Flames Among the Trees

My mother turned her head toward the noise she had heard to the side, but she never let go of her father's hand. What she saw was a blurred mass of trees and shrubs, all darkening as the sun fell from the sky. Just like any child, she hated the scary, unknown woods at night. But as long as her father stayed close, she felt safe enough.

I wouldn't call my grandfather a witch doctor or anything. He was the village's bone doctor, but not a very religious man. At times, though, he could be very spiritual. Sometimes, by what I'm told, the word "mystic" seems to fit.

They had been walking for what seemed like hours to my mother. As a child, she was fairly sickly and was struck by some childhood blindness that left everything around her in a blurry haze. In the darkness, this only seemed to make the shadows jump about.

The two had sit down to rest on a fallen tree as the sun retreated, leaving them in almost complete darkness. Then, off in the distance far down the road, a light appeared.

My grandfather noticed, but seemed unconcerned. My mother, however, held her father a little tighter.

The lights clowly came closer. Soon, they could see that they were actually four lights slowly wandering along the path. My mother gripped her father's arm tightly. He simply pulled a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his calm hands.

The lights got closer, and they could see them flickering about. They were flames, four of them, floating together. Then, when the lights were just a short distance away, they could see what it actually was. The four flames sat on each corner of a coffin. A coffin being moved by unseen pallbearers through the woods.

The coffin approached the two. As my mother saw it slow down in front of them she buried her face into her father's shirt. All she heard was her father's strong voice say, "Do you have a light?" A second later, she felt a tap from her father's familiar hand. She looked up to see that the flames were gone. And for the first time, she felt that the darkness was welcome.