by Terry Hayden
The weekend that Alice disappeared and the boy died from multiple snake bites had become a sort of Halloween legend. The first few years after the tragedies, Halloween was not recognized at all. Residents of the entire community waited on pins and needles for November 1 to roll around. The breathed a sigh of relief that nothing bad happened on Halloween night. By the fourth or fifth year after the tragedies some of the older boys ventured back out on that unsacred night. There pranks were limited and they traveled in groups for protection from ghosts of little girls and dead teenagers. Parents used the tragedies as a means of keeping their small children in line. If a childstarted misbehaving, the mother or father would bring up the story of ghostly Alice or grotesquely swollen Jay. The child would usually stop misbehaving, but he or she would be plagued with nightmares for a night or two afterwards.
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The county nurse came to visit the Hills about a week after William started talking again. She examined him and suggested to Tom that he should put William back into school in the Fall. Tom was not sure that school was such a good idea for his youngest son. Even though school would not be starting again for another month or so, William was very shy and withdrawn. He had hardly spoken more than a few words in the last week, and he was obviously suffering from bad dreams. Although he would not talk about the dreams, he would wake up at night completely terrified. He would not go outside after dark, even to the toilet, unless his daddy or one of his older brothers went along. And even though she had no experience with William’s type of behavior, the nurse diagnosed that the nightmares would soon pass. All she thought that he needed was exposure to the outside world. He had been closed off for so long both physically and mentally, that nightmares were most likely a typical reaction to his condition. She determined that by the time that the new school term started, his nightmares would be over.
The nightmares came on a nightly basis. They always started the same way that the morning started on the day that Alice disappeared. The children would be walking to school. Alice was so happy and excited that she could not wait to get there. She was running down the tracks and looking back at her brothers to see if they were catching up to her. The brothers would always be walking faster, but they seemed to be moving in slow motion. William was always the furthest back because he did not want any of the other kids to see him with Alice. The word ‘sissy’, ‘sissy’, kept repeating in his mind. Alice kept running faster and faster ahead of her brothers, and looking back as if to tease them. She reached the footbridge and stopped. The bridge in his dreams was much longer and narrower than the real footbridge. The wood was gnarled and twisted out of shape. It was suspended over a churning, bubbling, black liquid that was much too thick to be water. The liquid was moving so fast that William could not focus his eyes upon it.
Alice stood there watching the black liquid as it splashed over the sides of the footbridge and onto the tracks. She began to cry as the inky liquid began inching its way around her. When she was surrounded by the nasty substance, she turned to her brothers and pleaded for them to help her.
“Please help me. It is swallowing me up. I’m so scared. Please help me.” she begged.
All of the brothers tried to help her except William. He stood there trembling in horror as the liquid rose all around her. First it was up to her knees, and then her waist, and finally it was up to her neck. A rancid smoke began rising from the bubbling mass. When Alice realized that she was about to be carried away, she turned toward William, who was standing all alone.
“Why didn’t you try to help me. I needed you and you were afraid. You must help me now. I need to be with mother. Help me Will. I can’t rest until you find me. You can’t sleep until you help me.” she cried.
Suddenly the swirling ooze carried her away. The nightmares always ended the same way. William would wake up in a cold sweat, and feeling very sad and guilty for not helping his only sister. The nightmares continued until he was completely worn out.
Tom realized that unless the situation changed very soon that William was going to go completely crazy, or do something drastic to himself. He confronted his tormented son one day when they were all alone. He pleaded with William to tell him about the nightmares. He suggested that together they might be able to figure out how to make them stop. William was reluctant at first, but finally he gave in.
William first told him the dream that forced him to awaken from his zombie like form of existence. He then proceeded to tell his daddy the nightmare that was haunting him now. By the time that he was finished with his explanations, both of them were crying. Without even thinking Tom concluded that if only Alice’s body had been found, maybe William would not be having the horrible dreams.
As if struck by lightning, a light flashed in the back of William’s mind. The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together for him now. It all began earlier in the Summer when lightning knocked down the giant oak tree where their mother was laid to rest. In the first dream when he woke up Alice told him that she wanted to be with her mother. He obviously did not understand what she meant by that statement. And when he did not comply with her wishes, the nightmares began.
In the nightmares Alice pleads with him over and over to find her and to help her. Until he completed that task, she would not be at peace and he would not get any rest. It was so obvious to him now. Without saying anything more to his daddy, he knew exactly what he had to do. He had to find Alice’s remains and bury them beside of their mother. It was something that he owed to his sister, and he would do it alone.
