Chapter 18

Hearing Sara describe what we all had heard and felt when that bolt of lightning shattered our silence just days ago sent chills through me. As she had recounted her brutal execution to our group sitting around the Conference Table, the physical pain she had thrust upon her radiated through each one of us. It was great to have freed Sara from her burial spot but there was no way to take back what those three did to her.

Feeling our collective sorrow Sara gently told me, "Will, what happened three-hundred years ago is over and done. It was not a nice way to die but what happened to my mother was worse.

"Even though I didn't see her hanging, I was aware of the process. It was slow and agonizing. Each of the accused was made to stand below the gallows in agony as the noose was placed around their neck and tightened. Tightened enough to make it very hard to breathe. As they choked and strangled they were slowly drawn up.

"The release of death could take several minutes. Several very unpleasant minutes. At least for me, it was swift. I can't say that for the others."

There was silence for a few minutes when Sara sat there, tears forming in her eyes at her loss, pain and the pain her mother must have felt. "I don't know what to say," I told her. "It's been proven that the Salem Witchcraft executions were at the least misguided and at its worst, irrational."

"Times back then," Sara countered, "were confused. Everything was based on rumors and terrible claims of very sick young girls. Hysteria gained hold and what happened happened.

"No one and everyone was to blame. It's sad that I didn't get to grow old and have a family of my own. In the end I would have died anyway. It's the way of life. Birth, Life, Death and renewal.

"From Dust to Dust. It's the way of life, Will."

"I know," I said. "I guess I'm in that cycle too. After all, the reason I'm here is my life ended rather prematurely, just like yours."

I guess Marilyn thought I was dwelling on death and the way Sara and her mother had passed on. She offered, "What I can't understand is how you became pinned to that grave?"

Turning toward Marilyn, Sara thought for a minute. "I don't really know. My first thought after I realized I was dead was just to rise up. It didn't work. It might have been the pins they put through me or the wooden stake.

"I just know, I couldn't release myself from my body. Even after my body was no longer, I was still attached." Looking toward me she added, "Finally I heard you Will and cried out to you.

"It's great to be up out of there. It's been a long time."

"Didn't you have company ... Sorry, I mean, didn't you have other Spirits to talk to?" asked Tom.

"Yeah, from time to time someone would follow their body to the cemetery. But that was the exception." Laughing, Sara added, "And, they usually wouldn't stay there very long. Everyone is frightened being in a cemetery. Death is all around them. Like the living that's usually the last place a Spirit wants to visit. It's scary there for Spirits too."

It took a second or two for everyone to pick up on what had Sara had said. Finally the mood lightened as we all laughed. "Sure," I thought, "Even us Spirits don't like cemeteries."