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Then
the small boy took another deep breath as he paused.

‘
My mum was in tears and she was telling my auntie how my dad was coughing up blood and was choking, and how he was in terrible pain’ explained Tom, now in floods of tears again.

‘Ay, that sounds terrible,
lad, really terrible’ uttered the friendly priest as he expressed his sincerest sympathy to the small boy.

Tom now dropped his head to the floor as if in shame.

‘Then I overheard my mum say how
she thought my dad would be better off dead, as at least it would end all his suffering so much then.’

The
small boy continued crying now as the old priest tried to comfort him.

‘I can understand your mother saying that, Tom, because cancer can be a terrible thing
, terrible’ uttered the priest sympathetically.

But then the small boy continued.

‘I went to bed again
and just kept thinking about what my mum had said’ he explained.

Then he
looked up.

‘In our school we say prayers in the morning
assembly’ he told the priest, suddenly changing the subject.

‘Ay, well
that’s a good thing’ the priest nodded his head in approval.

Tom fidgeted around nervously now.

‘
Is this all you wanted to tell me, young Tom?’ smiled the priest.

‘No, not everything’ replied Tom
as he looked all around him nervously.

‘You can be sure nothing
you tell me will go beyond these four walls’ Father Mathews assured him. ‘It’s part of our jobs you see, Tom, to keep anything we’re told a secret’ he smiled as Tom now nodded his head.

‘
Well, thinking about the prayers we said at school I got out of bed…’ Tom cried a little more before taking another big deep breath.

‘Then
I just prayed for my dad to die without any pain, so he wouldn’t suffer anymore’ explained the small boy before bursting into tears all over again.

‘There, there, you
just did what you thought was best for your old dad’ smiled Father Mathews.

‘But you don’t understand, Fathe
r Mathews. When I woke up the next morning, I went downstairs to find my mum in tears. Then she told me that my dad had died the previous night, and not from his cancer, she said his heart had just stopped in the middle of the night, around the same time I had said my prayer!’

Tom was inconsolable now.

‘I killed my dad!’ he cried with his head now buried in his hands.

‘
There, there, you didn’t kill your father, Tom, your father merely died of what we call, natural causes’ Father Mathews assured him.

‘But why did my dad die
that
night then and at
that
time and from his heart?’ questioned Tom tearfully.

The
priest was somewhat taken aback by the unusual nature of the young boy’s confession and he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to him now.

‘Well, Tom’ he began as his mind raced a little
‘sometimes in life strange coincidences
do
happen. Let me tell you this though, it is quite common for a person’s heart to just stop when they are very ill. I like to believe it is God’s way of saving good people from anymore suffering’ the priest finally explained.

‘But God
now
hates
me!’ Tom cried, bursting into tears all over again.

‘No
, I’m sure that God doesn’t hate you, Tom’ smiled Father Mathews, thinking to himself that he’d finally got to the heart of the matter now.

‘God doe
sn’t hate you, Tom, far from it’ smiled the priest.

‘Then why did God show me
Hell last night then?’ demanded Tom tearfully.

Father Mathews was
just left open mouthed now.

The maturity of this young man had already surprised him, but this latest revelation was an enormous shock to him. At first he struggled to respond to this young boy’s astonishing statement.

‘But w
hat do you mean, Tom?’ he asked curiously ‘do you mean you’ve seen pictures of Hell with all the flames and stuff, maybe in a comic or something?’ he questioned.

‘No, Hell is nothing like
that
’ replied Tom confidently.

Father Mathews was
very shocked now, for not only was he convinced that this young boy was amazingly advanced for his age, but his latest statement was extraordinary.

He just stared at the small boy now.

‘
Hell isn’t all fire and brimstone then, Tom? Then what is it like?’ he asked curiously.

‘It’
s terrible!’ cried Tom fearfully.

Then after crying some more Tom slowly began to explain.

‘I was shown a man with his
arms outstretched and he couldn’t move at all. He was on a distant planet so far away no man will ever be able to reach him there. So no one will
ever
be able to rescue him there either. This man is there for all time!’ Tom just uttered with a look of total fear in his eyes.

‘
So he will be there for all eternity then?’ injected the Priest as Tom just nodded.

‘
Yes, he is stuck there
forever
!’ explained the small boy as the priest’s eyes just grew wider as he became unable to hide his shock at the boy’s statement to him.

‘What else did you see, Tom?’ Father Mathew
s asked as he sat there quite fascinated.

‘The man was staring at something in front of him’ explained Tom.

‘That’s
the man with his arms outstretched?’ asked the priest curiously.

‘Yes’ replied Tom
as he seemed to be fidgeting away nervously. ‘The thing this man was staring at must have been very scary indeed as he looked absolutely terrified by it’ Tom explained.

Tom paused as
he just sat there shaking as he wiped his eyes again as the priest waited quite eager to hear some more.

Tom just paused a second before he continued.

‘Then,
just for a split second I was put in the man’s place. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced’ Tom uttered as he just burst into tears all over again ‘I’m scared now, Father Mathews, that’s now what’s going to happen to
me
!’ he cried.

Father Mathews allowed the boy to cry
quite a while before he tried to comfort him again. In truth, he was in shock himself. He was at a loss at really what he could even say to comfort the small boy.

