"WEE-WILLA-WINKIE"

 

Like a forelorn Sentinel of the night of yore, "Willa" haunted the streets of Manhattan....

"I only feel free, truly free when I am out wandering in the middle of the night... anonymous and alone."                   F.V. Ludwigslust

"Wee-Willamina-Winkie"...

She reminded me of a waterthrush.... a type of solitary, secretive warbler and the way it scurried along the marsh and stream banks back home, just as she scurried along the side streets and alleys of lower Manhattan all night.

Only her legs moved as she rushed... oblviously in circles to nowhere.  Willa's head would be tilted stiffly to the right, her shoulders and trunk rigid and both arms swung to one side motionlessly holding plastic bags or such that were slung over her left side.  She was a strange mixture of a little lost waif and a sad, aged woman and very reminiscent of Patricia DeCou of the film "The Blair Witch Project". Wee-Willa-Winkie could almost appear to be a child from a distance until she orbited by... and then her long, weary face framed by thick, witchy, brown hair would expose a lost, forgotten soul.

Never a night went by that I didnt see her and yet no one in the area knew her name or where she came from... no one.  All of a sudden she appeared out of thin air and was one amongst an often crazy cast of odd characters on that off-off broadway stage in the deep bowels of the city...  but hers was a solo show with an audience of none.

It was still my early years in New York and I was a notorious night owl.  I could and would often be out at any given time at night as I worked late and would then hit the after hours and secret meeting places with my friends.  It was on these nocturnal jaunts that I first noticed Willa.  I would see her only in the dead of night and always alone on what appeared to be a routine, orbital path up and down the cement, paved trails that traversed the island.  She would frown slightly as she sauntered by me,  as if her nightly mission had been invaded by an unwelcome alien.

Was she wandering the neighborhood as a sentinel?... or was she merely searching for something that she would ultimately never find in this life? 

  She reminded me of a street urchin version of the legendary lamplighter of old urban folklore "Wee-Willie-Winkie".  Someone whose destiny was to roam the nights alone forever.

This went on for years until I realized that this poor soul never slept, she just walked the nights away... but why?  I puzzled over it for years and still do.

I have the undying curiosity of an alley cat and I have always loved a mystery but that wasnt the only reason that I was fascinated by Willa... it was my similar driving obsession to wander after dark like her, all over... not wanting to ever go home.  I longed to be out all night with the Moon, the Stars and... the Meteors.

All rights reserved @ by Fritz Von Ludwigslust

Photo and story written by Fritz Von Ludwigslust.

November 18, 2020