NightWalking

Night Walker
By
James Malone

Chapter 1

The soft slippers make almost no sound on the polished tile floor.
A small withered woman moves slowly and painfully down the darkened corridor leading to the station where the night nurse sits doing her paperwork. The nurse doesn’t look up as she quickly signs off on a chart and pulls another from the stack beside her. Had she noticed the woman a look of concern might have crossed her face and she might have interrupted her work to quietly lead the old lady back to her room knowing that it wouldn’t do to have Annie wandering the halls at this time of night.

All the nurses knew about Annie, it was something the new girls heard about in whispers not long after they started work at Shady Pines. Annie came to the home years ago after suffering a severe stroke, she had no living family and was unable to communicate, could barely walk and yet for some reason no one was sure of, she would suddenly began to wander the halls at all hours. They had tried leading her back to her room, even tried restraints but she always managed to slip back out. Her wandering wasn’t what made the nurses nervous, though the possibility of her falling and hurting her self was always on their minds, it was just something that seemed to be a strange coincidence.
When ever Annie walked, someone died.

Now the elderly woman continues silently on past the nurse station with a shuffling limp, one of her legs refuses to keep up and she has to drag it. She grips the wooden rail along the wall tightly and moves on across the small lobby with its comfortable chairs and television.

Annie knows it wasn’t always like this, even though she doesn’t understand how she knows. Thinking is so painful and thoughts and memories are always jumbled up in her mind like some jigsaw puzzle that can’t be worked out. She wants to remember, to know but no matter how hard she tries she can’t make sense of the things that wait there just out of reach. She needs to find one of the shining people, maybe they will help her. The nurses don’t understand and always just lead her back to her room, they don’t understand that She needs to find a, to find a messenger. She seems to remember that is what the shining people are called, and one is coming tonight.

With a determined grunt she pulls the leg behind her, gripping the rail and pulling herself forward. A distant memory floats up from the confusion, the wind, the wind in her hair, sun on her face. She closes her eyes and pulls herself around the corner and suddenly she is …

Chapter 2

Running.
Annie always loved running. She gripped the leather strap that held her school books tight and enjoyed the feel of the soft Springtime breeze on her face. She had pulled out the ribbon from her hair and now as she ran down the old red dirt road toward her house the wind made her long red hair fly in all directions. She made the turn where the road to her house forked off and slowed down with a happy laugh. Running was always fun, but not as fun as racing.
She missed racing with Eddie, but since he stopped going to school and took a job up at the saw mill her brother didn’t have time for races or fun anymore. Annie smiled at the thought of Eddie, tall and tow headed with that big goofy grin. Though he was seven years older than her she often managed to out run him or get him all flustered by telling him about some girl who she saw making eyes at him. Eddie took it all in with a good natured laugh, though he might get her back later by slipping a frog into her lunch pail or worse down the back of her dress.
Besides Ma and Pa there was her and Eddie and little Cora in the family. Cora was three but had always been sickly and Annie had heard some folks whisper that the poor child caught everything that was going around.

Annie passed the old rusty mailbox on its cedar pole and headed toward the house. She hadn’t gone far when she saw that the yard in front was full of people and there was even a car parked out there. Now the only folks she knew in these parts that had a car were the banker from town and Old Doc Adams. Annie knew about how hard the times was lately so a visit from either of those fellas meant that something was bad wrong. She clutched the school books tighter and continued on.

There were a crowd of folks gathered on the front porch and a few out under the oak tree where Eddie had tied an old tire and made a swing for her last summer. One woman she recognized was her Ma’s sister whom everyone called Aunt Pat because her name was Patricia.
Aunt Pat seemed to have been crying, which didn’t surprise Annie since Aunt Pat seemed to cry at the drop of a hat. It didn’t take much to get her started, she cried at weddings, she cried at funerals, heck she even cried at Christmas time when other folks was happy.
The woman dabbed her eyes with a white handkerchief  and headed toward the girl.

