The Coming
“THE COMING”
Four a.m. the alarm clock read and the four draft beers I had at Landries Tavern, the local Towner’s brawling haven, was telling me that it was time. I stood up from the bed, stretched, scratched myself and headed towards the bathroom, knowing I had another half an hour before the alarm would actually go off, I figured to do my business and crawl back under my warm blanket for those last thirty minutes. So I figured, but what would happen this night, would alter our lives and change us forever. My name is Jacob and this is my interpretation of what happened on this cold and rainy Saturday night, October 3, 1976.
We moved to the small town of Edel to raise a family and to live our life with the minimal risk of danger. Here in Edel we would secure our future and secure our dreams that would allow our children the same opportunity of choice that we had. Marlita was pregnant at the time we arrived in Edel and our youngest Heather had just turned four and soon would be starting school. She was the cutest little girl, long dark curly hair, big brown eyes and a smile that sparkled like the stars during a lucid August night. She was definitely given her gift of looks from her mother. Thank God! We both agreed that Marlita would be a stay at home mom until the kids became teenagers and then and only then would she consider going to work. As for myself, I had a degree from the culinary institute and landed a job at the only Five Star Restaurant in Edel, in fact it represented the only full service restaurant in Edel and was quite busy all nights of the week. For a small town the people sure enjoyed dining out and quickly accepted me as a part of McNally’s.
We found an old three bedroom gothic farm house just out side of town, complete with a barn, garage and a pond with two mallards that seemed to call it home. The house needed some work, but was exactly what we were looking for, a cheap fixer upper that we could call our own.
A year had passed, Marlita gave birth to a baby boy we named Jeremiah, Heather was enrolled in school and McNally’s was thriving. Our house had its creaks and groans, but my family didn’t seem frightened by them. Every thing was going to plan and the life we were looking for was falling in to place.
Saturday October 3, 1976 work was extremely tiring this day although business was the slowest it had been all year. The people seemed jumpy and the workers were on edge and quick to snap at each other. I asked Jonah, a distant relative of the founding fathers of Edel, what was going on and he told me a story, a story of people waking up and children missing, a story of shadows present in their homes, dogs cowering in corners and cold drafts passing through corridors and bedrooms. We closed the restaurant and Jonah asked me to stop by Landries to have a beer; there he would tell me more about why this night was unlike the others. So when Jonah finished telling me the story of horror I asked him a question, just one question, do you believe? His answer sent me out of the bar in alarm. He had told me that his boy Jonas, who was five at the time, disappeared fifty years ago on this night, never to be found. I raced home thinking how far fetched the story was, but yet, still wanting to get home to make sure my family was all right. I arrived home and ran in to the house, bedroom to bedroom checking my family and yet not wanting to wake them; everyone was all right and I breathed a sigh of relief before crawling in to bed on the verge of hyperventilation.
Four a.m. the alarm clock read and the four draft beers I had at Landries Tavern, the local Towner’s brawling haven, was telling me that it was time. I stood up from the bed, stretched, scratched myself and headed towards the bathroom, knowing I had another half an hour before the alarm would actually go off, I figured to do my business and crawl back under my warm blanket for those last thirty minutes. I finished what I had to do; I washed my hands and stepped in to the hallway. The hallway was freezing; ice draped from the walls like living room drapes engulfing the front picture window. Suddenly Jonah’s story of missing children chilled me colder than the icy hallway. I thought of nothing but Heather and Jeremiah and ran to their rooms only to find them fast asleep. What in the hell is going on I asked myself, was this just a bad nightmare? Am I really in bed asleep with my wife? I stepped back in to the corridor and saw a shadow pass by the bottom of the stairs. I stopped only to hear the sounds of voices murmuring in the kitchen. I wanted to go down the stairs but my legs froze in fear and I stood helpless in the hallway, unable to move, unable to speak. Suddenly, I could see the shadow coming up the stairs. As a tear rolled down my cheek I tried to yell, but I could only muster a whisper. I stood there for what seemed to be hours as the shadow entered Heather’s room and then exited down the stairs. Finally I gathered enough strength to look out the window of my bedroom. There I gazed, glaring at the shadow leaving our lawn, it was then when I noticed a small shadow. No! I yelled and ran to Heathers room, I dropped to my knees, she was gone, like Jonah’s boy, Heather was gone. I ran down the stairs to the front door and looked out at the two shadows. I flipped the porch light on and the shadows disappeared, that’s when a voice spoke out, a soft petite voice, I love you daddy. A Calm came over me as I headed up the stairs hopeful to one day see my Heather again. Just as I reached the top of the stairs the alarm clock went off, hoping I was dreaming I looked in Heathers room one last time. There was a bulge in her bed so I ran and pulled the covers off, there I saw a little boy staring up at me, I asked who he was, He replied; “my name is Jonas”.