William knew that he was the only living person who would be able to lay Alice to rest beside of their mother. He was the only person who would be able to find her, because he talked to her in his dreams. None of the other family members even had the dreams. At first he thought that he was having them because of the guilt that he felt for her death, but he now realized that that it was for another reason. Alice was not a vengeful person. She was coming to him in his dreams because he was the closest to her when she was alive. He was having nightmares because it was the only way that she could make him understand what she wanted. He wanted to help her because she must be in a horrible, lonely place. She wanted her bones to rest in a place of love. He wanted that too.
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Chapter Two
In order for William’s plan to succeed, he would have to be stronger than at any other time in his life. If he let fear get in his way, he would lose the battle and Alice would be lost forever. He could possibly become lost himself if things went wrong, but he decided that win or lose, he could not continue to live this way.
That night after supper the Hill family talked about the day’s activities. Joseph had the big story because one of his coworkers lost a finger in the big saw at the mill. No one could figure out exactly how it happened, other than carelessness because the man had worked there for twenty years. Alan wanted to talk about how much he liked the boss’s daughter, but he was too bashful in front of his brothers. Tom asked William how his day had been, but William seemed too distracted to even hear his daddy’s question. When asked again, he answered that his day had been fine. He did not want his family to think that anything was wrong or that he was planning anything.
After the social time was over, they all went to bed. Since the older brothers were all working, they were able to buy some furniture for the house. The two younger brothers still shared a bed, and Tom still slept on the tiny cot next to the kitchen stove.
William waited until he was sure that everyone in the house was asleep before he set his plan into motion. He eased the old patchwork quilt off of the bed, and left Alan snoring loudly. He roughly folded the quilt and tucked it under his arm. He walked slowly toward the door, being careful not to make a sound. Even though he was afraid to go outside after dark, he knew that he would have to toughen up and face his fears. He slowly stepped down the rickety steps and into the darkn
ess. Before closing the door behind him, he looked at his brothers who were all peacefully asleep. He longed for the security of the bed but he knew what he had to do.
He walked over to the stump of the old oak tree. He looked around to make sure that he was as close to his mother’s grave as he could be. He spread out the old patchwork quilt beside of the spot where his mother’s head should be resting, and he settled down to go to sleep. The old quilt reminded him of his sister because they shared it all of their time together. It had protected them from the cold, and he felt secure and close to little Alice when he lay on top of it.
Hopefully he would go to sleep soon. He did not want to lie there and think about what he had to do. He just wanted to sleep and get on with his plans. Mercifully, the sleep came quickly.
His plan was simple but well thought out in his eleven year old mind. Since the dream was always the same, he was going to manipulate his will to make himself closer to Alice on the tracks. When she got to the footbridge, he was going to be beside of her, or at least close enough to grab her hand before she disappeared into the inky liquid. He would be with her as she raced down the churning torrent to her mysterious grave. He would know exactly where her body was, and when he woke back up, all that he had to do was to go and get her. He would bring her home to rest beside of their mother.
The cool night air and the sounds of crickets lulled William into a relaxing sleep. He began to dream but it was a different dream this time. He was alone and walking on the tracks in a place that was unfamiliar to him. Everything looked out of place, distorted in color and sound. He thought that it was not the dream that he wanted to be in. Why was he in a different place? As if by magic a figure appeared on the tracks walking toward him. It looked like an old man, a stranger that he had never seen before. As the stranger got closer, William could see that his clothes were torn and dirty. His hair was matted together and full of twigs, and pieces of tree bark, and moss. The old man must have come from out of the forest or out from under the ground. Fear breathed down the back of William’s neck.
Just as they met on the track the old man turned to William and said, “I’ve been expecting you son. What took you so long?”
William wanted to run but it seemed like his feet were glued to the tracks. Fear had paralyzed his body, but his mind was racing away.
The old man repeated himself.
“What took you so long William? I know where you want to go and I know who you want to find. But you cannot take her from the place where she belongs unless you are ready to take her place.”
William was terrified and suddenly very cold. He looked into the old man’s eyes and they were glazed and shining. If only he could scream he would wake himself up from this terrible dream. No sounds would come. His sight and hearing were the only senses that would function properly, and both of them were keen to a fault.
Finally the old man spoke again, this time in a softer voice.
“I will talk to you again son. Soon, very soon. The next time that we talk you will know what I want and you will understand.”
He vanished into thin air, and that instant William woke up. He woke up next to his mother’s grave and he was terrified. He had never met or dreamed about anyone before who was as sinister and threatening as that old man. He knew that the old man wanted something from him but he was sure that he had nothing to bargain with. He was scared and confused and he felt like his plan had fallen apart. The old man must have known what he was going to do, and he appeared to put a stop to it.
William gathered up the old quilt and sneaked back into the house. He got back into bed beside of Alan and lay there trembling for what seemed like hours. He finally fell asleep again, this time without dreams.
