In the West End neigh­bor­hood, at 803 Ori­ole Street, the infa­mous Finsterwald’s back­yard was a place shunned by the local kids. The lore sur­round­ing this house warned that any child who dared to stray onto its prop­er­ty risked grave con­se­quences, per­pet­u­at­ed by tales of for­mer chil­dren who had mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­ap­peared after encoun­ter­ing Fin­ster­wald. Con­se­quent­ly, ten­nis balls, base­balls, and oth­er toys lit­tered the yard, adding a sense of eerie des­o­la­tion. It was a no-go zone for paper­boys and snow shov­el­ers alike.

That par­tic­u­lar late after­noon, com­mo­tion erupt­ed as screams pierced the air. A young boy, whom we refer to as Arnold Jones, found him­self hoist­ed above the back­yard fence by sev­er­al high school­ers. This was a mis­step in sur­vival tactics—being near both Finsterwald’s and old­er kids was a recipe for trou­ble. As he flailed and plead­ed for mer­cy, the teens amused them­selves by toss­ing him into the yard. As soon as Arnold land­ed, an envelop­ing silence blan­ket­ed the scene; upon hit­ting the ground, all brava­do left him, leav­ing him par­a­lyzed with fear, watch­ing the omi­nous back door.

A tense still­ness fol­lowed, dur­ing which the old­er boys thought they heard an unusu­al noise—a rat­tling sound that crescen­doed into the dis­tinct chat­ter­ing of Arnold’s teeth. The high school­ers rec­og­nized this as Arnold suf­fer­ing from the “fin­ster­wal­lies,” a col­lo­qui­al term for pet­ri­fied fear. They egged him on, rel­ish­ing in his plight.

Sud­den­ly, a mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure appeared, described vari­ably by the high school­ers as a phan­tom child, incon­spic­u­ous yet resilient, who approached Arnold. In an almost mag­i­cal occur­rence, he whisked Arnold over his shoul­der and car­ried him away. How­ev­er, the res­cuer made a crit­i­cal error by plac­ing Arnold on Finsterwald’s front steps, anoth­er for­bid­den area. Upon regain­ing con­scious­ness, Arnold bolt­ed away in ter­ror.

The high school­ers, now bewil­dered, couldn’t believe what they had wit­nessed: this auda­cious new­com­er cool­ly laid back on the steps and cracked open a book, an act of defi­ance in a place steeped in fear. This inci­dent not only empha­sized the leg­end of Fin­ster­wald but also her­ald­ed the arrival of some­one unafraid of the town’s most tac­it fears.