Chapter 13

"Not so fast," Tammy blurted out. "I don't see how we're going to find Sara or anyone else. Sure we have a fairly tight time period to search through but how are we going to do that?

"How are we going to go back into 1692 and wander around?"

"I see your point," said Marilyn. "Even if we had the day, a few hours, a few minutes or even the exact time when she was killed, we still wouldn't know the WHERE!"

Tammy picked it back up again saying, "Salem or Andover are not small places. Even the Parker's farm was over 200 acres. Being back then at the right time and the right place to intercept Sara's murder is a daunting task, maybe impossible.

"I don't know about 'Intercepting' Sara's murder," I added to the group's thoughts. "I'm not sure it would be a good idea to go back and change things.

"Just imagine if we were to hide Sara and prevent her murder. I think that would make Peter a prime alternate. After all, he was also the child of a Witch. Quite young and my guess, very vulnerable. If he'd been murdered then in all possibility, I might not have been born."

"How so???" asked Tom. "Peter is part of you and from all accounts he didn't have any children.

"Most likely he never married.

"If I'm correct, how would things have been affected if he was killed instead of Sara? How is it that you might not have existed because of that?"

Shyly I answered, "I don't know for sure. It's just a feeling I have.

"Call it intuition.

"For example," I softly explained, continuing that chain of thought, "Suppose they couldn't find Sara after killing very vulnerable Peter. Maybe they'd keep going after other brothers or sisters until they ran out of siblings to placate their hateful revenge.

"Plus, there's one more thing I haven't mentioned."

"What's that," they all asked in unison.

Then, even more softly I admitted, "My middle name is Parker.

"I'm a direct descendent of Mary Parker."

Half of my friends exclaimed, "Wow!" The others incredulously uttered, "No WAY!!!"

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Tom asked.

"I didn't figure it out until a few seconds ago. I put it all together from some of my family history I remembered and combined it with what Soon Lee had found on the internet.

"As a youngster I'd asked my parents about my middle name and why they'd chosen it. They said it was a name that was passed down through the ages from Colonial times.

"I guess the fact got lost that one of my ancestors was executed as a Witch.

"I've seen my genealogy dating back to the early 1600's. I remembered some of the names from back then. I didn't know about Sara and Peter. I guess after several generations they were a mystery and got left off the family tree.

"Rumors about a Salem Witch being a member of our family trickled down through the ages. But no name was ever attached to the rumors. I guess that was done because of the embarrassment having a relative convicted and hung as a Witch. It sort of became a family secret.

"Way at the top of the family history I remember were John and Hanna Ayer with their daughter Mary on one side. The other started with Anna and Joseph Parker. They had a son, Nathan who became Mary's husband in 1652.

"Like I said, it wasn't until I digested the information Soon Lee had distributed to us that I put it together. That was when I started to realize we were talking about my ancestors."

Tom spoke up saying, "I'm very confused.

"How can you be related to the Parker family of colonial Massachusetts when there's no record of Peter having married or having any children?

"How do you explain direct lineage without Peter having any children?"

Before I could speak, Tammy was right there showing exasperation at Tom's remark.

"Look Tom, Will said he was a descendant of Nathan and Mary Parker. That's entirely possible. You're getting confused with his Spirit, which flows from Peter.

"Remember, Mary and Nathan had 8 children. My guess is that the connection for the direct lineage comes from the oldest of them, John. He was born in 1653, just a year after his mother and father were married."

"From what I remember," I admitted, "Tammy's right.

"After all, for the Parker name to pass down through the times, it had to have been brought down by the sons. Then as things split off with daughters they carried the family name as a middle one for their sons.

"That's happened for a bunch of generations and it wound up as my middle name. Sometimes it's even been used as a first name too ... for both boys and girls.

"The genealogy that's circulated though my family, was put together when one of my father's uncles was a teen, almost a hundred years ago. When I saw it, it was very long and had perhaps two hundred names on it. At that time, even with that many ancestors, it was far from being anywhere near complete."

Then I displayed a little frustration at the way things were going. "Look," I said. "Sifting through my ancestor's bones isn't helping our current situation.

"I think we all know now why Sara said I'm the only one who can help her. She and Peter were so close as they were growing up. She most likely was a second mother to him. I'd guess you'd call them kindred Spirits.

"So if anyone is going to be able to find her, it's me.

"I'm sure I'm the only one who's going to be able to sense they're close enough to her to reach out and help her.

"Peter's Spirit, MY Spirit, is just about the only one who'll be able to do that."

For a few minutes everything was silent. Then ever present Tom started up again. "But we have a conundrum here.

"If we risk going back in time, even as Spirits, we risk changing our past and possibly our existence. But we can't know where Sara is buried unless we can go back in time to find that out."