The Moonshine Man

Dark clouds, dark skies, to match with all my dark, unhealed teenager wounds. For most of my life, I kept wondering why I felt the way I did, and why I could not manage to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

What was there left for me to live? Was this how my life would end, I kept asking myself. Would it be in the middle of this nowhere that I have come to call home, because I just did not know another?

I lived in Cresentville; with its odd name, its odd places, its odd people, and its mysterious and most popular attraction: The Moonshine Manor.

Everything around the strong standing building was set to be dark and lifeless. Walking close to it gave the shivers to the most courageous of them, but only did good to me.

For the past years, walking by The Moonshine had been the only solace in my uneventful life, for the first time I really looked at it as a teenager, I encountered my stranger in glowing attire. A man, or so it seemed from where I saw it, with a tall figure and a powerful aura, standing by the house.

Any other person would have been frightened by the shadowy view, but I was never.

I saw him every Thursday going home from school, and any other time and day I came around, he would not be there.

He smiled at me, at least it felt like it to me, and stayed for mere minutes every time as we looked at each other, before he left towards the back of the house again.

He waved at me sometimes, when the wind blew strongly.

He even winked every time I made an effort to look extra good, before meeting him.

I had to fight the urge to follow him at any given chance, not in fear that I would be scared, but afraid of being disappointed and not being allowed to see my stranger anymore.

Our odd meetings had become moments of joy to me and all I looked forward to, every week. It went on for months, then years, and I never crossed the line. At one point, I saw him everywhere; in my dreams, my moments of sadness, my moments of glory.

He was the stranger, and person in general, I loved the most.

He was my light at the end of the tunnel.

He made me happy and made me want to be good at school and at home. My mother was impressed, and could tell that I was the happiest on Thursdays.

Folks in the neighborhood started telling her about my stops at the manor, so she asked me if I knew anyone who lived at Moonshine and why I stopped there every Thursday.

I explained it to her. She was not very fond of my story and my stranger and asked me to read a sacred book, so that I could protect myself from evil spirits.

My mother was very superstitious and I believe I was also, but in a very different way. I did not want to jinx myself and end up not seeing my stranger anymore, so I only pretended to read the book. I did not want it to get to my head, and for Moonshine Man to feel it whenever we saw each other.

My mother forbade me to stop at the manor and threatened to go give the man a piece of her mind if I went again, so I had to obey, at least for a few weeks. She would drop me off to school and pick me up every Thursday, rushing me to walk past the Manor every time.

She would pull me and order me to stare ahead, not letting me take a glimpse at my friend.

Yes, he had become my friend, and the only one at that. I spent less time playing and talking with him, but I felt closer to him than any other one I had in the past.

The same stranger I kept coming across had more impact on my life than many could ever wish for. We had a relationship and bond too strong to be stopped, and the simple fact that I was forbidden to see him only made me want to see him more often. I feared that our Thursday meetings would not suffice anymore.

I needed to see my stranger with the shining aura, to bring some reason to my dull life.

As I began being closed off again, my mother tried to talk me into doing more stuff with her. It did not work too well, as we did not have much to share.

She got worried and even asked around for Moonshine Man, but no one gave her a satisfying enough answer. One Thursday, she went out after dropping me home and came back a few minutes later, with a face as dark as mine. From then on, she just dropped the topic and never spoke or asked about Mister Moonshine Man again.

I was free to see him and spend time with him again.

I was afraid that Moonshine Man would be upset, seeing that I abandoned him for so long, so I rushed to the manor the first Thursday I could. And there he was, waiting for me.

I was happy to see him.

Time went by as I resumed walking by the manor to see him and realized that he had stopped appearing every Thursday, and would not smile as much anymore.

Until he stopped appearing altogether at all.

I never got to see his face up close, or ask his name and who he was. I never got to verify if he encountered other people than me, on other days and other times, or if he was just mine.

I wondered if the folks who had told my mom about my habits had seen him while I was there. Or if my mother had finally seen him on that famousThursday, and it made her not want to address it anymore.

I was just glad to have found a Mister Moonshine Man during the times I needed one the most, even for the short while I had him for. I wished I could have had one conversation with him, with our voices and faces uncovered.

I hoped our peculiar meetings had brought him joy as much as they had brought me light.