Suffer a Witch

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “Thomas and Benoni,” Bridget said.

  “My sons would have lost everything,” Em said. “Giles and his daughters treated my sons like they were their own kin, even to the very end. Because of Giles, Benoni grew up to be a fine young man. He and George went to England, where he went to school. Benoni returned with wealth and status. When he married, Giles’s daughters put on the celebration. Their children called him ‘Uncle.’ And, Thomas graduated from Harvard. He went on to be a successful member of Giles’s family. Giles’s daughters didn’t leave Thomas to live out a half-life because his father was dead and his mother deemed a witch. They made him a part of their family because Giles insisted that he was a part of his family. They were one, seamless family.”

  Bridget nodded.

  “I made a solemn oath that I would take care of Giles Corey as long as we both shall live,” Em said. “I’m sorry, Bridget. I won’t go back on that oath.”

  Bridget caught Em’s eyes. Bridget gave a little nod.

  “Plus, do you really want to keep track of his farm?” Em asked with a smile. “You want to be responsible for the garden sales? His taxes? Making sure he gets in to see Ann every year?”

  “I. . .” Bridget said.

  “Wouldn’t you rather leave all that stuff to me?” Em asked. “You get to enjoy being his fun life partner in everything, except his care.”

  “What does George think of this?” Bridget asked.

  “He understands,” Em said. “He says that I wouldn’t be who I am if I thought anything differently.”

  “But. . .”

  “Bridget, the man was pressed to death to save my sons,” Em said. “He needs me to look after him, and, for the rest of our lives, I will do just that. That doesn’t mean you can’t spend from now to eternity as his loving partner — just not his caretaking wife.”

  Bridget looked down at her clasped hands.

  “Do you understand?” Em asked.

  Bridget nodded.

  “And?” Em asked.

  “You’re right,” Bridget said. “I don’t want to keep track of the garden or make sure he gets to the doctor or any of that crap. I want to have fun. I want to travel and laugh and. . . enjoy. That’s the thing, Em. Neither of us has really enjoyed the gift of this life. We want to drink deep of all this life has to offer — together.”

  “You know that he’s an alcoholic, right?” Em asked.

  “Of course,” Bridget said. “But you know what I mean.”

  “I do,” Em said. She gave Bridget a warm smile. “You said you wanted to have a real wedding.”

  “We were thinking of having it on September 22,” Bridget said.

  “My hanging day?” Em winced.

  “It’s your hanging day,” Bridget said. “But it’s also our return-to-life day. Alice thought of having the celebration, and it’s her hanging day, too!”

  Em nodded. For the last week or so, Alice had been trying to catch Em alone to talk, but Em had been too busy.

  “Ann and the Marys are in,” Bridget said. She leaned forward, and, in a low voice, she said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if John and Mary joined us in getting married.”

  Bridget beamed at Em. When Em didn’t respond, Bridget continued on.

  “We want to have a formal affair — ties, tuxes, formal dresses, lots of flowers, great food,” Bridget said. “Alice says we should celebrate vanquishing that demon. And you know? She’s right.”

  “Mmm,” Em said. She felt like she’d taken Giles’s place as the group curmudgeon.

  “We’ve hired a jazz band and. . .” Bridget flushed with joy. Em grinned at her. “I was supposed to pretend that we hadn’t planned anything, but it’s all set up. We’re having it in the ballroom at my house.”

  “On my hanging day?” Em asked. “A week from Monday?”

  “I knew you would fuss for a while but then give in,” Bridget said. “You always do.”

  “Mmm,” Em repeated. She added a scowl just to show that she was not a pushover.

  “Please?” Bridget asked. When Em didn’t respond, she reached out to touch Em’s hand. “You’ll have the morning. You and the others can spend the morning together. We’ll get together in the evening to celebrate our love, our amazing lives, and the destruction of the demon.”

  Em winced and looked away from Bridget.

  “We spent our whole lives getting ready for a battle with the demon,” Bridget said. “And when the challenge came, we did not back down. I was so scared that I was shaking. But we vanquished all of those horrible demons. They are gone; and we’re still here.”

  Bridget gave an emphatic nod.

  “We should celebrate,” Bridget said.

  “It sounds like you’re going to no matter what I say,” Em said.

  “If you said not to do it, we wouldn’t,” Bridget said. “You know that. We’d be sad, but we’d know it was for the best.”

  Bridget let go of Em’s hand and leaned back.

  “Are you saying ‘No’?” Bridget asked.

  Em didn’t respond.

  “I knew it!” Bridget got up from her seat. She gave Em a little wave. “I’ll tell everyone.”

  Bridget was out of Em’s office. A moment later, George appeared in her open doorway.

  “What was that?” George asked.

  “Bridget and Giles want a ceremony,” Em said.

  “They asked me to marry them,” George said. “John and Mary, too. I was going to talk to you about it tonight.”

  Em nodded. George squinted at Em.

  “You okay?” George asked.

  “Just a lot on my mind,” Em said with a smile.

  George nodded.

  “You know. . .” he started. He stopped and swallowed hard. Knowing what he was going to ask, Em smiled. Understanding her smile, he nodded and said, “Let’s talk about it tonight.”

  “Deal,” Em said.

  George’s name was paged on the overhead speaker. He pointed to the sound and left her office. She got up and closed the door. She went around her desk and sat down. For a moment, she stared off into space.

