MR. KWAKU

This is Joshua’s eleventh summer collecting spiders around the outside of the house. And this summer he did so without his best friend, who died the year before. Using a twig, he coaxes an eight legged green-eyed monster from its lair beneath the siding, and into a jar.

“Joshua dinner is ready, come inside.” His mother yells out the kitchen window. Running to his room, he leaves the jar on the nightstand before washing up.

While they ate, Joshua's parents gossiped about the goings-on in town. “Another suicide. She was the daughter of the Gables across town. Such a lovely girl, so sad.” His mother whispered. Joshua finishing his plate excuses himself and heads to his room.

In his room, he draws a book from his desk and leafs through its pages. Curious he thought, not finding his spider listed in his book of spiders. Tossing the book aside and bringing the jar on the nightstand close to his face. He stares at his green-eyed captive long into the night.

***

“Joshua. Joshua. Joshua, wake up!” startled, Joshua sits up in bed and looks about confused. “Joshua!” A loud voice coming from the nightstand shakes the walls and bed. It is the green-eyed monster staring back at him that speaks.

“I am Mr. Kwaku and I must grant you a wish, in exchange for my freedom.”

Joshua looks up in disbelief at a green-eyed, tall, thin black man in a brown suit now standing on the nightstand.

“Come, child, what is your fondest wish? What is it that you long for?” asked Mr. Kwaku stepping off the nightstand and pacing about the room.

“I wish to be a bird, so I can fly high and far from here.” Says Joshua, not giving it too much thought.

“If this is what you truly wish, I will grant it. But first, you now must sleep. ” Mr. Kwaku tucks Joshua in, covering him from head to toe in a white blanket.

***

A crowing rooster signals the morning sunrise. A cool breeze enters Joshua’s open second-floor bedroom window. Pieces of shattered glass from the jar that once held the green-eyed monster, now lay strewn across the bedroom floor. And Joshua’s parents would soon discover, after repeated calls to breakfast. That their son was no longer.

Mr. Kwaku the town’s medical examiner. Would later describe the cause of death, as a spider-bite induced accidental fall.