The Cloud Walker

I remember reading in a newspaper once, about a family who had lost someone in the dark day of 9/11. There was nothing unique in their story, except for one comment they made. The girl said that her brother had made one last call to his home.

“Everyone was out that day,” she said. “My mother never forgave herself. I guess he only had time to make one call and then…well you know what happened. But he said something real weird. He said he was looking out the window and that he was at peace with himself. My brother, who was as normal as the day is long, said he could see a man looking up at him. A man standing outside, on the clouds. It reminded me of that Twilight Zone movie, when the guy sees the monster eating the ‘plane. Neither my Mom or Dad ever mentioned what my brother had said, but I always remembered.”

Taking what that girl had said as a starting point, I started to research the story, and sure enough, there had been many reported sightings of shadows on clouds. Shadows which looked almost human (or alien). I met a little old man from Glasgow who had lost his wife while they were on holiday in Spain. On the flight home, with his wife’s body in the hold below, he told me he had seen a figure standing on the clouds.

“At first, I thought it was her, Jeanie, my wife, but I soon realised it looked almost like an angel. That’s not to say that Jeanine wasn’t an angel – well sometimes – no, but I got the feeling it was someone or something that had come to let me know things were okay. You’re probably thinking I’m a stupid old man, that I was grieving, but I’m telling you what I saw.”

I interviewed hundreds of people; folks with no axe to grind, men and women with nothing to gain, and they all reported the same phenomenon. The figure on the clouds. The Cloud Walker.

If you’re expecting me in this short story to tell you what it is, well I think it might be better if we have a meeting someday and I’ll tell you what I think.

Next time you are on a flight to somewhere, have a look out of the window. If you see a Cloud Walker, there might be a good reason, why.

bobby stevenson 2016
Photo Copyright; Nick O'Donoghue.