“Oh sweetie.” Annie found herself smothered in her Aunts ample bosom. “You have to be strong ok, you have to be a little lady for your Mother now. She is going to need you to help her through this.”
Annie managed to pull away enough to look up into the pudgy face with its red swollen eyes.
It must be Cora, thought Annie, that child must have done caught something and got bad off sick again.
“Is Cora bad off again?” She asked?
The woman broke into more pitiful sobs and covered her eyes with the handkerchief.
After a few seconds she managed to regain a bit of composure .
“Oh Child no, its not Cora, its Eddie. There was an accident up to the sawmill, Eddie got hurt real bad and…”
Annie was running toward the house as fast as her young legs could carry her, she slammed through the screen door and right into what seemed a solid wall of black muzzling. She fought to extricate herself from the fabric as two strong  hands gripped her shoulders.
“Annie.” The voice was soft and yet firm at the same time. “Annie calm yourself child this instant.” Annie felt the flood of tears welling up inside and was helpless to resist as the strong hands guided her from the folds of the old long black dress her Grandmother wore. She looked up into the wrinkled face and saw that like her the old woman was holding back a river of tears. The soft voice calmed her as the woman spoke.
“Listen to me Annie you got to calm yourself. If you go running in on your brother while the doctor is workin on him, you might just scare the life right out of him, you understand?”
Annie managed a small nod and swallowed hard.
“Now I’ll take you in but you got to be quiet and still, Eddie is hurt bad and needs rest.”
The woman stood tall and gripped her small hand leading her back through the kitchen to the small room added off the back of the house. Annie saw her Ma there in the kitchen with Pa, both of them was sitting on opposite sides of the table with heads lowered and looking sadder than she had ever seen them. Across that old wooden table they had reached out and gripped each others hands.

Granma took Annie to the door of the room and gave a quiet knock. The door opened and they came inside. The darkness was broken by a single oil lamp sitting on the table by the bed.
Annie could remember lots of times when Eddie had used that lamp to study at night. He used to talk about how he was gonna study and go off to some big school somewhere and write her letters back about all his adventures. That was before the hard times of the last few years when money got so tight and folks said cotton was dead cause of the weevil.
Eddie had quit school, even though Ma and Pa didn’t want him too and took a job to help out.

The lamp cast a feeble light across his pale face as Annie and Granma entered the room. Doc Adams was there by the bed putting a few things back in his worn out old black bag.
He looked up at Granma with a sad face and gave her a slight shake of his head then put his hat on his head and left the room quietly as Granma followed.

There was another man whom Annie didn’t know standing there in the corner by the bed. He looked awful sad when he looked up at her for just a second then back down to the figure on the bed. Annie hesitated and the man seemed surprised but motioned her over with a  nod. It was strange that even in the dark room she could see that he smiled just a little then went back to being sad.

Annie approached the bed slowly and blinked several times to keep the tears from swelling out of her eyes.
Eddie had his eyes closed and his lips were thin and bluish.
He gave a cough and a painful look crossed the pale features, small specks of blood showed on the sheet pulled up around his chin. Annie reached out and placed her hand on his forehead, it was cool and dry.

The eyes fluttered open and he tried to smile when he saw his little sisters face.
“Hay sport, geeze your looking ugly today.” The voice was soft and slow, not like Eddie at all.
“I’m not as ugly as you and I can run faster too.” She managed to say in a choked voice.
“You know I always let you win. Your as slow as a turtle stuck in molasses.”
Annie swallowed hard. “Well when you get better we will have a race to see ok?”
Eddie coughed again harder this time and more blood was on his lips.
“Sure kiddo, when I get better we will have ourselves a race to see.”
She started to cry and he weakly took her hand.
“Don’t cry kid, I’ll see you again later ok?”
“You promise me Eddie, you promise me that ok?”
“Sure thing, I promise.”
He started to cough again and couldn’t stop. The Doctor cam rushing back in and Annie found herself being guided back out of the room. The tears she had held back came roaring out now and she was helpless to stop them.

