dropped to his knees and covered his ears. He knew the knock. The awkward tap, tap, tap of a stranger about to tell him another loved one was lost. Corban slowly rose to his feet and turned the knob. The officer relayed the news of Corban’s grandfather’s death and questioned him about his grandfather’s state of mind. Corban answered calmly. The officer promised to send a social services representative over the next morning.

__________When the social services representative arrived, Corban was gone. He borrowed his roommate’s car and drove to his grandfather’s estate. He passed the keys to the housekeeper and asked her to return his roommate’s car. Ashamed of her absence the day her employer died, the housekeeper quietly obeyed Corban’s request.

__________Corban gathered his tools, his hunting bow, and his hiking supplies. He tossed his student I.D. card in his backpack. Then he packed his supplies and strapped his bow to his backpack. He escaped into the woods before social services tracked him to the estate. He followed the trails through the estate into the national forest. He camped in the woods, fished, and hunted. Every two weeks he travelled deeper into the woods, until the authorities called off their search. Foster care had nothing to offer a young man who would age out of their broken system in a year’s time. Corban patiently waited out the year, living off the land, until his eighteenth birthday awarded his independence from the state.

__________On that day, he returned to his grandfather’s empty manor. He retrieved the key to his grandfather’s safe from the drawer in his grandfather’s desk. He opened the safe, collected his birth certificate, his grandfather’s savings, and the deed to the estate.

__________Then he locked the safe, pocketed the key, showered, and shaved. He dressed in one of his grandfather’s musty, forgotten suits and headed down the road. A stranger offered him a ride, but Corban had had enough of strangers. He shook his head and trekked the long road to city hall.

__________He presented his identity, claimed his inheritance, and paid the overdue taxes on the estate. He hopped on a city bus and returned to his school. He reenrolled for his final year and soon graduated in honor of his mother and grandfather. His exceptional grades merited him a scholarship for the college of his choosing. Corban, the young man who suffered a series of undeserved sorrows, survived and moved on, like his mother before him.