Chapter 17

As we faded for our trip back from Salem to our Ninth Floor Conference Room at Randolph Industries, my thoughts were about fulfilling my goal to bring Sara forward three-hundred years and into the present. The young woman we had saved from her grave looked exactly as I'd expected.

Sara had on a what I gathered was standard for the Colonial Puritan period. Her full-length black dress was covered by a waist length black jacket highlighted with white lace and large white wrist cuffs. Her outfit was completed with a starched white bonnet, a high-collar white bib fastened with a narrow black ribbon tied around her neck in a simple overhand bow and a she wore a white apron typical of her times.

We've all seen movies and attended plays about Puritan New England and their way of life. Thanksgiving is our national holiday celebrating our earliest times and our beginnings of survival in our new land. So it was easy for me not to be surprised at what Sara was wearing. It was what I'd expected.

What I didn't expect was as we all materialized in our Conference Room Sara stretched her arms out and folded them back across her chest. Light as a feather she lifted off from our supporting hands and settled into one of the chairs. A huge smile adorned her face as she looked over at me and there was a twinkle in her eye as she simply said, "Hi, Will!"

Now I'm not sure what was a typical Puritan greeting from her past but I'd almost be willing to bet that it was something like the formality of 'Good Day.' Definitely not the 'Hi!' I'd just been hit with.

I will admit I recoiled a bit from her greeting. Plus, there wasn't a hint of the 'Olde English' I figured she'd speak. I guess I'd assumed her greeting might be something like 'How are Thee'. The image before me just seemed inconsistent with what my ears were hearing.

All that changed when Marilyn sent over to me, "Will, Spirits send out what 'They' want you to see but you can change that image to suit yourself and see them as 'You' want to see them."

My head spun a little as I tried to figure out exactly what was happening. I questioned my own thinking. Was Sara actually dressed as I'd seen her or was I projecting what I expected or wanted to see.

Sara answered that question herself with a little laugh then said, "Will. You were right. You saw me the way I was back in 1692. That's my favorite outfit. It's also the one I was wearing when they killed me."

Seeing Sara sitting before me dressed in her 1692 frock and hearing her talk in the same casual language of the present was really screwing with my head. The two things just didn't fit. That was until Marilyn put it all together for me.

"Look Will," Marilyn said, "Think back to when we met Kim and Soon Lee. I'll bet you never realized they were communicating in Korean. They were, but as Spirits, we don't actually say things. Remember, we think things. So, because what we want to say is done with thoughts, we all speak a universal language.

"Sara is still using her ancient Old English but you're hearing what makes sense to you. Just like, you're continuing to see what you think she should be wearing. Look at her again."

When I focused on Sara, Marilyn was right. No longer was she dressed mostly in black and white as before. She had on a bright yellow flower print sun dress, sandals on her feet, and her hair was pulled back and tied with a narrow black ribbon into a ponytail.

"This is much more comfortable than the straight-laced clothing we wore back home," Sara told me. "Tammy showed this to me and I really like it."

I looked over to Tammy and she had a real broad smile on her face. "Yup," she said. "I take the blame for that one. On the flight back here, Sara asked me what I thought you'd like to see her wearing."

"Do you like it?" asked Sara.

"Now how do you answer a question like that?" I thought silently to myself. Here I had a very beautiful young woman sitting before me. Sure I thought she was way more than beautiful. With even the slightest of pushes I'd like to try out some of the things Stacey and I recently tried out. But my mind said, "STOP!"