Chapter 15

Returning to our friends back in the hospital's Waiting Room filled me with feelings which were definitely bittersweet at best. For me it was the thrill of triumph; A great new successful experience. From Peter's part of my Spirit, I felt a depressing sadness seep into my consciousness.

Now I knew for ten years he'd hoped, even willed, his sister to be alive before he'd passed on. He must have searched those seemingly endless years which now were proven to be totally in vain. Sara had been dead even before his mother's senseless hanging.

Peter and I returned to the center of our Spirit friends whirling energy circle amid the dying flashes and sparkles that had sent us off on our excursion. I wasn't sure why our trip had lasted such a short time until I heard Kim say to me, "We gave it all we had."

It was then I though for the first time, "Where does the energy a Spirit needs come from?"

For the living it's simply, what we eat and drink. I can even take that a bit further and rationalize a Spirit of the living gets its energy from its Host. But where do Tom and I get our energy from? Were dead, well, actually Spirits without a Host.

From what I'd learned, Spirits don't die. When they're ready to move on after the death of their Host they move into another plane ... Take on a newborn entity or Host. Sure they could exist in a state of limbo just like Tom and I are doing right now if they wanted. But the underlying question I had was: "Where do Spirits without a Host get their energy?"

As the thought of Possession crossed my mind, Tammy signed in. "No. Possession is the exception not the rule.

"Just think of it as the energy all Spirits need is simply supplied by the Cosmos. After all, it's the energy the Sun and stars provide that ultimately feeds the living. It supplies us with the energy we need to exist too. We just absorb what we need."

"Sometimes the most complex question has a simple answer," I returned to her. It seemed logical and I felt it was true. I liked the simplicity.

I felt her smiling at me.

When I returned the smile over to her, she responded by saying softly, "So, what did you find?"

"Oh. Sorry," I answered. "I think we found where Sara's buried ... or at least where there was a fresh unmarked grave. It was in a back part of the cemetery where those executed at the witch trials were buried."

"Did you get a good look at the place?" Marilyn asked.

I was surprised at that question. I would have thought everyone would have been able to just look it up inside of me. I wasn't trying to hide the information.

I figured there must be some reason why they couldn't see what I'd seen. So I conjured up the layout of Salem and where the graveyard was in relation to the Hanging Place.

For simplicity, I replayed it like I saw it, flying over 1692 Salem. Everyone gasped when the gallows dangling six nooses came into view. Seeing the six convicted being dragged from the Salem Jail to their deaths upset everyone.

Death, to the living and to Spirits, affects them with the same foreboding regret. Especially when lives are ended before they had a chance to live a reasonable time. That was a new realization for me.

Sure, it would have been better for me not to have been killed by that fateful series of events ending with that bullet sending me here to the Spirit World. Feeling regret for someone else whose life had ended was a new emotion I didn't expect.

I apologized to my friends when I showed where I'd seen the fresh grave. "I was upset at seeing the prisoners being led out to the gallows. That scene with the soon to be filled nooses really rattled me.

"I just swooped near enough to the grave to see it was newly dug and filled in. Then I headed over to Salem Port. The Tall Ships there had caught my eye. I just took off over there for the change of scenery.