THEN CAME
THE LIGHT
by incessant, searing blows to her legs like she was being beaten with clubs. Dana scanned her bedroom frantically, but saw nothing, no one was there but her. The invisible beating went on, the pain getting more and more unbearable until she mustered the courage to scream, “What’s happening?” at which point a column of white light rushed from the ceiling and she heard an audible voice call out, "You cannot do this! She has a purpose here.” With that, the beating stopped.
After her divorce Dana relocated to her parents’ Dutch Colonial in Warren, New Jersey. One bitterly cold night she turned in at 11:00 p.m., blankets piled high. The moment that she flicked off the light and rolled over to sleep, she heard footsteps begin to clomp, clomp, clomp across the floor below. As they reached the stairs they began a slow climb, one step at a time. Dana lay frozen in fear. No one was home but her.
When they reached the second-floor landing the footsteps paused then
slowly began to clomp, clomp, clomp toward her door where they stopped, then began moving inside the bedroom, toward her, until they paused at the foot of her bed and waited.
Finally, Dana snapped on the light and looked around. She began to feel calm as she saw that no one was there. The room was empty. But in the next instant Dana’s veins flooded in terror again as she watched her blankets suddenly whisked away by invisible hands and felt the icy-cold air slam her body. She wanted to scream, but she was too paralyzed to manage a whisper. She wanted to pull the blankets up but she couldn't move her arms. For two agonizing minutes Dana lay paralyzed in fear and cold until she finally mustered the strength to scream, “LEAVE!” With that, her invisible visitor turned and began to clomp-clomp-clomp out of the room, never to be heard again.
Jeffrey is a demonstrably elaborate charmer dealing in French antiques and fine silver whose been a friend for over 30 years. At the end of his mother’s life, Jeffrey found himself tasked with managing a business in Philadelphia
and running back and forth to New York State to attend to her care and battle a brother seemingly intent on hastening their mother's death.
One afternoon, after a four-hour drive to bring his mother home after a hospital stay, Jeffrey felt unsettled and unsure about leaving her with his brother and sister-in-law. As he put away groceries, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his mother just wasn’t safe. Dusk was ending and early evening darkness was filling the windows. As he reached toward a cabinet, Jeffrey caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned. Before him stood two columns of ultra-white light the width of fluorescent tubes, beaming floor-to-ceiling beside the back door. Suddenly two thoughts flashed into his mind, do not leave your mother here, and get away immediately. Then the lights vanished.
At that Jeffrey dropped the groceries, raced toward his mother’s room, and hastily began packing. Then he hustled her into the car and started back toward Philadelphia where his mother remained until her naturally appointed hour of death.
© Medium Gail, MediumGail.com