The Severed Hand

“I don't know what I was thinking when I got so involved with my experiments. My poor Josette, she was the love of my life and to just throw it all away over an experiment was inconceivable, but I did. Now I must live the rest of my days as a lonely old man down in a dusty old lab with my assistant Gregor” said Dr. Van Lewton.

“It's been ten lonely years with a bunch of botched experiments that seem to go nowhere. I thought I'd give it one more shot. Then all of a sudden there was a knock on the door. I said to Gregor, "Who could that be? No one has been at my castle since my beautiful wife Josette left me on that stormy night. I pleaded with her to stay, but she had all she could take and slammed the door behind her and left without saying goodbye. I know she was very hurt by me neglecting her, but I really thought this experiment would bring us wealth beyond our wildest dreams. Enough self pity, I better go see who is at the door. I wish you could talk to me Gregor, but you always do as I ask and I am grateful for your loyalty,” said Dr. Van Lewton.

Dr. Van Lewton was somewhat hesitant to answer the door, but he was excited to have a visitor. Dr. Van Lewton opened the door and tears flowed down his cheeks. He tried his best to hold back the tears, but they just kept flowing. Dr. Van Lewton said to his visitor, "Is that you Josette, is that you, please come in. I must be dreaming."The visitor placed her hands on his cheeks wiping away his tears saying, "It is I, Josette, your wife, I'm coming home."

They embraced and their lips touched and the tears flowed down their cheeks. Dr. Van Lewton said to Josette, "Please forgive me for what I have done. If you decide to stay, I promise things will be different, I won't neglect you like I did in the past." They embraced and kissed one more time.

Dr. Van Lewton yelled out Gregor's name saying "Gregor! Gregor! Come here. I want you to meet our visitor."Dr. Van Lewton was so excited he forgot Gregor couldn't hear a word he said. Dr. Van Lewton said, "Wait right here Josette, I'll go get Gregor, my caretaker and assistant. I want you to meet him.” Dr. Van Lewton went down in the laboratory to get Gregor to come upstairs to meet his beautiful wife, Josette. Dr. Van Lewton wrote down on paper what he wanted to tell Gregor as he has always done. Gregor was so excited for Dr. Van Lewton. He knew this would make the doctor a very happy man. Dr. Van Lewton wrote on a piece of paper introducing his lovely wife Josette to Gregor. The note said, "Gregor this is my beautiful wife, Josette, she has come back to me and she wants to stay," said Dr. Van Lewton.

Gregor bowed in front of Josette, showing that it was an honor to meet her.

"Why isn't Gregor speaking," said Josette.

"Gregor was born a deaf mute, but he has been a great help with my experiments," said Dr. Van Lewton.

"That's a shame, does he have any family?" said Josette."No, he just showed up cleaning one day at the grounds of the castle and I asked him his name, but got no response. He made hand gestures and pointed at his mouth, that's when I knew he couldn't talk, so I pointed at the castle for him to follow me inside. Gregor followed me to the castle and we went inside my study. I had Gregor sit down at my desk and write his name and everything about him and why he was cleaning the castle grounds. He wrote on the piece of paper, my name is Gregor, and I live in the forest behind the castle and feed off the land. I have no family, but I've always dreamed of living in a castle but I was afraid to ask if you needed a caretaker for the castle grounds. I just kept to myself until that terrible day when Josette left on that stormy night. The next morning, I got the courage to come to your castle in hopes you could use me as your caretaker.”