by Douglas Draa
“Same old, same old. We walked, we peed, we sniffed some garbage cans.”
“You peed, too?”
“Cute. There was this kid next to Ridgeway’s garage, though,” he began as he took off his shirt and pants.
“Mmmm?” She had already returned to the book.
“Just seemed late for someone that young to be outside texting, you know?”
“Permissive parenting, honey. Everybody’s doing it except us.”
“I guess so.” He headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and only then did it occur to him that the boy’s face still had that glow even when the boy put his hands down when the dog began growling. Ray realized the boy did not have a cell phone. The light was not reflecting off the boy’s face—it was coming from the boy’s face.
He went back to the bed. The lights went out and he was asleep a few minutes later thinking about the Pleiades.
Thursday
“The Celts noted that the Pleiades rose right at sunset on a night about halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.”
He hit a button and the next image was projected.
“That same night the Pleiades would rise to the highest point in the sky. The Celts read this to mean that this night was special, a night when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest.”
“Halloween, right, Professor Casey?” called a voice from the darkened amphitheater.
“That’s right. The tradition of Halloween developed out of the Celts’ understanding of the night sky. So this Saturday, when you kids are having fun in costumes, take a minute to look up at the stars and see what the Celts saw. Understand how your world has been shaped by the stars.”
He could hear the shuffling of papers and the placing of possessions in backpacks as the end of class approached. “Extra credit for anyone who snaps a photo of the Pleiades with a cell phone Saturday night and sends it to me via email!” He did everything he could to get the community college students to invest in the subject matter more.
He hit the switch killing the projector and turning on the classroom lights. The students shuffled out, most of them already thinking about something else. Hell, most of them were probably thinking of something else during class. At least they could not text in class without him being able to see the glow from the phone as he projected images of the night sky at the front of the darkened lecture hall.
Thinking of that, he suddenly remembered the boy from last night. Very odd.
* * * *
Office hours, a committee meeting and his Introduction to Cosmology course (for students thinking about transferring to a four year school with a major in physics or astronomy) and his day was done. He got into his car and listened to NPR on the drive home.
Walking in the back door he was immediately greeted by Galileo and then entered the kitchen to see how Claudia was doing.
“Daddy!” Robbie yelled and ran over and hugged his leg. He had been drawing at the table. Claudia sat next to him, attempting (unsuccessfully it seemed) to get Lucas to eat puréed carrots.
“How’s it going?” he asked everyone.
“Here,” she said, the frustration obvious in her voice, “you take over with him. I’m done.”
Ray slid into the seat, taking the spoon. “Long day?”
“This one,” she said putting her hand on Robbie’s head as he returned to his drawing, “decided to help clean today and so the diaper pail was spilled all over the floor and this one,” she said nodding toward the baby, “did not want to nap, so we’re all kind of cranky.”
Ray smiled. “You’re almost done with maternity leave. You’ll be back at work next month and the boys will be in daycare and then you will treasure every second with them.”
“Remind me then. Right now I just need a half hour alone in a tub.”
“Go. I got them,” he reassured her.
She kissed him on the forehead and slid off down the hall. A door closed and a few seconds later he heard the water start to run.
“How about you, Sport?” he asked Robbie. “What are you drawing?”
“Don’t look! It’s almost done. Then I’ll show you.” Robbie put his arm over the drawing and continued working.
“OK, Lucas. So looks like it’s just you and me. You wanna tell me why you don’t want to eat?”
The baby opened his mouth and grunted. Ray took advantage of the moment to put some more carrots in. They mostly just ended up on the bib.
“OK, daddy. Here it is.” Robbie held up the drawing.
“Wow. That’s great!”
“Daddy, you’re not really looking!”
He looked over at the drawing his older son held up. There was a house with five figures in it and one outside.
“Wow. That’s great. Is that us?”
“Yup. This is you and mommy and me and Lucas.” Ray noticed Lucas was bigger than he was.
“And who is this?” he pointed to the fifth figure. “That Galileo?”
“No,” said Robbie. “This is Galileo.” He pointed to the figure outside.
“Then who’s this?” Ray asked.
“Wallace.” Robbie started working on another drawing.
“Who’s Wallace?”
“He’s my friend.”
“Oh?” Ray again focused on Robbie. “Where did you meet him?”
“He used to live next door.”
“Where does he live now?”
“Dunno. He was in my room last night.”
“Oh. Well tell him he should show up during the day.”
“OK.”
After dinner, while Ray washed the dishes Claudia got the kids ready for bed. They both said goodnight to Robbie and Ray read him Goodnight Moon. Robbie liked it because Ray always added all this information about the actual moon, which Robbie thought was really funny. Lucas was asleep in his room the second they set him in his crib.
Claudia and Ray sat down in the living room and before she could turn on the television he said, “Why didn’t you tell me Robbie has an imaginary friend?”
She looked at him. “I didn’t know he had one. When did this come up?”
“While you were in the bath. He says his friend ‘Wallace’ came over last night.”