She was sitting on the back steps holding the dipper of water that Granma had gotten for her. She took small sips trying to catch her breath from crying.
Granma stood there with the sunshine on her snow white hair which was pulled back into a tight bun. Annie had never seen Granma’s hair down but Ma said when it was it reached near to the ground. Granma adjusted her small glasses on her nose and looked down at the girl.
“Annie I am going to tell you somethings and I want you to listen very close ok.”
The Girl nodded and sipped the cool water.
“Doc Adams says Eddie won’t make it, he’s cut up too bad and already shows signs of getting a bad infection. He’s got fever and coughing blood something terriable.”
Annie felt something inside her break and she blinked hard trying to keep the dipper in her hands from trembeling.
“Now Annie, did you see that Gentelman standing there beside Eddie’s bed, the one you noticed just as I was leaving with the Doctor?”
“Yes Mam, he was standing there lookin awful sad, is he someone from the sawmill?”

“No child that man is someone very special. You see when it comes time for Eddie to leave us and go over to the other side, well it can sometimes be difficult to leave this world and all its things behind and the Good Lord in his mercy sends back someone who has made the journey to help us cross over. So we don’t get lost and wander.”

Annie tried hard to understand.

“That fella in there, I saw how you looked at him Annie and I knew then that you had the sight like Me and like my Granma years ago had too. You can see the ones who come with the good news. The ones who come to take us home to the lord.”
The old woman smiled and reached out her hand to stroke the girl’s cheek.
Annie was confused and suddenly afraid, she started to cry again.

“I don’t want Eddie to die, can’t we make that Man go away?” She pleaded.
Granma took her hand and knelt down there by the step and looked into her tear filled eyes.
“No child we can’t ask that man to go away, he was sent here with a job to do, to make sure Eddie gets to where he is going. Its all part of God’s perfect plan us coming and going in this life and you can’t change your time, or Eddie’s, no more than you can stop the sun from coming up in the morning. To have the vision and see those who have come back is a wonderful gift but you have to understand child it can also be hard knowing when someone you love is leaving. You may cry and  feel like your heart ain’t never gonna be right no more, but they only leave for a little while then you will see them again someday when your time is done.”
Granma took the dipper from her hand and took a sip of the cool water.
“Faith is like water Annie, you can’t live without it so you just take a big drink of faith whenever you see one of those Folks that have come to get someone, cause its not goodbye forever, just a parting for a little while.”
She held the dipper to the girl’s lips and Annie took a long sip and tried to smile as the Old Woman stood up.
“I know Eddie is in good hands darling and he will make it safe to the otherside, that old gentleman you saw in there  waiting on him,  I was married to him for nigh on forty years and that man never quit when there was a job to be done.”

Eddie died the next morning.


Chapter 3

Annie blinks away tears that she doesn’t understand and stops to catch a ragged breath beside the wall. In the reflection from a gold framed mirror she sees an old lady looking back at her. She lifts a withered finger and touches the wrinkled face watching as the lady in the mirror does the same. She touches the flowing white hair that hangs down over her shoulder. She wants to say something but she long ago lost the words and can’t remember what they are or how to make them.
With a sigh she grips the rail and moves on down the dark corridor passing closed doors where the other residents sleep.

A Nurse’s aid on her way to take a smoke break passes her but doesn’t look up from the papers in her hand. Soon it will be time to pass out meds and this might be her only break tonight so she hurries along never seeing the old woman shuffling painfully along.

Annie reaches the dining room with its rows of tables and neatly stacked chairs, over in the corner the soda machine hums as its gaudy display of cool refreshing drinks cast a flickering light into the dark space.
Annie stops as the pain in her slow leg stabs up into her hip. Her chest is heaving and there in the center is a strange heaviness. She leans against one of the tables and closes her eyes  and ..


Chapter 4

There they were at the table across the room.
Annie opened the small compact case and saw her Green eyes staring back from the tiny round mirror. She dabbed some powder on the puff and patted her chin and cheeks.
Richard had spotted her and was waving so she clicked the compact closed and put on her best smile.
As she made her way across the crowded club floor she couldn’t help but think of how lucky she was to have met such a swell guy as Rich. She had been so nervous when she first came to the city and it was a miracle that the first person she ran into when she got lost was this big handsome lug who offered to walk her back to the rooming house where she and some of the other teachers lived. Things had progressed from there, slowly of course, but steady until tonight when he asked her to come out with him and his buddy Joe to one of the hottest night clubs in town. He said he had a surprise for her.

