Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Rapping at the window, crying through the lock,
"Are the children in their beds, for now it's eight o'clock?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bakersville was a pleasant little town. They had a grocery store, a post office, a church, a school, and a few other small shops. They didn't need much. The buildings downtown still had their original facades from around 1900. The street was even still paved with bricks.
Everybody knew everybody. Very rarely would something happen that would be noteworthy. Usually the talk around town was about "that ridiculous blouse" Mrs. Johnson wore to church Sunday or the budding romance between Katie Kunstler and Josh Glasgow. It was just typical small town news.
Willie Winkie was the only really different person in town. The townspeople called him a lunatic. He never really got out much and when he did, he'd talk about strange things like history and science, but he would always add something that the people knew wasn't true. He was a short, plump man of no more than five feet, four inches. His round face was constantly red and flustered looking.
One night Willie had a ghost appear to him. "I am Reginald Baker, founder of this town," the phantom said. "I have come to warn you of a tragic event that will take place if you do not stop it. Tomorrow night, a very evil power will be in this town. It comes out after dark looking for children to feed on. The only thing that can prevent it from eating a child is if the child is in bed. It is your job, Willie Winkie, to make sure all of the children in town are in bed by sundown and don't get out!" With this, the spirit vanished.
"Oh, goodness!" thought Willie. "Such terrible deeds and I'm the one responsible for making sure they don't happen! Why me? No one in this town takes me seriously! How will I keep the children safe?"
He spent all night fretting over the immense task before him. Finally, he decided that all he could do was tell people and hope they listen.
First thing in the morning, he left his house to go to the diner, where many of the townspeople drank their morning coffee. Willie walked in and started telling everyone there about his vision and the importance of getting all of the children in bed by sundown and keeping them there until morning. As he expected, no one paid much attention to him.
He spent all morning and half the afternoon running up and down Main Street going into each business to tell people to get their children in bed by sundown. Still, no one listened.
Willie started worrying. "What if none of the children are in bed at dark and they all get eaten?"
"I really don't want to scare them, but maybe the children will actually listen to me!" thought Willie.
He ran the the school. The children were just about to be released from classes. He stood by the front door, waiting for them to start coming out. At 3:30, children started to leap out of the building, eager to escape the building they had been cooped up in for so long. Willie started preaching to the children that they must all be in bed by eight that night (for the sun was supposed to set not long after that). All of the children stopped running and turned to Willie to listen to why they must be in bed then. He told them all about how an evil person would come take them away if they were not in bed by 8:00 pm sharp. He figured that would be a little easier for the children to handle than the truth.
All of the children went home and told their parents about the evil that was coming. "I will be in bed by eight! I love you! I don't want to be taken away!" the children said.
Willie knew that the children listened to him, but he worried that their parents would still be apprehensive. So at 7:45 that night he went out in his pajamas and went to all of the houses to remind everybody to get their children in bed by 8. He ran from house to house, banging on windows, shouting at doors.
"Hopefully they will listen," he thought to himself. "If not, I tried my hardest."
First thing in the morning, he got up and ran to the diner to hear if there was any news of children disappearing. The parents that were there mentioned how strange it was that their children were easily in bed before dark. Willie asked if any were gone. "No. We didn't expect them to be."
That's when a police officer across the diner spoke up. "We got a call last night from Mrs. Johnson. Said she heard something. She got up to see what was wrong and noticed her daughter's door was open. She went to look in and check on her and saw a tall, dark, lanky figure standing over the bed. She said it didn't look human. It looked at her then hurriedly escaped through the window. She was absolutely terrified and called the station immediately. Sounds like you were right, Winkie."
After that day, the people of Bakersville took Willie Winkie more seriously. Willie made an effort to come out of his house more often, too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Author’s note: I found “Wee Willie Winkie” in The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang (1897) on about page 120 and thought it would be easy to make a story out of it. I thought “why would someone need to run around town in their pajamas making sure all the children were in bed by eight?” The only thing I could think of was a sandman- or boogeyman-like creature coming to get them.
Image information: "Main Street Bldg Chesterton IN 2012" by GKChest source
