Nightmare as a Child

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.

A school teacher named Helen Foley finds a strange and very serious young girl named Markie on the stairs outside her apartment. The 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 as Markie, frightened, runs out the back way. The man is Peter Selden, who explains that he worked for Helen's mother when Helen was a child and was the first to find her murdered mother's body. Helen had witnessed the crime but blocked it out. When she mentions Markie, Selden tells her that her nickname was Markie as a child and shows her an old photo of herself. The girl in the photo is identical to the girl Helen met.

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. With the child's prodding, Helen begins to recollect, then Selden returns and confesses to the murder. He tells Helen that he had been about to do away with her that night as well, but could not because her screams had drawn people to the apartment. He has been "keeping tabs" on her because he knew one day she would recall the murder. Helen manages to run into the hallway and, after a struggle, pushes Selden down the stairs to his death.

After talking to the police and returning to her apartment, Helen hears a young girl's voice singing the same tune as Markie. To her relief, the girl is just an ordinary girl she does not recognize. She tells the girl she has a lovely smile ... and advises her never to lose it.

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.

• Janice Rule as Helen Foley
• Terry Burnham as Markie [2]
• Shepperd Strudwick as Peter Selden
• Michael Fox as Doctor
• Suzanne Cupito (Morgan Brittany) as Little Girl (uncredited)[3]
• Joseph V. Perry as Police Lieutenant

Helen Foley was the name of a beloved teacher of Serling's at Binghamton High School, and the main performance theater at that school is named after her.[4] The name Helen Foley is also used for the main character - also a school teacher - in the "It's a Good Life" segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie.

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

• "Nightmare as a Child" at IMDb
• "Nightmare as a Child" at TV.com
• Episode summary