Enigma

It was the year 1993. Just another cold night in the rural area of North Cumberland. An old man named Henry Williams lived alone on these streets. Nobody like him and nobody cared for him.

He was now approaching the latter years of his life; a lonely and isolated life, filled with many memories, sadly the negative outweighed the positive. Henry now only wished for one more thing, his death to come and take him away. These last ten years of his were nothing more than a struggle. He was not sleeping well at night and was starting to feel the effects of old age. His sight was fading and he was partly deaf in one ear. His left hand ached with sharp pains from arthritis.

Henry had been having the same dream now for the last number of months. It was a series of grotesque images. Men raping young women before dragging their bodies away to gauge their insides out. Sexual abuse suffered by children who were beaten to an inch of their life if they were to tell a soul of what had happened to them. Waking up at exactly the same time every morning in streams of sweat. One could only imagine having to live in these conditions but Henry was not your average person.

All be it that he was strange Henry was also a skilled toy maker and specialised in making such simple things as dolls and train sets. It was as though his work was the only thing keeping him sane in his little world. He had a cosy toy store on the street, which he now only opened three days a week. Bigger stores now existed and Henry was too old to compete with them. Many adults looked at him with sympathy and the rest refused to even acknowledge his presence in their town.

Henry loved the children of the town to bits. Their faces would always light up when they were in his store and he was very happy and proud that even after all this time there was still some little demand for his toys. As a child growing up himself things were not as good for him as it was for the children who visited his store. Going to school everyday was very painful for him. He had little friends and kept relatively to himself, as he wanted to keep people at a distance to him. Henry had a gift, a very special gift that not many people around the world posses.

It is human nature to be fearful of uniqueness and as a result people did not accept Henry’s gift to be normal. Henry had the power to see, sense and interact with things, which he saw around him. Things which other people were not aware of. Strange voices were the main things he would hear. Not really understanding them at his tender age he slowly developed an ability to experience strange images. These appeared to him in shadows, they always came at night. The voices always sounded familiar to him but Henry was never quite able to put a face to them.

These voices which he heard, were always with him throughout his life. They started out as simple conversations sometimes but then there were other times when they were violent and led to couples shouting at each other before loud screams took over and the slamming of doors followed. The voices scared Henry at times. He didn’t like it when they got like that. Henry didn’t like violence.

The death of his brother was Henry’s first of many bad memories. A drunk driver had knocked him down at the age of sixteen. He had been killed instantly though his body had been so badly disfigured in the accident his family could not give him an open coffin for his funeral. Tragedy was again to strike for Henry. He was once happily married. He and his wife had a normal marriage. They had one son by the name of James. On September 12th 1971 a horrible car crash killed his son and his wife lay in a coma for five weeks before passing away. It broke his heart and he never recovered from it.

Henry contemplated killing himself almost every night, as he had nothing else to live for in this world and dreamed of the day when he would be reunited with his wife and son again. But he knew he could never do that. He did not believe in suicide. Throughout the whole year Henry was always sad though Christmas time was his favorite as the sight of children being happy and laughing in the snow cheered him up and his mind would wonder back to the years of his family.

Those were happy times indeed for Henry.

Henry’s dreams now were beginning to change and they were getting much worse. This was a dream of a person though he was unable to know was it an adult or child. They were very cold and very scared. The only sounds to be heard were murmured voices and the sound of passing traffic. It was almost as if this person was inside the trunk of a car. The person was scratching around, trying desperately to get out.


“Help me…please…is anybody out there?”

Henry felt as though he was inside their mind and looking out of their eyes. He became aware of something in the right hand of this person. Some piece of paper. It was far too dark to make out what was on it.

It looked like…a…a…!

Henry woke up screaming and covered in sweat but then realised that it was all a dream or was it a sign of some sort. This dream had seemed very real. Alot more real than previous ones before this.

The 22nd January 1994 would be the last time Henry would see the light of day. The time right now is 10:48am and Henry is in his store cleaning his windows and doing his usual chores which pass the time of day. A voice from behind disturbs Henry from his work. Upon turning around, he stares at a figure face of a young boy. He was a small little lad, could not have be more than ten years old. The boy dragged his right foot behind him Henry could see the struggle in his face. The little boy tried so hard to hide it. He never made eye contact, constantly keeping his two eyes fixed to the floor, almost as though he was ashamed of his disability. Henry waited patiently at the counter ready to offer his assistance. The young boy began to look up to the roof and raised his hand pointing out a bright red train set, amazingly it had been the last toy Henry had made in his store. Henry thought it was kinda weird that the boy should be able to pick it out.

