Volume 6, Issue 8, page 11
WALK WITH THE DEAD IN THE MOONL I GH T
HERE are some of us" the Ancients" called
"Moon Children", and the legend states
that the requirements for such a personality is that one must be conceived and born
during the full moon. Since I know little
about either of these happenings other
than the fact I was there, I accept what I've
been told. However, I do know that when the
moon is full, I do not sleep, and if I do not
have something interesting to occupy my time
and attention , I take a long walk.
It was such a night as this that found me
swathed in my topcoat, wandering down the
street . As I approached the house on the corner, I noticed the figure of a man coming out
of the old brick house. On walking nearer, I
recognized him as my neighbor Larry.
"Hi, there!" I called. "What are you doing
up this time of morning?"
Larry smiled in his elfish way. There was
something about him that always reminded me of
some sort of elf. His hair always was tousled
like uneven stacks of wheat straw; there was
always a smile on his face; and his eyes had
the quality of looking thru you and into the
beyond somewhere. "I'm going to take a little
trip," he said finally, in answer to my question.
This seemed most logical, for he had a
brother in the navy at San Diego, whom he often visited, and the hour did not seem too
strange for in the desert country, the night
and early morning are the best times to travel.
Quite satisfied with what he had said, I
invited him to walk with me, and, since he
said he was going my way, we headed down the
street in slow, easy steps. As we walked, we
talked of this and that. Larry was an easy
person to talk to, for he seemed to provoke
the conversation into a stimulating discussion.
We must have walked about an hour when Larry changed the subject. "I've got to go, now.
Would you look in on Mom tomorrow? She has a
cold , and she might need some company."
We said our good-byes in Spanish as we customarily had in the past, and Larry walked on
down the street.
The next morning, I called upon Larry's
mother as I had promised. I found her weeping,
and it was some time before she could tell me
that Larry had passed away that morning -- about
the same time that I was walking with him. I
told his mother of my walk with Larry, and it
did not startle her in the least, for, she
said, Larry had gone into a coma, and while in
that state, he had muttered my name.
He also had told his mother that he would
return at Christmas time and take her with
him. Months passed, and the Christmas season
came. And instead of holly on the door of the
house at the corner, there was a black wreath.
Larry had kept his promise.
-- "Louis ", Morristown. , Ariz.