The moon was new on the night Button Dudley's shimmering form appeared to Aurora. Darkness wrapped itself around the old cabin like swaddling clothes.
Aurora was sitting on the porch, slowly rocking back and forth, back and forth. In her trancelike state, she waited. Only the motion of the old rocker registered in her mind. The background noises of the insects slowly faded. Her eyes were open and unblinking, but only a thick grayness registered like a foggy curtain before her. The crisp smell of pine that hung around the cabin like perfume failed to tickle her nostrils. All of her senses were honed to the vibration and timbre of other worldly entities.
She could feel that something was coming – a person, an event, or a sign. Whatever it was, it was going to happen soon. The minutes ticked by; the hours were lost in time. Still, she watched. The silence around her seemed alive with promise.
Back and forth, back and forth, she rocked. Slow. Slowly. Slower. Slower still, until the rocking ceased.
She knew that it was time.
From the corner of her eye, Aurora saw the first flicker of light break through the blackness. Whatever it was, it was nearby. She could feel its presence. Someone had departed this world and had made the transition to the next world and returned.
She waited. She watched. Her breaths came in calm, smooth rhythms. There was nothing to fear. Nothing to get excited about.
Aurora had always welcomed these visitors from the netherworld, inviting them. The dead, in turn, came. They sensed that she would never divulge their secrets.
The faint glow in the woods was coming nearer. His body formed in the mist, and she recognized him.
It was the ghost of an old mountain sin eater.
"Hello, Button," she said.
"Hello, child," Button said to her.
***
The Ancients knew what Button did. Eating the sins of others made him an outcast among them.
Occasionally, he had found it necessary to make his way into town. Those folks there did not know his secret. And he walked among them like a stranger.
"I was ensnared," Button said. "Entangled. I could not escape."
This was all that the apparition said to Aurora. Just as quickly as he had appeared, he dissolved into the mist.
***
How strange, she thought. How very strange. What was the old man trying to tell her? Had a lifetime of allowing other peoples' transgressions to blacken his soul damned him forever?
Aurora did not know.
She began to rock in the slow rhythmic way that brought on a trance. She rocked until well pastmidnight, but Button Dudley did not appear to her anymore.
YOU ARE READING
Nobody Can Say It's You
Mystery / ThrillerA monster is running down Main Street! An old mountain hermit, dressed as Death, drops dead at a Halloween festival in Hope Rock County. Nobody knows why. But mysterious forces are at work on the Appalachian ridges. Granny witches and the Ancients...