In an effort to make conversation, Henry asked the boy what his name was.

“Billy, sir” was his reply.

“Billy Ryan.”

“Billy, I was just wondering, why did you decided to come in here. Surly a boy of your age would be more interested in other things and not these kinds of toys. These days not many kids of your age are interested in my hand made work.”

“ I know sir but I’m different. That’s why I walk like this. Some kids don’t like me so they tried to hurt me. I’m not as strong as they are sir. I just like to play with toys in my room. I do like your train. It’s just like the one I drew in school last week. I really love trains, especially the ones that pass by the town everyday. That’s what I want to be when I grow up, a train driver.”

Henry was instantly taken in by this little boy. He genuinely did sound as though he liked the trains. Although it was plain to see from his clothes that he was not the most well looked after child. His coat that he wore looked at least a size too small for him and his trousers were badly torn. His face looked very dirty. He had a very frail stature and a depressed look in his face. On top of his head he wore a green baseball cap, this also looked very dusty and worn.

“ Tell me Billy, how did you get to be so involved with trains, does any member of your family work on them?”

“Oh no sir, in fact mother doesn’t want me to be around trains. She wants me to be a soldier like my brother. She says a man in uniform is very attractive and you can lead a happy life. She doesn’t want me to end up working on one of them. I’ve snuck outta the house to see The Pacific; it’s in the town for repairs this week. I’m gonna buy a train just like that one some day.”

“I really don’t think you should disobey your mother like that even though she does not approve of you being on them but I tell you what.”

Henry reached up to the Train that the boy had his eyes on the whole time.

“If you like trains so much I’m gonna give you this set as a little present. It can be a reminder for you of your favorite thing in life and if you really want something you will get it if you work hard enough.”

Henry had spent a lot of time on this model train set. He had made it a few weeks ago after his bad dreams. Working on this train had taken away his fear and made him happy again. Besides it was not as if he was going to need it and this boy reminded him of when he was young. Billy was one of the nicest people Henry had spoken to in a long time.

Billy asked how much it was and had his hand in his pocket ready to pay whatever Henry said. Henry refused to accept any money for the train and handed it to him and said he could have it as a gift if he promised to come and pay him another visit sometime and to bring his mother in so that he could talk to her.

“ Teacher said I shouldn’t make promises I can’t keep.”


Henry looked at the boys for a few seconds but somehow knocked over a jar of pencils, which were by his hands. The jar smashed to the floor and Henry bent down to try and gather them up. He was not on the ground for more than ten seconds yet when he stood up the boy was nowhere to be seen. Instead lying on the floor was a simple drawing of a train painted sky blue and red, exactly like the one he had just given to Billy. What was even stranger was the fact the doorbell had not even sounded to indicate somebody was leaving the shop. Come to think of it, had it made a noise when Billy had walked into the shop? Also what had Billy ment when he said that he should not make promises that he could not keep? There was no point in trying to figure it out though, as he did not understand the minds of the children today.

It was approaching the end of the working day and since Henry’s store had not seen many customers all afternoon he decided to call it a day as there surly would be no one else. With that he turned off all the lights and locked up out front before going upstairs to his lonesome flat. Though it had not been his busiest of days Henry was feeling very tired and weak. He knew that the day of closing up for the final time was approaching fast.

Henry was in the kitchen preparing his dinner when he had realised that he had not got a chance to look at the local paper. Every day since he could remember he had brought the paper downstairs to the shop to read while he had his lunch but today he had not.

The heading on the front page had read…

Mayor Franklin announces 450 news jobs at new clothes factory opening in town!

These were good times to be living in the area Henry thought. Reading on through the article he is unaware of two youths attempting to break into his store in the hope of getting enough money together to finance their weekly score.

Their two previous attempts to break inside had failed. This time they carried a crowbar and a small handgun. This time there would be no more mistakes. The fact that a withered old man lived here ment nothing to them. This was just another chance to get a quick dollar.

