The Twilight Zone: "Mr. Bevis Redux…"

Summary: The TZ episode featuring the rather eccentric but lovable Mr. Bevis gets a bit of tweaking…But it's still Orson Bean (worth looking up his work on YT) in the character role.

Disclaimer: He may be dead but only Rod Sterling owns "Twilight Zone" and no copyright infringement intended.

"Mr. Bevis Redux…"

Part III…

The neighborhood bar where Mr. Bevis' self-proclaimed guardian angel, one Aurora Winifred Hempstead of West Africa and New Haven, Connecticut in her lifetime, and the world since, had just told him a part of her remarkable story and her connection to his family…

Leaving him both stunned and appalled…

"You can't have spent all this time guarding my family?" he notes, concerned.

"Well, only since my death in childbirth at twenty-eight…" she replies, rather touched by his concern. "But as I told you, it was my own choice and my pleasure, honestly."

"You also said it was your duty." He points out. "I understand my ancestor Urius helped you but I feel terrible to think you've spent your afterlife watching over us in recompense."

"Not at all…I've had a wonderful time. Your family's been my anchor to the world, Mr. Bevis, but I've not been limited to them, hovering about every moment of every day. I assure you, I'm quite free."

"Well…Good…" Bevis sighs. Then regards her… "You've really been keeping tabs on all my family since…"

"1793…I took a year learning the angel trade." She smiles. "But not just them, I've seen the Bevis line all the way back to their beginnings back in France when they split off as an independent family in 1297. It's quite a history, Mr. Bevis. A remarkable and, in my opinion, poorly recompensed or remembered, history."

"You've traveled back in time? Angels can do that?"

"Eternity is fluid, Mr. Bevis…And it's necessary to know the ones you're working with, to fully understand their behavior. Though I still sometimes have great difficulty grasping yours…" winsome smile, sip at ale mug. "…On some matters. On the major ones, you all are remarkably consistent."

"Oh? In what way, Miss Hempstead?"

"Courage, Mr. Bevis…Not the loud, blustery kind…The simple, quiet courage of good people who understand instinctively the right thing to do. All Bevis seem to possess it, which I assure you is remarkable." She raises mug. "To you and yours, James W. B. Bevis…The world should realize what it has in people like you." Fond tone.

"I think that's a bit much, Miss Hempstead. I'm sure we have some black sheep…I know I'm something of a disappointment to my family. They hoped for more from me, I'm sure, even if they never say so."

"Well, you do have quite a heritage to live up to…But I don't think they're disappointed. I'd say that, like me, they're waiting for you to spring from your cocoon and seize the day."

"Well…" sheepish tone from Mr. Bevis… "That won't be today."

"Perhaps not but perhaps…" she beams.

"But what about your own family, Miss Hempstead…Or is/was it Mrs…?"

"It was Mrs, for a time, Mr. Bevis. I was eventually sold by the governor Captain Peckingpaugh presented me to, and eventually, after some unhappy time, bought by a young black man named Hempstead who purchased a wife in me, freeing me immediately."

"Oh…I trust it was…"

"I was not completely unhappy nor terribly happy with him. He was a decent man by his lights, but rough and brutal at times, made so by his own sufferings as a slave and as a free black man trying to survive in colonial Massachusetts. He fought in the Revolutionary War, but on the British side, as they were the ones who freed him after burning his master's plantation in Virginia. He felt they were the ones dealing fairly with our kind and the natives, so he pledged his troth to King and country…British country. Fortunately, records on black volunteer soldiers in the British forces were not well kept then and he managed to escape death and capture and found himself in New Haven at the end of the war. He saw me one day, decided I suited him, and made an offer to my then master, a rather obnoxious elderly schoolteacher, and bought me. Sadly for him he did so in 1782, a year before slavery was ended in Massachusetts." Shrug. "That did not sit well with him and he blamed me for costing him a good deal of his savings, with a tiny amount of justice given I was educated enough to read and knew of the court battles to free us in the state. I was very anxious to escape the attentions of my master at the time and perhaps I exaggerated my affection for and attraction to Mr. Hempstead. But I did my best to be a good wife to him for nine years and bore him two sons whom I loved dearly. One died young, of smallpox, the other lived to be a man, though I died before he was quite seven…"

"And no one else…?"

"I would not say that, Mr. Bevis…" quiet smile. "Though I would point out your own love life hasn't been exactly…Stellar."

"Well, I've never been exactly the type to appeal to women…I mean, I guess I'm not hideous…But I think they find me a bit…"

"Difficult and hard to understand?"

"…of a failure…I meant to say." He shrugs. "I don't blame them for thinking so. But I never wanted to be a great success, just to do well enough to do the things I like to do."

"Which can be difficult when there's no job, savings, trust fund…And relatives lack much in the way of loanable or gift cash?" she smiles.

"Well, I've always gotten by…And it has been easier being alone to do so…"

"Never met anyone you'd sacrifice your freedom for, eh?" smile.

"I suppose not…I thought I had, once or twice before. But they didn't really like me, just some image of me they had made in their imaginations. When they saw I wasn't going to fit into their views…I couldn't give up all the things I love…They got fed up and left." He shrugs. "They're happy now with guys who think as they do. I don't hold it against them, I'm glad they're happy, they'd've been miserable with me…And probably me with them." Wan smile to her sudden chuckle.

"Sorry, Mr. Bevis…" she put a hand on his.

"Say…I feel that." He notes. "Should I?"

"Shouldn't you?" she shrugs. "Perception is all in the mind, after all."

"That's true…You know I read a fascinating article in 'Psychology Today'…"

"Yes, it was. I read it too." She smiles. "Over your shoulder, in the Public Library last Saturday. I hope you don't mind?"

"No, not at all…So you liked it too?"

"It was very…Perceptive." She chuckles. "Sorry…I tend to make bad jokes."

"Not at all…A very good one, very perceptive." He chuckles.

Ed regarding his solo customer in booth, chuckling…

Definitely gotta cut him back if he asks for another, poor schnook.

"So…Married nine years, not altogether happy…But do they allow you…I mean, in the afterlife?"

"To date? Marry?" she grins.

"I have read that bit about 'there is no marriage nor giving in marriage in Heaven' or something to that effect."

"There's no legal need for it. But people do 'get together' as they say." Quiet smile.

"You? Oh, sorry…That's far too personal…My apologies." Bevis, sheepishly.

"I've had my moments, Mr. Bevis." Smile. "Now, as to you and my purpose in coming…As I said, to improve the quality of your life…"

"I hate to put you out, Mrs. Hempstead. Really , I'll manage."

"I hate to contradict you, Mr. Bevis…But it's been my experience you don't…Not without me. Duck!" she cried as a large light fixture above them came crashing down.

And immediately to an already stunned Bevis, reappeared back in its place…

"A good call, based on my observation of the loose screws and a reset, not a vainglorious demonstration of my abilities, I assure you, Mr. Bevis." Mrs. Hempstead notes, anxiously. "You all right?"