As a way of saying thanks to the nice inhabitants of this little town who were gracious enough to take them in, the witches placed a special enchantment on the town that allows one very special night per year. Every year on October 20th in Druryville, the dead arise from their graves to go join their loved ones at the showing of the moon's first light. Grandparents, old friends, former rivals, all gathered together in harmony for a single night of joy and reunion.
Everyone went about their daily business during the daylight hours; children were at school, adults at work, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to any onlooker. But as the late afternoon came, everyone walked to the small creek that flowed near the edge of town. This little creek is where the dead arose from every October 20th, acting as a portal to connect them to the living. As evening drew closer, adults began setting up tables on which they placed foods fit for the finest of feasts. Large roasted pigs and turkeys and freshly caught fish and lobster adorned every table, along with fruits and desserts and lots of champagne.
All the while children played and set off fireworks anxiously waiting for night to come. This night was very cloudy so the moon's light did not show for a long while but finally after many hours of patiently waiting, the clouds broke and the moon's bright light touched ground on the little town of Druryville. Suddenly, old souls began to rise out of the water and rushed towards their loved ones. Even Parashurama, one of the most ancient souls that used to live on the outskirts of town in its early days showed up. It was a joyous occasion and everyone feasted and reminisced about old times. Those who had passed shared with their loved ones the wonders of Heaven and talked at length about the peace they had attained since passing. Many gathered around Parashurama to listen to the wise advice he had to offer on how to lead a proper life, and all were delighted to hear what he had to say.
Widows rejoined their fallen husbands and longed to be able to go back to Heaven with them. "It is not your time yet, my love" they would always say in response to their loving wives. And so the night went on and families were reunited once again, but like all good things, this night had to come to an end. And with that, another magical October 20th had passed in Druryville and the deceased once again returned to the creek to be transported back to Heaven.
Author's Note: I loosely based this story off of the part of the Mahabharata where the dead rise from the Ganges and go to meet with their loved ones in the forest. This sounded like a really awesome idea to me, just thinking about the possibility of being able to be reunited with deceased loved ones for one night and getting to converse for a while and to be reassured that they are okay and at peace. I was really inspired by that thought and since the version of the Mahabharata that I read this week didn't really go in to any detail at all about this part of the story, I decided I would extrapolate on it. I also thought this would be a really fun story to do right now since it's October and we are close to Halloween and the Day of the Dead. This story didn't really fit the typical profile of my other portfolio stories, which also include the theme of involving Parashurama, so to make it fit, I added in Parashurama as one of the dead that came back to visit. In this story he is described as one of the earliest inhabitants of Druryville and considered as a wise hermit. Also, the image I chose is kind of unusual and doesn't fit perfectly with my modern version of the story but I loved the way it looked and it includes the transcendence between Heaven and Earth over the Ganges, so in a way it was a great picture to use for the story. This image is actually the descent of the Ganges from Heaven down to Earth and the man in the middle is Shiva, who is there to soften her landing with his head.
Bibliography: The Indian Heroes, by C.A. Kincaid (1921)
