A Tale from the Hills (7 page)

Five years passed before a sound came from William’s voice. He remained in a sort of suspended animation since Alice’s disappearance. He was happy when he was asleep because he lived in a fantasy world. As long as he was awake he was a tormented child. His outward expression was blank, but inside he was writhing in pain.

William looked like a normal eleven year old boy. He ate whatever his father sat before him, and he grew. Anyone who looked at him would see a bright eyed, healthy child. Closer examination however would reveal a child with no expression on his face. The world was quickly passing by, and he remained silent and still.

William’s family tried many things to bring him out of his self imposed exile from the world around him. They read to him. They told him stories. They showed him picture books. They took him outside to listen to the birds, and watch the trains go by, but nothing worked to unlock his mind. He put an invisible shield between himself and everything around him. Nothing could penetrate that shield and hurt him or his fantasy sister. He would never let that happen again.

It might have helped William if somehow they had found little Alice’s body. In the five years since her certain death, her remains were never recovered. The Sheriff determined that her tiny body washed into the lake from the heavy rains, or vanished inside a cave or crevice along the rugged stream. The family mourned her death in their own way, but without a funeral or burial, there was no real closure for them. It was almost as if she left and might one day return. Of course for William she was still there, in his secret place that only the two of them shared.

Miss Coalson never gave up on William. She wouldvisit him at least once a week even if the weather was bad. She talked to him in a soothing voice, and she read to him about the world outside of Jewel Ridge Mountain. She used all of the techniques that she learned in college, to try and stimulate his mind. Her years of teaching experience, however, had not prepared her for a child like William. She could not break through his shell to reach the tender William inside. She knew that he was still in there, and she wanted to help him to reenter the real world. Regretfully, she never saw that happen. She moved back to Richmond a year before he finally spoke.

While William was dormant his brothers moved on with their lives. All three of them completed the grade levels at Mountain School, and entered the work force in the community. Joseph who was fifteen, and Josh who was fourteen, worked at the lumber mill, and Alan, thirteen, had a job at the general store, which was located just passed the railroad supply house. They spent as much time as they could with William and their daddy, but each of them had lives outside of their home environment. All three of them were talking to girls now.

Tom remembered that he was about the same age as Joseph when he got married. He was sure that all of his sons, except William, would be leaving the nest soon. He was also sure that no matter what happened, he would never treat his children the way that his own father treated him. They had gone through so much together, there was nothing that could tear them apart. The boys knew that too.

One day the older boys were talking about their childhood and how they survived those harsh years. They conceded that their daddy did the best that he could. He could not have left them alone to go to a job because they were too small. There was no one around to help with them, and they agreed that he did exactly what he had to do under the circumstances. They were all working now, so he did not have to visit the railroad supply house any more. Hewas still house bound, however, because of William.

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When the stock market crashed in 1929, the community remained basically the same. The lumber mill rarely slowed down for more than a day or two at a time, and Alan’s job at the general store remained constant throughout the Great Depression. If a stranger were to ask how the residents of the community survived the Depression, the residents would more than likely reply that they survived the same way that they did before the Depression, and after the Depression, with very little money. The person most affected in the community was April Coalson. When the news came over the radio in her bungalow that the stock market had crashed, she was very concerned about her father. His banking business was closely correlated to the market, and his losses were great. Bad news came from April’s mother about a week after the crash. Mr. Coalson suffered a stroke probably as a result of stress. He was paralyzed on one side of his body, and the only thing that he was able to say was his daughter’s name. The doctors did not know how permanent the condition was, but April should come home as soon as possible.

April quickly packed her bag and arranged for a bus ticket to Richmond. Her resignation from Mountain School was one of the saddest days of her life. Her eyes were red and swollen when she explained the circumstances of her decision to leave to Mrs. Boatwright. Mrs. Boatwright understood and as much as she would miss April, secretly she would enjoy taking over her class until a replacement was found.

April Coalson left Abingdon Bus Station that same day, bound for Richmond. Her father was so glad to see her that half of his face smiled brightly. His condition was much worse than anyone realized, and a week after his daughter returned home, he died in his sleep. After his funeral April
decided to stay in Richmond to be with her mother.

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The circumstances leading up to William’s return to the real world were almost as bizarre as the circumstances which caused his departure. After the severe Winter of 1930, Spring weather came into full bloom by early May. Along with the birds and flowers and green grass, came severe thunderstorms with powerful lightning and earthshaking thunder. Old timers claimed that the lightning was the worst that they had ever seen. The mighty oak tree whose shade cooled the Hill’s tiny house every Summer was struck. It was the same tree that Mary Hill loved to sit under at night. It was the same tree that Tom chose to be her headstone after she died. The giant tree could have fallen into their house but it fell across the railroad track. It took two days for railroad employees to finally clear enough of the tree for the train to pass. The Hills had enough firewood for two Winters from that singletree.

William had trouble sleeping at night because of the storms. He tossed and turned until the storms passed. His expressionless face seemed to be changing from day to day and storm to storm, to a look of concern and dread. The person who saw him the most, his father, had a feeling that William was about to reach a plateau in his life. Always in the back of his mind was the suggestion from the county nurse that William should be placed in the mental hospital in Marion. Tom swore to himself that William would never be placed in that horrible place as long as there was a breath left in his body.

As the Summer progressed the storms became worse and William became more and more upset. Finally in late August William made a breakthrough. He was in a peaceful sleep, dreaming about an outing with Alice. They were playing among a group of trees when a storm came up. The wind blew hard and lightning danced all around them. Alice was startled by the lightning and began to cry. William tried to comfort her but she kept on sobbing harder and harder. She did not want William to see her crying, so she turned her back to him and began walking toward the railroad tracks. William shouted through the wind and rain for her to come back, but she kept on walking. When she reached the footbridge, she stopped. She seemed to be waiting for him to come to her. When he finally got to her, she stopped crying.

She turned to him and said in a soft voice, “It’s time to wake up Will. The storm is almost over, and you need to wake up. I want to be with mother. She needs me and I need her. Help me find her Will.”

She walked across the footbridge and disappeared into the trees.

William screamed for her to stop.

“Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go!” he repeated over and over, out loud.

He awoke to see his father and brothers standing 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 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.