There Was an Old Woman (The Twilight Zone)

"There Was an Old Woman" is the forty-eighth episode and the thirteenth episode of the third season (1988–89) of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Opening narration[]

Not so very long ago, before computerized toys and cathode-ray, characters did our speaking and thinking for us. One of the storyteller's most important tools was imagination: The imagination of an audience. That was how it used to be. Once upon a time...

Plot[]

Hallie Parker is a disillusioned author of children's books, believing that her stories don't appeal to the "video" generation. Aside from writing, she is passionate in reading children her stories in the local library. However, since new forms of entertainment are overlapping the old her audience has dwindled. One day a young woman named Nancy Harris requests the author's autograph for her son Brian who is sick. Hallie, apparently overcome by Nancy's request, says she would love to come to him and sign it in person. Mrs. Harris is excited and deeply grateful.

When she arrives, Hallie discovers Brian to be very sick indeed, with prescription bottles and oxygen tanks at his bedside. Hallie takes her book over to show him the autograph she wrote out for him and decides to read to him from her book. They truly enjoy their time together. Brian asks her if she will come back and read more but Hallie, who is moving to Arizona, tells him that she isn't sure.

At her home, Hallie tries to sleep but is interrupted by sounds of laughing children. She is confronted by blowing drapes and moving rocking chairs. When her real estate agent visits with a young couple looking to buy her house, she shows signs that she really doesn't want to leave. During the tour strange signs that children have been in her house appear, such as a baseball breaking her window and roller-skates are found at her stairs. Soon afterward, Hallie discovers the book she brought to Brian. Thinking some child might have stolen it and brought it there she calls the Harris house. She discovers that Brian has died and there is no way his book could've been there as his parents had the book buried with him. Hallie is confused but then hears voices upstairs, so she goes to investigate. She finds ghostly images of Brian and other deceased children. Brian wants Hallie to stay and read them stories and to comfort them. Initially she is shocked but then is relieved when she realizes that she is now useful and has a reason to stay in her home.

Closing narration[]

There was an old woman. A page in a book. Mere phrases and words, of which no one would look. But a tale worth telling has a life of its own. Happily ever after, in the Twilight Zone.

External links[]

• "There Was an Old Woman" at IMDb