Strange Case of Jacqueline and Ms. Hayden

March 23, 1992

Dear Diary,

Hey there, it's me again. I just finished  my schooling for the day and Mom went out grocery shopping because she realized we are almost out of sandwich stuff while she was making my lunch. I asked if I could go see Granny today, but she said Granny was out on an excursion for the afternoon and I could visit tomorrow. So I decided I should write to you about this amazing story Granny told me on Saturday:

It starts on a cloudy but otherwise clear evening, before Granny was deemed incapable of going out without supervision. She was out for a stroll in the garden on the Nursing Home grounds. Just as she bent to smell the roses and admire them at a closer glance, she thought she heard something heavy fall to the grass at the opposite side of the courtyard. Just meters from the other side of the bush she was standing behind.

Being the curious old adventurer she was, Granny thought it well to investigate the noise. After all, it was a gated community, and the town itself was known for its extremely low crime rate. Using her cane to aid her in standing upright from admiring the roses, she hobbled around to the other side of the bush to get a look at the source of the strange noise. Though the moon was full and bright that night, she still had to squint due to her waning eyesight from old age in order to see properly.

She noticed a dark blob on the ground, and began to approach it, thinking it could be the night owl that had been keeping her up most nights with its constant hooting. She was suddenly hopeful that she might actually be able to get a good night's rest, but immediately felt bad afterwards, being that she was fond of all animals and used to volunteer at the animal shelter as a young woman.

Now worried of what she may find, she warily approached the blob on the ground and gasped, while almost dropping her cane out of shock by what she had seen sprawled out on the manicured lawn. It was a man! It seemed as though he had been struck on the head by someone or something, since there was a fresh welt on the left side of his forehead. Granny quickly got closer to him to check if he was still breathing, and she realized that she recognized his face as the janitor who works the overnight shift in the nursing home. She couldn't tell if his chest was moving or not, due to her poor eye sight, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to get back up on her own if she knelt down to listen for air moving in and out of his mouth. So she decided that going to find help would be the best option.

As quickly as she could, she headed toward the home to find a nurse or anyone that might be able to assist this poor man. By the time she got to a nurse who was making nightly rounds, and returned to the spot where the man had been laying, he was gone. There wasn't even a fold in the grass indicating that anyone had been lying there at all. The nurse thought that Granny was just tired and needed a good night's rest, so she she escorted Granny back to her room to prepare for bed.

The next day and for many days after, Granny tried to convince the nursing staff that there was indeed a man out there that night, and he was a nightshift employee at the home who she had not seen working since before the incident. They tried to tell Granny that all the nightshift workers were accounted for and then they put her on some special medicine to take daily with her dinner.

Granny told me that was the beginning of the nursing home staff and my parents thinking she is going crazy. But I don't believe it. Now I can't wait to hear what other stories Granny has for me when I visit her after school tomorrow!

Till next time,
Lillian Lloyd