The sound of the kettle boiling had made Henry put the paper down by the telephone. He liked his cup of tea at night always helped calm the nerves he thought. Hopefully no bad dreams tonight; Hopefully. As he stretched out to pour his warm drink the two young men who were now masked in balaclavas broke through the door.

“ Don’t move old man stay right where I can see you.” Henry panicked and reached out for the telephone but no sooner did he do so then one of the men welding the crowbar in his right hand struck Henry’s wrist. The sound of shattering bones echoed throughout the room. Henry fell to the ground in agony.


“I said don’t fucking move old man or we’ll kill you.”

The men started to ransack the apartment. Books were tossed across the room. Papers were thrown to the floor. Tax forms stacked neatly on his desk in the corner were destroyed. Henry had no money on the premises, as he had been wise to have all major funds locked up safely in his bank account. The only kind of money was the $15 he had in his pocket.

“Where the hell is all the money?” one of them shouted.

“I…I don’t have any here, there’s none in the room please I’m just an old man don’t kill me.”

The two men looked at each other. Henry could see that these were just amateurs as they had a scared look in their eyes and with the entire racket they had been causing someone was bound to have heard them. Maybe the police were on their way to the house or one of his relations would come round to check on him.


“ Your not having a good day today are you?” one of the men said before slowly advancing up towards Henry.

Suddenly Henry felt a sharp blow to his head. Stumbling to the ground everything around him was foggy. He was unable to hear the men talk to each other clearly and his vision was fading away.

“ Jesus…you’ve…killed…him...”

“So…Only…an…Old…man…who’ll miss him?


The date is the 21st of January 1994…two mechanics repairing the Train ‘Pacific’ begin yet another week of work.


“So mate how’d did you spend the weekend?” Mike asked as they walked along the platform to the train.

“Oh I just watched the game Friday night. My team lost yet again. They’ve got no chance of making the playoffs this year. I spent Saturday night with Jessica while Jake stayed over at a friend’s house. I tell you man never ever have a kid…there nothin’ but trouble. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

“I can’t comment on the subject yet but kids are the last thing on my mind right now. Cas and I are planning to move in to a flat together soon. I was thinking of asking the boss for a raise. Do you’ll think he’ll give me one?”

“If you get one I’ll go mad coz I’ve been here a lot longer than you but sure you deserve it mate, the boss loves you I’m sure one day I’ll be asking you for one.”

Mike laughed to himself as the two of them went into the carriage to begin work. Johnny had dropped his car keys so Mike had continued on.

“Jesus Christ…hey Johnny get an ambulance now quickly…!”

“What’s going on?” he replied rushing in to take a look at what Mike had found.

“Oh My God…!”

Henry could smell burning around him. He must have passed out he though there was no sound of the men, only the crackling fire obliterating everything in it’s path Henry would be soon added to it’s list.

Thick smoke was covering the room. Henry was finding it hard to breathe. With the last once of strength in his body he pulled himself over to the telephone and pulled it off the counter and also pulling down the newspaper with it. The items fell to the ground as if in slow motion but alas it was too late for Henry. He was dead by the time they had hit the ground. The two men were long gone and had left a trail of destruction behind them.


The newspaper had fallen onto his body and had now opened on page 22 the title in the bottom left hand corner read….

22nd September 1994

Child Found Dead Inside Carriage of Pacific

Tragedy was bestowed on to the family of the Ryan’s today as their little son Billy (9) was found brutally murdered inside one of the carriages of the Pacific Train at exactly 10:48am yesterday morning.

Police are refusing to give the full extent of the boys injuries but it is believed that he suffered a massive blow to the head with a large object and had been repeatedly kicked in the chest and left there to die.

Police also say that in the hands of the little boy was a picture of a train painted sky blue and red, showing himself in the control box. His parents said that it had been his favorite and he wanted a train just like it.

The boy had been missing for most of the previous day. His whereabouts are not known after the time of 4:00pm. Police are not ruling out the possibility of it being a planned abduction. All known pedophiles are being questioned and interviews are planned to be carried out in the local school.

The body had had been found by two mechanics assigned to repair the aging train. It remains a mystery to how to child actually got inside but it was later confirmed that people of the surrounding area spotted three suspicious characters outside the station, and these people are wanted by police for further questioning.

This accident has rocked the whole community of North Cumberland. The boy and his family will be in our hearts and prayers over the coming days.

Sleep well our child for the light of God shines on thee and eternal happiness you shall be given.