Nightmare as a Child

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“Nightmare as a Child”
The Twilight Zone episode

Terry Burnham in "Nightmare as a Child"
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 29
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by Alvin Ganzer
Guest stars Janice Rule : Helen Foley
Terry Burnham : Markie
Shepperd Strudwick : Peter Selden
Michael Fox : Doctor
Morgan Brittany : Little Girl
Featured music Jerry Goldsmith
Production no. 173-3635
Original airdate April 29, 1960
Episode chronology
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"A Nice Place to Visit" "A Stop at Willoughby"
List of Twilight Zone episodes

"Nightmare as a Child" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

Contents

[edit] Opening narration

“ Month of November, hot chocolate, and a small cameo of a child's face, imperfect only in its solemnity. And these are the improbable ingredients to a human emotion, an emotion, say, like fear. But in a moment this woman, Helen Foley, will realize fear. She will understand what are the properties of terror. A little girl will lead her by the hand and walk with her into a nightmare. ”

[edit] Synopsis

Schoolteacher Helen Foley (Janice Rule) finds a strange and very serious little girl named Markie (Terry Burnham) on the stairs outside her apartment. Despite her stoic appearance, she is humming the tune to a nursery rhyme. The little girl seems to know her and tries to jog her memory about a man she saw earlier that day.

The man arrives at Helen's door and Markie runs out the back way. The man is Peter Selden (Shepperd Strudwick), who worked for Helen's mother when Helen was a child, and claimed to be the first to find her murdered mother's body. Helen witnessed the crime, but has blocked it out. When she mentions Markie, Selden tells her that was her nickname as a child and shows her an old photo of herself. She then realizes that she and Markie are one and the same.

When Selden leaves, Markie reappears. She tells Helen that she is Helen herself, and that she is there to force her to remember her mother's murder. Selden returns and confesses to the murder. He is afraid that Helen is starting to remember and has decided to kill her. She manages to run into the hallway and push Selden down the stairs to his death. After talking to the police and returning to her apartment, Helen hears a young girl's voice humming the same tune as Markie.

[edit] Closing narration

“ Miss Helen Foley, who has lived in night and who will wake up to morning. Miss Helen Foley, who took a dark spot from the tapestry of her life and rubbed it clean, then stepped back a few paces and got a good look at the Twilight Zone. ”

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