Evening Walk

Every evening after supper Mr. Brewer would go for a walk. It was about the only exercise he got and it aided his digestion. It was also a good way of leaving the day's cares behind. Mr. Brewer started the practice soon after Evelyn, his 16 year old daughter died. "Evie" had been in full bloom, a blonde, pretty, witty, happy child with the teenager's boundless energy. It was the early 1960's and so Evie had ahead of her a career path typical for girls at that time. Nominally she was going to beautician school but in reality she was just keeping busy until she met a man and got married. Then she would become a happy wife and mother and Chuck and Betty would become grandparents and she would live and raise her family in Barnesboro and die and be buried there. Evie started getting headaches in her junior year. Growth puts stress on the body which changes every day and so the headaches were chalked up to growing pains. In her senior year the headaches got worse. Sometimes Mrs. Brewer would put a cold compress on Evie's forehead and sit with her as she lay in bed, the window drapes pulled tight to keep out the painful light. They took her to Dr. Smithson and he gave her a prescription for some fortified aspirin and told them to call him in the morning. Then Evie's right eye started bulging.

The Brewers took her to Pittsburgh to see a specialist. The tumor was too far gone though. They operated on her but she never woke up again. The tumor had been big and the bleeding wouldn't stop. On a spring day in early May Evie died, a month from her high school graduation. Death hits a small town hard. Everyone knows everyone else and so there's no escape from the grief. In a big city you can get away from whatever's on your mind by changing the scenery, going to a tavern or restaurant. But the scenery never changes in a small town. Everyone in the tavern or restaurant is talking about the same thing and so all Barnesboro wept when Evie died. Chuck and Betty took it hard but they were strong people. Friends and family helped. They went to church. Chuck went back to work. He was drawn and sad for a long while but in time he seemed to return to a rough approximation of his old self. And the nightly walks began. They were good for him too.

On this night, over 16 years after Evie's passing, Chuck, Jr. called to tell them that his wife just had a baby boy. Betty got in the car and excitedly went out to get Chuck. Some neighbors had seen him as he walked, they waved to him, and they told Betty the direction he went. She drove up the dirt road and saw Chuck but she did not call to him nor did she run after him nor did he see her coming. She walked over the grass toward him past the tombstones until she stood next to him lying flat on the ground his arms over his head sobbing into the the grass on Evie's grave as he had each night for over 16 years. PUBLIC OCCURRENCES