Rich gave an appreciative whistle when she arrived at the table. “baby you are looking hot tonight!”
She smiled and blushed then flounced the skirt of the brand new dress she had saved up a month to buy. She had even bought some of those high heels with the little hole in the toe that everyone was always wearing. She looked into Rich’s gorgeous blue eyes.
“Oh this old thing, I’ve had it for ages.” He gave a soft laugh knowing she was fibbing.
Rich introduced her to Joe and Joe’s date Betty. Joe worked down at the factory with Rich. Betty seemed like a nice girl.
No sooner had Annie sat down than the band broke into a new swing number and she was being dragged from the chair and out onto the floor. Rich called back to Joe as he pulled her along.
“Hay order us all some fat steaks with all the trimmings and Champagne!”
“Champagne Mr. Jones, Business must be good down at the factory.” Annie yelled at him over the music.
He gave her a spin and laughed. “Nothing is too good for you babe, besides with all this war material we been shipping to England, overtime is easy.”
Annie smiled, yet the mention of the war made her shiver just a little. Rich saw her look and pulled her close as they bounced along the dance floor.
“Your not still carrying on about this war business, don’t worry about it babe, if we get into this thing at all it will be over before you know it.”
She smiled as he wrapped an arm around her and pressed close.
“Besides I got a big surprise for you tonight Mrs. Harris, that’s what the kids call you isn’t it?” he slid down on one knee and reached into the pocket of his dinner jacket. “Pretty soon they may have to start calling you something else.”
Annie’s hands were over her mouth, tears springing from her eyes as the small diamond caught the light and sparkled like fire. The others on the  dance floor had stepped back and began to applaud as Rich looked up at her with a big goofy grin.
“Whatya say Kiddo, you wanna get hitched?”
Annie felt her heart thumping in her chest and her knees were like rubber bands.
“yes…yes..yes!” She heard a voice which sounded like her own but far away shouting.
Then she was up in the air wrapped in Rich’s arms and spinning as the happy faces and lights and sounds overtook her at last.

She awoke the next morning feeling more than just a little drunk , though she hadn’t had that much champagne. After the proposal they hadn’t waited but ran and hopped a car to the country where they woke up a sleepy Justice of the Peace in the middle of the night. Joe and Betty were their only guest and the portly old Justice had roused his wife out of bed to play them a tune on the piano as Annie held a wilted bunch of flowers pulled from a handy flower pot.
Running a hand through her tangled red hair she then smiled at thoughts of what they had done after. When she wrote home to tell Ma and Pa about getting married she was going to leave that part out.

There were sounds from the bathroom, Rich taking a shower. She looked at the clock and was amazed to see that it was after one Pm. They had slept almost the whole day away.
She wrapped the hotel bedsheet around her and padded over to the radio to turn on some music. Static filled the room followed by a man chattering in an urgent high pitched voice.
Annie gave a sigh and sat down on the edge of the bed, More depressing war news.
Something the man said caught her attention, there had been an attack somewhere, a big attack. What was it he said about Hawaii and the navy?
Rich had come out of the bathroom and was staring at the radio as she felt the horror sinking in.
There had been an attack by the Japanese on a navy base in Hawaii, a sneak attack early in the morning with thousands dead or hurt, and America was going to war.

The weeks of waiting had been hell for Annie just as they were for the thousands of other girlfriends and wives whos men had rushed off to enlist after Pearl Harbor.
Rich and Joe had been almost the first in line when the recruiting offices opened and both had then been shipped off to training camp.
Annie and Rich had stood up for Joe and Betty at their wedding just before the boys left and now weeks later the guys had come home for a day or two before heading off to war.
When he arrived home she knew it would end soon but that didn’t make it any easier to let him go again.

