The stranger was very small and, very, very strange. It was hard to see exactly how strange, or, strange in what way. Eyes seemed to slide over him (If, indeed, “him” is the right word, could as well have been “she” or “it” or maybe even “them”.) without clearly seeing. But, there this being stood, or seemed to stand, when Jimmy opened the door.

Jimmy asked, “Who are you and what do you want?”

The Little Stranger replied in a surprisingly deep voice, “I am One. I seek food.”

Jimmy asked, “Oh, what do you eat?”

The Little Stranger answered with a demonstration.

The police say that Jimmy’s disappearance without a trace remains a mystery.

The Little Stranger is still hungry. The Little Stranger is always hungry.

Bob Wertzler is retired from almost twenty years in the mental health field in California and Arizona. There are times the title, “Recovering Therapist”, seems to fit. In 2006 he retired to move to Western North Carolina to help and become primary care giver for his father who had developed Dementia. Before all that, there was work at various times as a soldier (US Army 1967-70), community organizer, cab driver, welfare case worker, wooden toy maker, carpenter, warehouse worker, and other things. He relates to a line in a Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip its been.”