She smiled. “Well, he’s at that age. And Lucas takes up so much of my time through the day I’m sure he is looking for some attention.”
Ray said, “Well, why don’t I take just him out on trick or treating on Saturday? You know, some father son time?
She looked sad, “Oh, but I bought Lucas the cutest little bee outfit.”
Ray put his arm around her. “And you will put it on him, take a lot of pictures to send to friends and family, go to one or two of the neighbor’s houses and then bring him back here. Besides, you have to give out the candy while I take Robbie around.”
“I know, it’s just you get to be fun dad and I get to take care of the baby and then give candy to other people’s kids.”
“And that’s why I’m saying, let’s go out as a family before trick or treating starts in earnest and then I’ll take Robbie around. You can watch something spooky while giving out candy and when we get back, Robbie goes to bed then you get your treat.”
“You better mean any leftover candy.”
“No, I mean…” and he tickled her a little.
She squirmed but laughed softly. “Isn’t that how we got two of them in the first place?”
“Speaking of which, let me know if Robbie tells you about Wallace.”
She grew serious. “It’s such an odd name. I wonder where he heard it.”
“He said Wallace used to live next door.”
“Really? I thought the Silvermans lived there since forever.”
“It’s an imaginary friend, Claud, he probably has wings and now liv
es on the moon.”
They settled down and flipped through the channels. Finding nothing exciting, they settled on The Innocents on a classic movie channel.
* * * *
Later that night, Ray walked Galileo. As he walked past the Ridgeway place he looked all over, expecting to see the boy again. But he wasn’t there.
Back and front doors locked and double checked. He checked both children, sleeping soundly. He walked into the bedroom where Claudia was already asleep. The baby monitor crackled as Lucas shifted in his crib in his sleep. Claudia had not shut the blinds. Ray walked over and reached for the cord. He stopped because he saw a faint light in the backyard. It was the boy from last night. He stood in the backyard, staring at the house. He was looking further down, towards where the boys slept. Ray could see that the boy, who looked about ten, wore a dirty white shirt with a collar. His arms hung down by his side. His pants were a faded brown and ended just below the knee. Darker stockings or socks came out of the pants down to tied leather shoes, all of which faintly glowed. It was the boy’s face, however, that made him shudder. The boy had thin brown hair in a bowl cut which made his face and forehead seem bigger. The boy’s eyes were staring at the house in a mixture of fear and sadness.
The boy turned and looked at Ray. His expression suddenly emptied. It was a blank, emotionless stare.
Ray turned and ran out of the bedroom. Somewhere in the house Galileo began barking. Ray unlocked the back door and ran into the yard, which was empty. The boy was gone. Ray heard the baby start to cry, but ran to the fence on either side of the yard. No sign of the boy.
When he walked back in the house, Claudia was comforting Lucas, trying to get him to go back to sleep. Ray checked on Robbie, who had slept through it.
“What the hell?” Claudia whispered while dancing with the infant who was still quietly fighting sleep. “Was it a prowler?”
“No, that boy from last night was in our backyard!”
“What boy?”
“The one I told you about. From the Ridgefield’s. He was in our yard. He was staring at the house.”
“OK. So some kid was in the yard. You have to raise holy hell getting out there?”
“Sorry, sorry. I just…It’s weird, right?”
She rolled her eyes and began to walk back into Lucas’s room. “C’mon. Go to sleep for mommy. Daddy’s crazy.”
Ray went and brushed his teeth.
Claudia came back to bed and went right to sleep without saying anything.
Ray turned out the lamp on his side of the bed and laid there thinking. Maybe tomorrow he’d ask the neighbors if they’d seen the kid.
Just as he started to drift off, he heard the baby monitor crackle. Just Lucas moving in the crib.
“Soon.”
He sat bolt upright in bed. He had heard a voice coming through the baby monitor. He jumped out of bed and ran to Lucas’s room. The baby was fast asleep. The window was closed and locked. He knew he had heard a voice.
He woke up Claudia. “I heard a voice in Lucas’s room.”
She rubbed her eyes. “What?”
“I was falling asleep and I heard a voice over the baby monitor say something.”
“You sure you didn’t just dream it?”
“No,” he insisted. “I was still awake.”
“So you think the baby is just excited for Halloween?”
“I’m not joking here. It sounded like a woman or maybe a kid.”
“And you saw a kid earlier tonight, so maybe the kid is now in the bedroom?”
“Look, I know you’re not taking this seriously, but I did hear it.”
“I believe you,” she said slowly. “But could it be that you imagined it? I mean we’ve both been so stressed lately. Maybe your subconscious is doing something. I mean you’re a scientist. What is the more likely scenario: we are now being haunted by a boy or you are stressed and seeing things in the dark and hearing things in your sleep.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
She kissed him. “Go back to sleep. Happy Halloween.”
She fell asleep immediately. It took him a long time to drift off.
