Nightfall from Faraway

 by anita marie moscoso

I brought this story out from my archives today for an anniversary of sorts.

Today in Seattle, Washington we’re suppose to have the same ( they’re predicting WORSE ) kind of storm that first inspired my Strange Travel Tale of Mr Nightfall and his companion Miss Praecox over two years ago.

Mr Nightfall and Miss Praecox, as you will see, seem to travel with Wild Storms so I just had to invite them back out for old times sake… I’m not so sure I could have stopped them anyway.

December 14, 2006

amm

NIGHTFALL FROM FARAWAY

                            

In my hometown, which is a place called Faraway, a man named Mr. Nightfall stands under a pear tree full of light green poisonous fruit and waits for the Sun to set.

Mr. Nightfall is my neighbor and our streets, like all the other streets in Faraway are lined with deadly fruit trees and deadly gardens. All these dark shady places are kept and tended by people with pale faces and empty eyes and here in our town Faraway no one is Sane and no one really lives because no one is really alive.

When Mr. Nightfall comes from Faraway sometimes he brings storms and in that wildness all you’ll see, all you’ll hear is Mr. Nightfall.

When Mr. Nightfall crosses your path and he settles over your town you’ll know he’s there because your skin will start to feel to tight and you won’t be able to pull air into your lungs.

Everything will seem…very Faraway.

That’ when you’ll know Mr. Nightfall is close enough to put out his cold, dark hand and lay it over your shoulder.

Once I followed Mr. Nightfall to a city with stores and cars and a coffee stand where the woman who served me wore a picture on her chest of a creature with stars in her hair.

 I asked if the creature in the picture was  from  the Well of Angra Lei and the Woman squeezed the cup of coffee so tight at the sound of my voice that the top popped off and the scalding hot coffee filled her eyes and mouth and she didn’t cry out.

Not even a little

The woman had turned to stone, her face was frozen into a mask and her eyes had rolled up into her head and I could hear her someplace deep inside screaming and screaming and screaming and she will never stop.

They never do when they are taken Faraway.

Mr. Nightfall didn’ come back for me, he never turns back but he did call out to me and I followed him through the town and the entire time he cursed and spat and hissed like one of the cats that’ not really a cat from back home in Faraway and he said, “They know I’m coming.”

“Of course they know you’re coming Mr. Nightfall, don’t they always?”

“No, not like this they haven’t known me like this for centuries I don’t like this Miss Praecox. No I don’t like it at all.”

This time the people in this little town by the sea knew Mr. Nightfall was coming.

There were candles in windows and there wasn’t a soul on the street. They were locked behind doors and the curtains where drawn and they knew they were very aware Nightfall was coming.

As Mr. Nightfall crossed the city I stopped here and there and looked in windows and when I could I found people and I touched them, carefully, quietly with my left hand and I told them my name and their minds stopped liked old clocks.

I could hear it loud as thunder as gears and cogs and wheels that turn their minds
ground to a halt and I could hear what they took with them to Faraway.

My name.

” Enjoying your visit Miss Praecox?”

” I always do Mr. Nightfall.”

He reached out to pat me on the head and thought better of it, ” Just like you’re Mother, we were a team in our day to. We worked well together.

The Praecox have always done their best work with Nightfall.”

” So what’s happened here Mr. Nightfall, where is everyone?”

He held a newspaper up and showed it to me. I couldn’t read it of course and he ran a cold dark finger under the headline and read it to me.

” Hurricane Force Winds expected to Strike Seattle, Power Outages State Wide, locals ready for Nightfall and freezing temperatures.

 They were ready for me this time. Lord I hate the press”

” Killjoys” I said with feeling.

” Well, there’s always tomorrow, isn’t there Miss Demetia Praecox?”

I agreed because everyone knows Nightfall comes from Faraway and sometimes it brings madness with it.

read more adventures from Faraway at:

http://anita64.wordpress.com/2006/08/13/stories-from-faraway-2/

 

 

A Balance of Dreams

How much of this is ‘remembering’, and how much a piecing together of bits and snatches of ancient stories and poorly translated poems I cannot say.  To lie near the Cabin allows thinsg to ‘flow through’ — and that is enough!

Trigor

……………………………………..

SMALLISH  WORLD 

 

There is a world small yet containeth all

twixt the mountain pale stark and lake so dark.

From each can be seen a universe

whether one soothes out or seeks within.

 

To three mountain peaks you can enjoin

a pristine climb from when or then or now;

yet each gives a view so much the same

of earth and mind and heart and wonder.

 

Of the cold sea you may also seek

to learn of self and spirit and myths

in timeless waves, or calm reflection –

or a pebble dropped to change it all.

 

The choosing is not ‘tween White or Black,

nor even call of drifting  high or low,

but of looking at what lies between

and finding simple peace with what you know.

 

Here are plains where wars were fought for naught ,

and ancient tribes met for exchange and blend

of impassioned blood and willing trade

of old and new such as children made.

 

To the South are the fonts of learning

of old  
Greece and
Egypt and Arabie.

From the East comes silk and mystery

and the horseman of terrible eyes.

 

From North flows the Skandie thunder

and legends of ice and soft blackened furs,

to add cold and warmth to the creep

of religious zeal from the pretentious West.

 

and the Celts rested here, and Gypsies too,

and the Romans and Huns and Rus ‘tis true,;

 fain seeds which flower o’er trampled grass

that the future is found in what has passed.

 

 

Boulogne-sur-Mer

Niftiest discovery from my online travels: old postcards of Boulogne!

Other things I learned that I did not know before virtually visiting:

• Boulogne is France’s biggest fishing port
• The Boulogne Cathedral of Notre Dame has the second biggest dome in Europe (after Rome’s St Peter’s)
• In about 633, when St. Omer was a bishop, legend has it that a mysterious boat carrying a luminous statue of the Virgin Mary appeared in the estuary of the river Liane at Boulogne - without oars, sails, or sailors! Townsfolk carried the statue to their church on the hill, and soon miracles were attributed to it. Later embellishments of the story had the boat pulled by a swan - which became the emblem of the town.