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[seymoure]

33.
“Never Alone”

Three weeks after the shooting of Wiley Earl, Pappy Agamemnon had the dream.

It was one of the hottest nights of the year and Pappy had moved out to doze on the porch swing. It was an old habit, one that held over from his childhood. Bel didn’t take it well, she always took it as a sort of rejection. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to share her bed, it was that the bed sheets were unforgiving to his skin.

And when she added the air conditioner it became like an icebox in the room, and that was torturous to him too.

Out on the porch, at least the night air moved around him. That was all the comfort the blistering darkness was able to surrender to him, but he would take what he could get.

When he came to himself in the dream, it was still in the porch swing, but this time it was hanging over the local cemetery.

That graveyard he had visited so many times in the past, on so many tragic occasions. Now it was the middle of the night and the only reason he could see was that there was an over sized full moon over head.

Well, at least his dreams got good lighting.

So far it was no worse than the ones he used to have after watching Boris Karloff in the Universal movies he had always loved.

But then, he heard something that made it significantly worse.

There were voices, coming from beneath the ground. Muffled by the muddy soil he heard the voices of children.

“We do not rest, mister,” They said.

“We are not at peace,” Someone said.

He looked up and found Casey Murdock standing by his side. The boy had wanted to be a doctor, but now stood in the clothes he was buried in.

“You know it is true,” Spoke Aaron Manchester, “You know this is not
done.”

“Didn’t Wiley do it?” He pleaded with the boys.

Not a voice answered his plea.

Then the Elkins boy stood next to him.

“You also know that I’m part of this,” He demanded.

Pappy looked down to avoid the boy's eyes and answered, “Yeah, I do.”

“This isn’t over,” All the boys chorused.

“We do not rest in peace,” Came the echo from below ground.

Then the thunderbolt rocked the house.

Pappy was in his sweat soaked bed, with Bel asleep next to him.

The old man got up and looked out at the gathering thunderstorm that threatened to rock the night with its roar.

He doubted he would rest this night.

 

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens