to found Providence, way back in 1636. ‘What cheer, netop ,’ they said to him. Netop means ‘friend’ in the Narragansett language. But ‘what cheer’ was the way that English people greeted each other back then. Sort of like ‘Whassup?’ now. The Narragansetts had learned those words from theearly English traders.”
I explained to Roger how I had gotten so freaked out by Grama Delia’s story about the Whisperer in the Dark that it was a long time before I figured I was finally ready to hear more. But this time I went to my dad. Dad was so strong, so big and solid, that it was safer to hear such a scary story from him. Back then I thought he would always be around to protect me. Dad was always ready to talk about our ways. It was one of the things we always used to do together. So when I asked him about the Whisperer, he just put aside the wood carving he’d been working on, pulled his stool away from the bench, and sat me on his lap.
“The Whisperer,” he said. “You want to know about that scary monster, Maddy girl?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, clasping my hands together and leaning back against his broad chest.
Then Dad told me what he’d heard as a kid. No one really knew what that creature looked like. But they were afraid, terribly afraid of hearing its cold voice. Because when you heard the Whisperer speak, that meant that it had chosen you. It didn’t come right out and grab you like a corny moviemonster. You first heard its voice four different times. The fourth time was when it finally spoke your name. Then you had to go to it. You couldn’t stop yourself. After that you were never ever seen again.
Having my big, strong father tell me what he knew about the Whisperer actually made me feel a little better. Sure, it was spooky stuff, but with Dad right there to protect me, I knew I had nothing to worry about. I knew he was going to pick up where Grama Delia’s story about the Whisperer left off and tell me how that monster was defeated. And, sure enough, he did.
“Finally,” Dad continued, “the people decided they had to do something. The Whisperer had preyed on too many of their loved ones, and they had to put a stop to him. So one night they surrounded the part of the dark swamp near the coast where it was said the Whisperer lived. The people all had torches and made a great ring of fire. Fire and the bright light of the sun were the only things the monster feared. They kept moving in closer and closer. They saw a shadow slipping through the trees, running away from them, away from that fire.They drove it back up the hill to a cave in a steep cliff where they knew it would take shelter from the light. Sure enough it did, and when they lifted their torches to see what was in the cave, what some of them saw was even more awful than they had expected. They blocked up the mouth of that cave with big stones and piled earth on top of that. They put down strong medicine to keep anyone or anything from opening it. That medicine was supposed to last for a thousand seasons. For a long time after that, no one heard the Whisperer in the Dark.”
“What did they see?” I asked.
Dad smiled. “I knew you were going to ask that, Maddy. Although they saw it only briefly, although it was covered with the blood of his victims, they thought they recognized the monster’s face. It was the face of one of their own people, the pawwaw who had been hungry for power before he had disappeared many seasons earlier. An evil spirit had come into him, and he had become a monster. When they closed that cave, they meant to seal in not just that man, but also the spirit that had turned him into something inhuman.”
But, I told Roger, that was not the end of what my dad shared with me.
“What your Grama Delia didn’t tell you,” my father said, “is that the Whisperer in the Dark returned many years later, after the coming of the English during the time of Canonchet. This time that dark spirit didn’t choose to
I explained to Roger how I had gotten so freaked out by Grama Delia’s story about the Whisperer in the Dark that it was a long time before I figured I was finally ready to hear more. But this time I went to my dad. Dad was so strong, so big and solid, that it was safer to hear such a scary story from him. Back then I thought he would always be around to protect me. Dad was always ready to talk about our ways. It was one of the things we always used to do together. So when I asked him about the Whisperer, he just put aside the wood carving he’d been working on, pulled his stool away from the bench, and sat me on his lap.
“The Whisperer,” he said. “You want to know about that scary monster, Maddy girl?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, clasping my hands together and leaning back against his broad chest.
Then Dad told me what he’d heard as a kid. No one really knew what that creature looked like. But they were afraid, terribly afraid of hearing its cold voice. Because when you heard the Whisperer speak, that meant that it had chosen you. It didn’t come right out and grab you like a corny moviemonster. You first heard its voice four different times. The fourth time was when it finally spoke your name. Then you had to go to it. You couldn’t stop yourself. After that you were never ever seen again.
Having my big, strong father tell me what he knew about the Whisperer actually made me feel a little better. Sure, it was spooky stuff, but with Dad right there to protect me, I knew I had nothing to worry about. I knew he was going to pick up where Grama Delia’s story about the Whisperer left off and tell me how that monster was defeated. And, sure enough, he did.
“Finally,” Dad continued, “the people decided they had to do something. The Whisperer had preyed on too many of their loved ones, and they had to put a stop to him. So one night they surrounded the part of the dark swamp near the coast where it was said the Whisperer lived. The people all had torches and made a great ring of fire. Fire and the bright light of the sun were the only things the monster feared. They kept moving in closer and closer. They saw a shadow slipping through the trees, running away from them, away from that fire.They drove it back up the hill to a cave in a steep cliff where they knew it would take shelter from the light. Sure enough it did, and when they lifted their torches to see what was in the cave, what some of them saw was even more awful than they had expected. They blocked up the mouth of that cave with big stones and piled earth on top of that. They put down strong medicine to keep anyone or anything from opening it. That medicine was supposed to last for a thousand seasons. For a long time after that, no one heard the Whisperer in the Dark.”
“What did they see?” I asked.
Dad smiled. “I knew you were going to ask that, Maddy. Although they saw it only briefly, although it was covered with the blood of his victims, they thought they recognized the monster’s face. It was the face of one of their own people, the pawwaw who had been hungry for power before he had disappeared many seasons earlier. An evil spirit had come into him, and he had become a monster. When they closed that cave, they meant to seal in not just that man, but also the spirit that had turned him into something inhuman.”
But, I told Roger, that was not the end of what my dad shared with me.
“What your Grama Delia didn’t tell you,” my father said, “is that the Whisperer in the Dark returned many years later, after the coming of the English during the time of Canonchet. This time that dark spirit didn’t choose to
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