Read Online A Tale from the Hills by Terry Hayden - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Terry Hayden
Ads: Link
over him. Tears filled his eyes and he cried openly for several minutes.
The storm had passed and crickets were chirping loudly under the rickety steps of their tiny house.
**********
William’s rebirth was the topic of conversation in the community for several days. Coworkers of Joseph and Josh congratulated them on their brother’s recovery. Customers at the general store asked Alan many questions about his brother’s so called ‘awakening’. There were rumors circulating about all kinds of mysterious circumstances surrounding the event. Many of the residents of the community were as superstitious as they were curious.
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.
***********
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 Even though school would not be starting again for another month or so, William was very shy and withdrawn.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
The storm had passed and crickets were chirping loudly under the rickety steps of their tiny house.
**********
William’s rebirth was the topic of conversation in the community for several days. Coworkers of Joseph and Josh congratulated them on their brother’s recovery. Customers at the general store asked Alan many questions about his brother’s so called ‘awakening’. There were rumors circulating about all kinds of mysterious circumstances surrounding the event. Many of the residents of the community were as superstitious as they were curious.
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.
***********
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
Similar Books
