A Hot Summer's Day and the Nightmarchers

It was so hot! Elena was sweating so much that she took three showers during the day before sitting outside on her porch. Hawaii is like that -- hot and tropical, meaning humid. Plus, the sun is bright during the summer. She sat on her porch chair facing the mountain that rose at the end of the street about two blocks away. There was just enough room for her chair in front of the screen door. She gazed at the fruit trees in her yard and then turned to look at the huge avocado tree near the street. None of them moved. There was no breeze.

During the day, she laid on her bed in her shorts and bra with a fan on each side of the bed turned toward her. She couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to eat. All she could do was keep filling her water bottle and sipping from it as she wandered around the house, sometimes stepping outside where it was cooler. Elena had finally decided to sit outside on the porch and gaze at the mountain which turned gray when the sun went down. Unfortunately, the temperature didn’t go down very much. It was still ninety degrees when darkness took over. She turned on the TV which she could see from the porch and turned down the volume, so it was just background noise. She couldn’t even concentrate on pictures or words; it was that hot.

Elena stared at the outline of the gray mountain. It wasn’t that big or tall and had only one ‘big house’ on the ridge which fronted onto the street. Usually in the evening, and on into the night, residents of the street would see car headlights moving up the winding road that was on the left side of the big house as the residents returned home for the day. But not on this night. This night, Elena was surprised to see a string of lights moving slowly up the mountain on the right side of the big house. That’s strange. There’s no road there. I wonder what’s happening?

She stared at the mountain. She was so tired from the hot day she didn’t move in her chair. She just stared. None of her neighbors were outside. She wished they were, so she could ask them if they saw what she saw.

There were lights on the right side of the big house that were moving up the mountain in single file. Sometimes they swayed from side to side as if people were carrying flashlights when walking up the hill. I must be seeing things. That doesn’t look normal.

Elena stared at the mountain as she kept wiping her brow and sipping water from her jug when she noticed the lights were flickering and waving as they moved. Those aren’t flashlights! They’re torches!

Then she noticed the outlines of medium-tall, strong-looking figures that seemed to be holding torches as they marched up the mountain. The Nightmarchers! I’m looking at the Nightmarchers!

Elena called her sister. “I see them, Maria, I’m looking at the Nightmarchers! Right here in my neighborhood. I can’t believe it!”

“Exactly where are they, Sis?”

“Going up the mountain on the right side of the big house on the ridge. What does that mean?”

Maria answered in a low voice, “You might be having a heat stroke. Go inside and get some water. Now! Dan and I will be right over. Don’t tell anyone about this.”

Elena hung up without answering. She couldn’t move from her chair. She was mesmerized by the torchlights moving up the mountainside. Forget the water. I don’t want to miss anything. Not many people get to see the Nightmarchers … the fabled Hawaiian warriors carrying torches. I’m not moving.

Just then the torches at the front of the line got brighter just before they suddenly disappeared, as if the torch bearers had gone into a cave in the mountain one by one. Elena kept watching to see if she could see exactly where they went. She was struck by the scene and wondered if it was real. It was so hot, even at night. Maybe I AM delirious.

She looked to the left of the big house and noticed there were no car headlights. A faint small light shined inside the house, but it wasn’t like someone had turned on a room light. The big house was mostly dark.

A car rounded the corner and stopped in front of her own house. Maria stepped out and looked at the mountain. “… ‘Oi, Sis, I no see nothin’ … “

“Gone. All the torch lights are gone. I didn’t see any car headlights tonight.”

Dan stood behind Maria and said, “Not good. Something happened. Did you see anything else … anything other than torches?”

“No. Just a small glow inside the big house. But I thought I saw dark figures who might have been carrying the torches on the right side of the big house where there’s no road. Also, I sort of heard soft chanting. Well, I think I did, anyway. As you know, their feet don’t touch water or ground as they march, but sometimes you can hear their chanting.”

Dan said, “Yeah, we heard that they come from their burial sites or rise from the ocean, and march in a large group to ancient Hawaiian battle sites or other sacred places. We know the night marchers are normal-size warriors, dressed for battle, carrying spears, clubs, and some are beating war drums and blowing conch shells, to announce their march. But other people, who claim to have seen them, say there’s no sound when they pass by.”

Dan then lifted his cell phone and called Pastor John. He reported what Elena had told them and asked, “What should we do?”

“No can do nothin’. Don’t defy dem. If dey’s da real Nightmarchers, you will know what happened in da mornin’.”

Dan and Maria went inside Elena’s house and sat with her for a while. After having the usual discussion about their family and the neighbors, they made sure she felt safe and went home. Dan said, “Call us tomorrow when you find out what happened … if anything happened.”

The next morning, which was predicted to be another hot day, Elena heard some neighbors talking while they were standing in the street in front of her house. They were animatedly discussing what happened at the big house on the mountain last night, and how someone tried to rob the place, and how Uncle was almost killed.

Elena went out to listen and hopefully contribute to the conversation. She loved to ‘talk story’ and gossip.

“It was so hot, and Uncle was sleeping out back on his lounge chair trying to cool off when someone hit him on the head. He rolled to the ground and passed out for a few seconds. His cell phone fell out of his pocket, and it was so dark he couldn’t find it,” said Dwight.

“But he strong,” interrupted Annie, posing with her arms as if she was lifting weights. “He no find phone but den some light shine on da ground, and he pick ‘em up and call 911.”

She paused to look around at her audience before continuing, “Da police go up to da house and catch dem guys. Dey in jail now. Two dem.”

Dwight finished her story for her. “I talked with Uncle this morning. The robbers snuck into the big house and were looking for to steal the good Hawaiian stuff. They put some things in their pickup truck and then the police showed up.”

Iwalani interrupted, “The family came home just in time to see all this happening.”

Dwight continued, “Funny thing, though. It was so dark outside that when Uncle fell, he couldn’t find his phone. Then, suddenly a low light came on just bright enough for him to see his phone lying on the ground behind a ti plant. Odd. He said the light came from the mountain behind the yard, not from the big house.”

Upon hearing this, Elena was excited to insert her two cents into the conversation. “They grew ti plants around the yard specifically to keep out the Nightmarchers. It was them I saw! They were marching up the mountain just outside the back yard where Uncle was sleeping, and they disappeared into the mountain behind it.”

Jay had been quiet until then but spoke up when he heard about the light. “Good thing it was so hot, and Uncle was outside. He could have been in the big house when they broke in. He got hit on the head, but at least that’s all that happened to him. Maybe an ancient ancestor marcher recognized him and shined a light on his phone. He’s a lucky guy.”

Dwight added, “A lucky guy with a hard head.”

Everyone laughed and accepted the theory that Uncle had been saved by the Nightmarchers.