EVERY BOY
NEEDS A FRIEND
and told Jason that his name was Mr. Twining. The two became fast friends, and Jason looked forward to their frequent talks. Mr. Twining would speak about the West Woods, Poverty Hallow and The Devil’s Kitchen, as well as his neighbor Mary Hotchkiss and the “hardships faced on account of so many people moving away.”
Jason loved recounting his friend’s stories, but he couldn't understand
why his family kept calling Mr. Twining "imaginary." As far as Jason could see, Mr. Twining was skin and bones like everybody else. One day Jason’s grandmother said that she believed him. She’d been looking at the town records. Apparently, before the municipalities of Burlington, Canton, Avon, and Farmington came into being the lands west of Hartford were called the West Woods, and a Mary Hotchkiss had lived a few doors down, but Jason’s grandmother truly came around when she found the list of prior owners of her property and among the names: Twining.
That Winter an ice storm hit Burlington and cracked apart the marble step leading up to his grandmother’s front door. In April workmen came to replace it. The stoop was heavy, but eventually they pried it loose and set the pieces upright. It seems that the stone was never meant to be a step. It was a headstone, and the name carved across it read: Twining.
After the pieces were moved to the town cemetery, Jason was sad to find that his friend no longer came around. He was finally at rest.
© Medium Gail, MediumGail.com