Easter Demons

          The closer it gets to Easter, the more my mind travels back to a time where the unorthodox was considered normal.  To a place where demons and angels fought daily, the invisible battles of the mind.

          Easter is the worst time of the year to be insane, especially if you think you are Jesus, God or the Devil.  Everyone wants to "rise" to the occasion!!!  People get uneasy.  The demons start to become agitated and speak after being silent for months.  The tension is palpable.  Any person in the area is aware of the risk that lurks in the eyes of peers and patients alike.

      Years ago in a strange place like the one I have been describing, lived an old man.   He was a loner by nature. Although he was imprisoned he could not be broken.

      The younger men would be foolish enough to pick on him once, then they learned the hard way, to leave him alone. He was small in stature, thin and always dressed neatly. We shared a love of coffee. He liked his black---I drank mine with the works poured in. He thought I was wasting a good cup of coffee and I thought he was a snob.  But we liked each other.  He would reminisce about his wife.  He had married an Indian woman years ago. I asked him if she was pretty. He shook his head no but said, "she was to me".  Tears welled up in both our eyes for a moment and then was gone.  Our relationship was odd at best. 

      One Friday night around midnight, I heard a shrieking, screaming, hair raising noise come from his room.  Everyone ran down to check on him. 

     He was sitting on the side of the bed, using the most foul language imaginable to describe a rape that had been committed years before.  His countenance changed. The old blue eyes began to look young again. The stench in the room was noticeable, completely out of character for him. 

      The hair on the back of my neck stood up and chills ran down my arms.  I knew I was looking at pure evil and evil was looking back at me.  My heart raced and I felt a cold chill engulf me. I wanted out of that room, however leaving was not an option.  My job depended on my ability to remain calm in a crisis situation.  Running was something I could not do.

      There are things in life that happen and cannot be explained. People were trying to rationalize what they saw. For once in my life, I kept my mouth shut. I knew what was going on, but to say it aloud would have caused people to think I was insane too.

      We were in the presence of a demon, and the demon was on a roll. For 2 nights he shrieked, screamed, cursed and relived every vile thing he had ever done.  Then Easter dawned and the demon shut up.  Everything was back to normal.  The very air we breathed smelled cleaner, people began to laugh and joke again.  It was almost like the past 2 days had never happened--almost.

       The young blue eyes became old and weary. The old man's soul seemed to become sick, loosing his will to live.  We seldom talked and never drank coffee together again.

       I moved to another town, to another job.  I learned years later that he hanged himself in the shower, on a Friday night just before Easter.  For some reason I was not surprised.