Wintertime, 1918

Wintertime, 1918




Henry had lived in the old Victorian house his entire life.
He had fond memories of growing up in the house.
When his parents died in an automobile accident in the winter of 1918
the house went into Henry's name.

Henry's parents had been coming home from a Christmas party
that Henry's aunt and uncle, Henry's mother's sister and husband
put on every year around Christmastime.
It had become a regular, family event over the years.

About two miles from the house on their return home
Henry's father had lost control of the automobile.
The roads were icy that evening, the bridge frozen over
and his father had been quite intoxicated.

After his parents had passed some had suggested
that perhaps Henry should sell the family home,
move away from all of the memories and make a new start.
But Henry had no such desire.

Henry loved the family home and loved living in it.
Remaining in the home made him feel close to his parents still.
He did not want to give those memories away
and he wanted to continue caring for the lovely home in their memory.

Besides, Henry had much time to heal and he was okay.
Somehow Henry had grown since that horrible time.
Looking back, Henry could not believe how fast time had gone by.
It all seemed like such a blur now.

It was shortly after the unfortunate automobile accident
that Henry began having troubles with people in regard to the home.
Sometimes Henry would come walking out of a room in the house,
perhaps his study on the third floor, to find other people inside the house.

He would hear the people making noises and conversing.
From above he would look down at them from the bannister.
The people always seemed to be speaking with someone
who would then begin to show them around the house.

This would make Henry furious and understandably!
He would yell at the people to get out of his house!
Sometimes the people would indeed leave and quickly!
Other times, however, they seemed to ignore Henry.
This only made Henry more frustrated.

After such incidents in the home Henry would not be bothered.
At least for some time anyway
and in these moments Henry would enjoy being left in peace.

When the first such incident occurred
Henry figured it had just been some people
trying to break into the home and after a while
he had let it go as a circumstance of bad luck.

He did try to report the incident to the police however
but for some strange reason he had difficulty with the telephone.
He could not get the telephone to work.
Eventually he just let it go, fade away.
He did not even bother to have the telephone looked at.
He never used the thing in the first place.

Sometime later, after the first incident, years maybe,
another incident occurred with the same story pretty much.
Henry came out of his bedroom to once more find people
talking downstairs and looking around the house!

Once more he yelled at the people to leave! Get out!
It seemed to be an ongoing thing and Henry could not figure out why!
He was astounded one time to actually find a family
bringing items, furniture and such into the house!
What in the hell?
There was no room in the house for their things anyway!
Could they not see this?

Infuriated, Henry eventually got them out of the house
but it took a lot of yelling for it to happen!
For most of the day while they were bringing things into the house
they did not seem to even acknowledge Henry no matter how
he yelled at them to leave and this only angered him further!

It was only when Henry actually began to start throwing
their possessions around and even some of it actually outside
of the house that things changed and dramatically
as the people fled from the house very quickly!

'Of all the nerve!' Henry thought to himself
as he slammed the front door violently behind the people
as they ran away, wide-eyed and looking back over their
shoulders at the house as they fled.

It has now been a long while since the last incident
where people tried to come into Henry's home.
Or as Henry prefers to think of it,
he and his parents' home.
Exactly how much time has passed since the last incident
Henry is not really sure as once more, time seems to
really fly by for him anymore.
To Henry being a little boy seems like only yesterday
though, as said before, somehow he has grown,
or at least he thinks so.

Henry enjoys being at home.
He enjoys his peace.
Hopefully it will continue and he will have
no further, such instances occur.

Still, though content with his situation,
Henry does sometimes wonder why he never hears
from any of his friends and family, any loved ones whatsoever,
and he does always seem to have the same, repetitive dream.
And what a terrible dream it is!

Every night Henry dreams about his parents' accident
during that horrific winter of 1918
and the strange thing about it is that in the dream
Henry is with his parents in the automobile when the accident occurs?
But it did not happen that way at all!
Did it?


--msl2022