In the end he just took a deep breath as he thought of an idea.

‘Ay, young
, Tom, shall I tell what I think happened?’ smiled the friendly priest.

‘Yes please’ nodded Tom gratefully.

‘The sheer coincidence of your father dying after your pra
yer made you feel responsible. Ay, I reckon that made you feel guilty and that guilt led you to having that really bad dream. That’s all it was, Tom, do you realise that, a really bad dream?’ smiled the priest.

‘Do you
really think that’s all it was?’ asked Tom tearfully.

‘Ay
, I’m sure it was’ smiled Father Mathews ‘why you loved your father didn’t you?’

‘Yes’ nodded Tom.

‘Then you have nothing at all to feel guilty about
do you. You go back to school now and don’t worry anymore about this’ smiled Father Mathews cheerfully.

‘You’re sure?’ asked Tom as he now stood up to go.

‘Yes, I
’m positive’ Father Mathews assured him.

Just then, Mrs O’Mally had just finished polis
hing some silver candlesticks on the altar and she then came bumbling down the centre isle of the church.

‘OH, MY GIDDY AUNT
!’ she suddenly exclaimed in shock ‘Father Mathews, I swear you’ve just aged me forty years! Why I never even saw you sitting there’ she explained in surprise.

‘Ah, Mrs O’Mally, I’m sure if you’d
taken my advise about wearing your hearing aid you would have heard us both sitting here talking’ the priest replied with a smile.

‘Do
what?’ Mrs O’Mally puzzled as she hadn’t heard him properly.

Tom instantly cheered up and couldn’t help but giggle a little.

‘Ay,
Father Mathews, you have to stop mumbling away so much’ she complained as he just winked his eye at Tom when she wasn’t looking.

‘And who might this young man be, Father?’ asked Mrs O’Mally curiously.

‘Well this is young Tom Ellis who
has come here for confession’ Father Mathews explained with a smile.

‘Well pardon me for telling you your job, Father
Mathews, but isn’t the lad a bit young?’ she insisted.

‘Ay
well, happen you’re right, Mrs O’Mally, but he has just confessed to being a bank robber, he claims he stole a million pounds from the bank just up the road here, but I do suspect he might be fibbing a little’ The Father smiled.

‘It’s not nice to make fun of me, Father and I think you shouldn’t be joking about the Holly confessional either’ she told him off sternly.

‘Ay, happen you’re right
, Mrs O’Mally’ he smiled ‘now where would I be without you keeping me on the straight and narrow?’ he joked.

Then quickly changing the subject he asked;

‘I say, Mrs O’Mally would you be going passed young Tom’s school, Elm Park Primary?’

‘Ay
, that I would’ she replied busily putting on her hat and coat.

‘Then I wonder if you might accompany this young lad just to see he gets there safely
and doesn’t get himself into robbing anymore banks?’ he asked.

‘Yes
I will. I tell you, the things I do for you, Father Mathews, I’m a saint I am, a saint’ she insisted as she quickly began to leave.

‘Ay that you are, Mrs O’Mally’ he replied. Then under his breath he mumbled ‘a slightly deaf one
, who should be wearing her hearing aid, but a saint none the less’ and he turned around and smiled at Tom.

‘Ay now, Tom, now don’t you
go worrying yourself anymore, you put all this business behind you’ he told him.

Then Father Mathews looked
to where Mrs O’Mally had dashed off to.

‘
Now you’d better take to your toes lad and catch up with old Mrs O’Mally there, she’s a lot faster than she looks, especially at home time funny enough’ he chuckled away.

‘Thanks, Father Math
ews’ replied Tom as he then dashed off after her.

‘Ay
and if anything like this happens again….’

Then Father Mathews just paused for a moment as he just gave it some thought.

‘
JUST TELL YOUR MOTHER!’ he shouted as Tom just smiled before he waved goodbye and ran off.

After the small boy had gone though, Father Mathews
just sat down in the pews again as he silently contemplated on the small boy’s statement.

There was just
‘something’ about the young boy’s story that had disturbed him quite deeply.

It was unusual to say the
very least.

7
^th
May
2014

Elm Park Primary,

Little Compton,

Surrey, England.

T
om was a popular boy at Elm Park Primary School, in fact he had made loads of friends there.

His best friend
by far though, was Alec James and they went everywhere together. They both shared a good sense of humour and liked all the same things.

A
s Alec was so brilliant at maths, Tom often called him ‘Smart Alec’ whilst Alec in turn often jokingly called him ‘Tripover Tom’ as he was always falling over his own feet!

Alec
especially got his own back when it came to sports as Tom had what Alec described as ‘a dysfunctional relationship with sports’ as Tom was simply terrible at everything he tried.

Their sports teacher, Mr Fellows, soldiered on regardless
though. He tried his up-most to find a sport Tom was good at. Mr Fellows was always fighting a losing battle though as Tom truly was hopeless!

One day Mr Fellows had all the boys lined up to teach them how to kick a football properly and take a
really good penalty kick. Typically, when Alec took his turn he neatly slotted the ball passed the keeper and brilliantly into the top corner of the net!

Tom though,
just miss-hit the ball so it slid to a halt well over a foot short of what would have been the goal line even if his shot
had
been on target in the first place.