Friday
It took longer than usual to get going in the morning. Ray was running late for his nine o’clock lab at the university. He stopped in the kitchen to grab an energy bar and kissed Lucas on the head in his high chair. Robbie sat at the table, yawning, playing with his cereal.
“Up late, sport?” he asked as he kissed Robbie on the head.
“Wallace woke me up to play. I told him that you said to only come in the day time.”
Ray smiled. “Good job, sport. And did he let you go back to bed?”
“He said he couldn’t come during the day. He said to tell you that she’s coming soon. Why is he so sad, Daddy?”
“What?”
“That’s what he said. Can I watch TV?”
* * * *
Ray spent his morning lab in a haze. At noon he went to the faculty club for his regular last-Friday-of-the-month lunch with his cohort. There was a group of six of them that had started working at the college at the same time and after new faculty orientation had continued to meet for lunch despite differences in disciplines.
Today he sat next to Leilani McKenzie, who taught English. She dressed every bit the part of an English professor, wearing a black dress with glasses on a chain and turquoise jewelry to tie the ensemble together.
“Good lord, Ray, you look like you’re plotting the overthrow of the kingdom. Or that Hamlet’s father showed up and told you to get to work.”
“What? Wait, what?”
“Oh dear, you’re worse than the students. Is this the level of conversation I can expect from you today? ‘Wait, what?’” She smiled.
“No, no. You, uh, you just landed a little close to home.”
Her smile turned a little crooked. “What do you mean?”
Perhaps because Claudia didn’t seem to realize anything was wrong or because he couldn’t tell other professors in the school of sciences that he thought he had seen a ghost, it all came pouring out. The boy, Robbie’s pronouncements, the baby monitor—all of it.
“He sounds like a ‘Radiant Boy,’” she pronounced.
“What’s that?”
“Old English ghost story, Victorian, really. It’s the ghost of a young boy killed by his mother. You know Victorians and childhood. If you see a Radiant Boy it’s a portent of doom,” she cackled.
“So the boy was probably killed by his mother?” Ray asked.
“That’s how the story goes. And in his fear and terror at mommy doing him in, his little soul becomes a Radiant Boy. But don’t tell me you believe it.”
“But you just said he sounds like this Victorian ghost!”
“Yes, but I am an English teacher. I give the kids Wuthering Heights. I thought you scientists didn’t go for ghosts.”
He considered this for a second. “I did just tell a class that the rise of the Pleiades at sunset meant the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest.”
“Wonderful! We’ll make a poet of you, yet. But seriously, are you sure it’s not just neighborhood kids punking you or whatever they call it?”
“Probably. You said if I see him it’s a portent of doom?”
“Not quite. A Radiant Boy is an omen that something awful will happen, but a Radiant Boy is not a danger in and of himself.”
“So I don’t have to worry about Robbie’s imaginary friend kidnapping him or killing him?”
“Are we really having this conversation? Thanksgiving Break cannot come soon enough.”
“Happy Halloween, Leilani.”
“Stop worrying, Ray. Four year olds are discovering imagination. Rather than fear it, enjoy it.”
* * * *
That n
ight when he went home, he asked Robbie again about his friend.
“His name is Wallace. He’s nine. I’m four, but we’re friends. He comes to my room at night and tells me we could be friends forever. But his mom won’t let him play with other kids.”
“Is his mom mean?”
“Yeah. He says she yells a lot and hits him.”
“Robbie, look at me. Is anyone hitting you? Is there someone being mean to you?”
“Sometimes mommy yells at me.”
“But no one else is being mean to you?”
“You’re funny, daddy.”
* * * *
That night Ray walked Galileo and saw nothing. He stood at the back door looking out into the yard, but the boy never showed up. Maybe it was just Halloween fun for some jerk kid.
Saturday
The next morning ray was cutting his lawn and saw his neighbor Arthur Silverman out doing the same. He went over.
“Hi Art, how are you?”
“Not bad. Damn kids are gonna come by tonight. Little beggars looking for a handout. Damn candy gets more expensive every year.”
“I know what you mean. You must have seen a lot of Halloweens. How long you been in this house, Art?”
“Jesus, I grew up in this house. My father bought this place back when the war started. That’s WW 2, none of this recent bullshit.”
“Wow. That’s a long time. Did your father build this place?”
“Naw. Before that it was owned by a Mrs. Keinstern.”
“She live here alone?”
Suddenly Art got suspicious. “Why do you want to know?”
“Just interested.” Ray decided to take a gamble. “I heard she killed her kid.”
Art started at that. “Where the hell you hear that? One of the neighbors?”
“I forget. I just heard that some boy was killed here.”
“Jesus, I haven’t thought about him in years. She had a boy who died tragically. Fell asleep and never woke up. Husband died in the war or something. That’s why she moved. Wanted to leave the scene of so much tragedy and loneliness, I guess.”
“So she didn’t kill him?”
“Hell if I know, that was all before I was born, sometime in the late thirties. Wow, Ray, you picked the right day to ask me about the kid who died in my house. Happy Halloween.” With that, he turned, went inside and slammed the door.
