Lady Persson had barely slept in weeks. She was an upright and serious woman, but she had cried until she was too dehydrated to shed any more tears. She refused to watch any news or even go on the internet, yet she always kept her phone close in case he’d call. Her son had become an urban legend. A completely normal man who disappeared when he walked through an equally normal door.
At first, the legend was about the door itself. They called it a magical gateway to a different dimension or a portal to hell. Sneaking into the office and filming yourself going through the unassuming doorway became a trend. When no one could replicate what happened on that day, the attention shifted to her son. The major theory was that he was some otherworldly dimension hopper. His awkward gait and blank facial expression were enough for the internet to label him as something other than human.
Lady hated the internet, the media, and the world. Her sweet baby had never been like normal children, but to deny his humanity was unacceptable. He was kind, smart, and compassionate. In her opinion, he was more human than anyone she had ever met.
Despite the media attention, the authorities did little to help. They were told that an adult had every right to disappear and that men her son's age were the type to just abandon everything and move. Lady knew it was bullshit. The case was too weird, and they didn’t know how to investigate a man just evaporating, so they ignored it. Lady never gave up, though. She wandered the streets from morning until night for the tiniest chance that someone would know something about her son.
Her heart clenched as she looked at the mantle with all his photos on it. His first day of school, the one where he holds his spelling bee trophy, his 10th birthday, and his graduation. He looked just as blank and uninterested in all of them, but she knew he was happy. She knew the way his eyes shifted when he was nervous and his habit of adjusting his glasses when he was excited. He was over thirty now, but he was still her son. Her lovely, brilliant, sensitive Norman.
Guy Persson had always been harsh on his son. Strict discipline led to a successful life. Now, though, he wished he had done more with his son. He was gone, dead before 35. Guy was convinced of that. Nobody just disappears into thin air; that was impossible in an endless amount of ways. Someone had obviously killed him and tampered with the tapes. The authorities assured him over and over again that the tapes hadn’t been touched, but he didn’t buy it.
His son wouldn’t just disappear. He knew that because his son was an almost identical copy of himself. His son wasn’t the exact same; he had inherited his big heart from his mother, but that would make him even more unlikely to just leave them. They had dinner together every other Friday, something he never missed, even when he was swamped with work or in the middle of moving homes. If there was something his son wouldn’t do, it was leave his family.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Guy had started planning his funeral, something his wife refused to be a part of. She still held out hope that their son was alive. He knew she would accept reality eventually, but he wouldn’t crush the little hope she had by insisting she partake. It was funny how life worked. He had always told his son that funerals were a waste of time and money, yet here he was, picking out the most expensive flower arrangements and grave plot for him. Guy had never bought his son anything extra, just the necessities, so he bought every add-on and premium service he could. His son deserved at least that much. He wasn’t an emotional man, but no father can stay calm when picking out a headstone for their only son. He had to take regular breaks to cry in the bathroom, where his wife couldn’t hear him.
He really wished he had done more for Norman, the son he was so proud of.
The funeral service was heavy. Paying your respects to an empty coffin while the two most stoic people you know bawled their eyes out was something that would stick with you. A surprising number of people came. Both sides of the extended family, old and current co-workers, childhood friends, and even the barista that served Normans morning coffee for over 10 years. He didn’t know it, but he had impacted a lot of people's lives.
Everyone had something to say about the most uninteresting man in the world. There were stories about his poor attempts at jokes, times he helped others, and how he inspired people to take life more seriously. Norman was a constant. A comfort that anchored people no matter how turbulent their lives were. No matter what happened, the stoic man with the rigid posture would always be there, the same as always. The fact that he wouldn’t be there anymore was unsettling.
Some found it humorous that a boring man like Norman would go out with such a bang that the entire world was interested in him. Guy and Lady would probably chuckle sadly about that in a few years' time. Now wasn’t that time, though. The uptight Lady and the authoritative Guy were reduced to sobbing messes as the empty coffin was lowered into the ground. They may not have expressed it, but Norman was their entire world. Ever since he was born, he had been their sole reason for working as hard as they did. Now that he was gone, they didn’t know what to do.
The guests left one by one after saying their final goodbyes, but his parents stayed. They stayed for a long time, just staring at the sight no parent wanted to see: their precious child's tombstone. It was plain and unremarkable, white text on a square slab of stone. It was completely ordinary, but the inscription etched into the stone made an unremarkable piece of stone into a tourist destination for alien enthusiasts and ghost hunters. This wasn’t an ordinary stone anymore. It was the grave of the man who walked through a doorway and disappeared.
Norman Guy Persson
1994-2025
You are loved more than you’ll ever know.