The next day he had only vague recollections of the night before. Unlike his dreams about Alice, his last terrifyingdream was shadowy and mystical. He had to concentrate to even remember the dream at all. Maybe none of it happened. Maybe he slept in bed all night and never even rustled the covers. He had almost convinced himself of that until he noticed the fresh grass stain on the old patchwork quilt. Then he remembered as much as his psyche would allow.
The bad dreams about Alice disappeared that night. He tried to dream about her but no dreams would come. He slept through the night and awoke each morning rested and tranquil. He still thought about Alice everyday, but the old man from his last bad dream was a distant memory.
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Chapter Three
The family was happy that the old William was back with them, emotionally as well as physically. After all of those years since the tragedy, everything finally appeared to be getting back to normal. Joseph and Josh were hardly ever at home except to sleep, and Alan was there less and less. His relationship with the boss’s daughter was blossoming into something serious. Talk around the house nowadays revolved around which one of the brothers would be leaving first. Even though Joseph was the oldest, it was possible that he might not be the first to leave the nest. But he had not told his daddy and his brothers that he had been checking into houses for rent. That would be a surprise along with the other news.
The lazy days of Summer were coming to an end and for William that meant that school was on the horizon. He looked forward to it with bittersweet feelings. It would be sad without the encouragement and support of Alice, and he was going to miss Miss Coalson’s smile and angelic voice as well. But his life was in transition and he looked forward to starting over fresh and new. Since the nightmares had passed, he was exploring the world around him a little bit more each day. He felt confident and unafraid of what might be waiting around the curves up ahead. He walked almost as far as the school a couple of times, but he could not make himself cross the footbridge where Alice lost her life. He decided that since he would be going to school alone, that he would cross the trestle instead of using the bridge. No one would know any differently and he was sure that he could outrun the slow moving train if he had to do so. He was almost twelve years old and he felt like he could take care of himself.
The week before school brought transition to the rest of the Hill family as well. Joseph announced that he was getting married on Friday, and he and his new wife would be moving to Abingdon. The family met his fiance, Amy Cardwell, several weeks earlier, and they agreed that she was perfect for Joseph. She was hardworking and very pretty besides. He already had a job lined up in Abingdon, and Amy was a secretary at the local newspaper. Tom was sad that his oldest son was leaving, but he was happy that Joseph was doing so well for himself.
Alan took advantage of the joyous occasion to confess that he was also moving, but not as far away as Joseph. He would be living in two rooms over the general store as soon as he finished cleaning them up. There had been several break ins in the surrounding communities, and his boss thought that it would be a good idea to have someone living close to the store. The sheriff reinforced the idea. Alan jumped at the chance to live closer to Silvie, the boss’s daughter. Before long, he predicted to himself, he would be making an announcement similar to Joseph.
It was going to be different around the house with two brothers moving away. William was a little sad to see his brothers leaving, but at least he would see them again occasionally. It would not be like the disappearance of little Alice that was so sudden and permanent. William knew that he would never fully recover from that tragedy even if he lived to be a hundred. The coming of school would focus his mind on other things besides family matters. He was going to have to work very hard just to keep up with the other kids because of his many years away from school and life in general. He looked forward to the challenge.
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William was better prepared for the first day of school than he was six years ago. He knew exactly what to expect this time. For the past weeks since his nightmares had stopped, he had been looking at books and reading for practice. He read all of the book that A
lice won in the drawing contest from cover to cover. Next to the old family Bible, Alice’s story book was the most prized possession in the house. He was careful not to bend the pages, and he always washed his hands before he opened The Treasures of the Past Storybook. Tom was so proud to see him appreciating the book and feeling so well that he spent almost all of the daylight hours with him, reading and practicing writing, and doing numbers tables.
On Sunday night before school started on Monday morning, the house was much calmer than it was those six long years ago. William and his daddy felt nostalgic for that other Sunday night, but both of them knew that things could never be the same again. Joseph and Alan were gone, and Josh was visiting his girlfriend. Before William took his bath in the old washtub beside the kitchen stove, he and his daddy practiced numbers and some spelling words. He went to bed feeling a little sad and a little excited at the same time.
The walk to school on Monday morning was uneventful. The most thrilling part was the walk across the trestle above the footbridge. His heart beat faster knowing that a train might approach while he was crossing. Even though a train was not expected for another hour or so, the thrill was still there. When he arrived at the school, it was the first day for everyone. There was an air of uncertainty and insecurity among most of the students. The other kid’s faces were all new to him. The teachers’ faces were new too. The biggest surprise was the Principal, who was a man. He had a stern look about him that made all of the students apprehensive.
When the bell rang for classes to start, the childrenbegan filing into different classrooms, all except William. He was not sure where that he should go. He was too old for the first grade, but he was unsure if he went to the middle grade or the upper grade level. He was standing there with a puzzled look on his face when the new Principal noticed him. The Principal motioned for him to come over to where he was standing. William got nervous and insecure about himself.