Nervous and excited all at the same time Annie powdered her face for the hundredth time as she waited on the platform. There were many others waiting and she saw flags and banners and little boys in miniature uniforms, girls in sailor dresses all along the length of the docks. Rows of soldiers lined up at attention as Sergeants barked orders and inspected equipment
Above her the ships loomed like giant grey monsters blocking out the blue of the sky. Mighty cranes hoisted guns and trucks and nets full of provisions into the bowls of the beast and everywhere there was motion and action. It was all a little dizzying to the young woman standing there in the same dress she had been married in just a few weeks before.

The rows of men began to move forward and cheers rose from the crowd as the boys marched by.
Annie searched for Rich but his company hadn’t started to march yet so she watched the lines of drab uniforms passing close by. It struck her as odd that some of the troops didn’t wear uniforms and were dressed in what appeared to be odd cast off clothing. Some even appeared to be a bit too old or young to have enlisted. She pushed closer to the front of the crowd to get a better look at what was happening.

The Soldiers passed right by her with their eyes focused straight ahead, some were so new to soldiering that she could tell they were silently running a cadence of left, right, left in their heads. Beside each man, mixed in with the ranks, walked a plainly dressed civilian with a sad downcast look. As she had thought some were old, some young and quite a few were female. The soldiers made a sharp turn and marched up the gangway into the ship as another group formed up and started forward.
A white gloved hand flew to Annie’s mouth. Each soldier had a messenger, a guide to take him home when…

Annie felt a growing dread as each company passed with its mix of soldiers and civilians. Realization was setting in and making hot tears roll down her cheeks. She looked up at the massive ship rapidly filling with doomed men and hoped with all her heart that it wouldn’t be the one Rich would march into.
His company was forming up down the pier. Orders were shouted and the men moved forward as one. From the crowd shapes seemed to melt and merge with the ranks of men as they moved and each man gained a companion on his journey toward the ship.

She tried to scream but no sound would come, tried to move forward against the crowd but was held fast. He passed her and for just a second cast a sideways glance and a wink before his eyes went forward again. She closed her eyes tight and felt her legs fail her as she sank down to the rough pavement of the dock. All around her were the happy shouts and cheers as wives and girlfriends, sons and daughters sent the men off to fight. She pressed her hands tight over her ears to try and block it out, not wanting to see or hear or know.
But she did know, she knew that the massive troop ship would never reach the war, she knew that all the men and equipment would be lost somewhere out on the ocean, and no one, not one of those brave boys would survive.
Somewhere in the back of her mind a voice from long ago said. “Its not goodbye forever, just parting for a little while.”
“It not fair damnit!” She shouted.
Several people from the crowd tried to help her up but she refused to be helped and so stayed there on her knees as the ships pulled away and grew small the crowd thinned.
There among the cast off banners and flags she cried for the husband she knew would never come back, she cried for herself, and she cried for the baby that was growing inside her.
A week later she received the telegram from the war department.



Chapter 5


She stands there gripping the table as a feeling of complete sadness rolls over her. The empty room with its tables and stacked chairs is somehow the reason but she can’t remember why so she turns and heads back across the open space toward the opposite corridor. There is someone coming and she needs to find them.

During the night at Shady Pines only one out of every three lights are kept on so she moves from light to dark passing the heavy wooden doors set in the white walls. Making her way slowly Annie grips the hand rail, her muscles ache and cry for rest, she wants to sleep, but first she has to find the one she knows will come tonight. She remembers something , something from long ago about a promise but that’s all she can recall.

She passes a door that is open just a crack and from inside she hears the sounds of hissing and beeping. She stops and listens. There is ragged breathing and a soft moan, so she presses harder and the door swings open for her…


Chapter 7

The room was clean and sterile, its white tile walls and polished floor held no warmth or hint of life. The only sound was the soft hiss of the pumps.
Annie stood there staring down at the child on the chair with a look of determination.
The little girl looked up at her impassivly and then went back to playing with the lace on the front of her dress, her short legs swinging inches above the floor.

“I remember that dress.” The little girl didn’t look up.
“I remember how hard Ma worked on it, trying to get it ready for you to wear to your first day of school.” The dark eyes looked up at the woman but held no emotion except sadness.
“Who would have thought you would only get to wear it to be buried?”

There was a soft moan and Annie turned from the girl back to the small pale face on the bed. The pumps hissed and the lung compressed the child’s chest taking the place of her polio ruined muscles and forcing another breath. Only her small head could be seen as if the metal monster was swallowing her a bit at a time. She took the wet cloth from the basin and wiped the fever sweat from the girls forehead.
The tiny voice, just barely a whisper mumbled something.
Annie gripped the rag tightly and felt the water running down her arm. Unable to contain herself any longer she turned again to the Girl in the chair.
“Go Away Cora, you can’t have her, I won’t let her go!”
The girl continued to pick at her dress and swing her small feet.

“Talk damn you, I know you can talk, don’t just sit there.”
“What do you want me to say?” The large dark eyes she remembered from her sister’s short life stared at her.
“Say that you will leave and not comeback until she is an old, old woman ready to die.”
“I can’t say that and you know it, her time is come and I was sent to help her. Its the will of him who created all the Heavens and Earth that all living things have a time to rest.”
“Not her, shes just a baby, just a baby.” Annie broke down then and couldn’t stop the tears.
Cora slid off the chair and quietly took her hand.
“I was just a baby too, and so will you be when its your time to go. Nobody ever grows old were we go, we just live in happiness there forever.”
Annie wiped her eyes hard and pulled her hand away.
“No, I won’t let her go. Don’t you understand she’s all I have!”

The voice was small and sweet, just the way Annie remembered it from the time before the disease came and took it away.
“Don’t cry Mommy.”
Annie scrambled back hands covering her mouth as the small figure stood beside the bed with bare feet on the cold floor. She smiled and looked at her mother with those blue eyes so much like her Father’s
“Oh, baby.” Annie managed to choke out.
“It doesn’t hut anymore Mommy see, I can move again and run.” The child ran around the room skipping and bouncing with a giggle. She ran up to her Mother and wrapped her in a tight hug smothering her in kisses. Annie’s eyes reached up to the bed and the small pale face there under the lung then back to the laughing child that held her tight.
Something in her heart understood and let go.
“Goodbye my sweet Janey.” She whispered.

Cora walked over and took the hand of the child and both smiled at the woman crying now more from understanding than from loss.
Janey leaned in close and whispered. “Its not really goodbye Mommy.”
The two children turned and walked away and Annie stayed there with the child she had loved more than life itself and when the doctors came in they took her away and all that kept her Mommy from breaking down at the funeral was the knowledge that it wasn’t really Goodbye.

Chapter 8

There is the sound of running feet out in the hallway. Annie turns from the  small wasted figure on the bed with all its tubes and hoses and leaves the monitors to watch over their charge.
She hasn’t found the one she was looking for, maybe they aren’t coming tonight. She wants to sleep after all her walking and tries to remember where her room is. Thinking is so hard now, remembering is painful sometimes and she can’t seem to sort out the things that she should know.
More running feet pass her as she shuffles along. Nurses and aids hurry past with concerned looks. Annie knows that someone must be in trouble to make the normally smiling Nurses look that way.
Up ahead she sees someone standing beside a door, it’s the same door the nurses ran into, who lives in there she wonders?
The person by the door, a man waits as she pulls herself along as she draws closer she thinks it might be someone she knows. The sounds from inside the room are drifting into the hallway. Some one yells and someone is counting, others seem to be praying.
Suddenly its very important for her to know who the man is waiting. Her leg drags, her hip feels like its on fire as she desperately claws herself toward him. The man smiles and walks toward her with open arms, there is a light shining from him as if the sun were at his back. He lifts a finger to his lips and kisses it then touches her forehead.

Her mind is free and clear at last, everything that once was jumbled is now sorted and she can understand for the first time in many years Annie can understand everything.
Eddie smiles at her and takes her hand. From behind him in the room there is the sound of crying.
“You sure took your time getting here.” She says to her brother with a frown.
“Sorry I was running late and knew you would understand.”
“You were always running late, that’s why I always beat you.” She smiled and winked.
“Did not, I always let you win and you know it.”
“Oh yea well prove it!”
Then Annie is off and running with the wind blowing through her long red hair and the soft sun on her face, her brother is running behind trying to keep up as she crossed over to the other side.

The End