  Had they vanquished the demons? While Em wanted to believe that they had, she couldn’t help but wonder. There was no evidence that they had destroyed the demons. There was also no evidence they hadn’t.

  The young man, John Parker, lingered somewhere between life and death. She had no idea why that mattered; she only knew that it did. And, she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the demon. No tingling feelings that he was around. No sense of demonic presence. Nothing.

  Her demon seemed to be gone. Em just wasn’t sure if it was gone for good or just gone for now. Em wanted to be sure.

  She took the cross out of her pocket. She said the prayer her father taught her when he’d given her the cross. The prayer converted the cross into a dowsing pendulum. Em stood up and pushed her chair back.

  Holding onto the chain, Em hung the cross over the blotter. If the demons were gone, the cross would pull to the north, which was away from her, toward the top of her blotter. If the demons were still around, the cross would pull to the south, which was toward her and her chair.

  She swung the cross in a wide circle over her blotter.

  “Have we destroyed the demons?” Em asked.

  The cross swung easily around the circle. It was starting around the circle again when it seemed to pause. The cross shot to the north. Before getting there, the cross shot to the south.

  “Be clear,” Em commanded.

  The cross moved to the center line. Shaking her head, Em sighed. She stared at the cross for a moment. Even before she was a witch, this pendulum had always worked for her. Of course, this cross wasn’t in her possession for some three hundred years. She made a fist with the hand holding the chain and pressed it against her forehead. Shaking her head at herself, she knew she had to try one more time.

  “Maybe the question is too vague,” Em said under her breath.

  She held the cross by the chain again. With he
r other hand, she started it moving in a wide, open circle.

  “Is my father alive?” she whispered.

  The cross shot to the southern position. No. Em gasped in horror. The demon had been correct. She was the last of her kind. Swallowing hard, she gritted her teeth against the pain that shot through her heart. She started the cross in a circle again.

  “Should I marry George?” she asked.

  The cross swung evenly around the circle until it pointed to the north. Yes. Em grinned at her girlish question. Feeling brave, she formulated the question she needed an answer to. She started the cross swinging in a circle.

  “Are all of the people like me gone?” Em’s voice cracked when she said the last word.

  The cross didn’t hesitate. It shot straight to the north position. Yes. Em took a quick breath to keep from sobbing. Rather than think too much, she swung the cross and asked the next question.

  “Does my demon still exist?” she whispered.

  The cross shot to the north position. Yes. Em swallowed hard and started the cross swinging.

  “Are all of the demons still alive?” Em asked.

  The cross moved to the north position. Yes. Em felt as if the bottom had fallen out of the world. The demons had already won. There was no reason to bother fighting. The demons had killed all of her kin. They would always win.

  She held the cross over the blotter to ask one last question. Swinging it in a circle, she swallowed hard before asking:

  “Will I find a way to win against the demons?”

  The cross shot to the north position. Yes. Em smiled.

  Then she realized that she’d received a number of “yes” answers in a row. She needed to check the pendulum. She thought for a moment before coming up with a question with a “no” answer. She started the cross in a wide circle.

  “I’m pregnant,” Em said.

  The pendulum shot to the Yes position. Em shook her head at herself. The cross had sat in someone’s drawer for more than three hundred years. She shouldn’t have expected it to actually work! She shoved the cross deep into her pocket and went about her day.

  Her hanging day began with an early-morning phone call from Shonelle. John Parker had died in the night. He’d never regained consciousness after the demon-induced stroke on Gallows Hill. There was no listed next of kin, so Shonelle begged Em to go with her to collect his body.

  Em and Shonelle were standing in the Massachusetts General morgue at eight in the morning. The entire place reeked of death. Shonelle didn’t smell it. But Em’s witch’s senses were overwhelmed with the blood, body matter, and decay of death.

  “I’ll give you a moment with him,” the attendant said.

  “Thank you,” Em said.

  “The funeral home is. . .”

  “MacIntosh,” Em said. “They should be here this morning. We’re not having a service.”

  “Just a cremation,” Shonelle said. With the words, she began to weep. “We’ll bury him tomorrow.”

  “And there’s no family?” the attendant asked.

  “Not that anyone can find,” Em said with a smile. “We’ve posted his photo on websites and in papers across the country. No one’s come forward.”

  “He. . . was. . . m-m-my. . . boyfriend,” Shonelle said between sobs.

  The attendant gave his best approximation of a sympathetic nod. When Shonelle looked down, the attendant rolled his eyes. He gave Em a shrug and led them into a small, airless room where the demon-free body of John Parker lay. Shonelle wept into her handkerchief, while Em silently cast a spell to determine the identity of the corpse.

  The number 1625 appeared on John Parker’s forehead, and Em scowled. John Parker belonged in 1625. They had already tested his DNA and determined he was not any kind of descendant of Alice Parker. Em wondered if this John Parker was actually Alice’s father-in-law. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice that Shonelle had stopped crying.

  “Em?” Shonelle’s voice caused Em to jump. “Sorry.”

  “I was miles away,” Em said. She put her arm around Shonelle.

  Shonelle nodded. For a moment, they stared at the young man’s face.

  “I wanted. . . well. . .” Shonelle’s face flushed with emotion. “Did you see those. . .”

  Shonelle looked around to make sure no one was in the room with them. She leaned into Em.

  “Demons,” Shonelle whispered.

  “Demons?” Em asked.

  “When you and George and the others were looking for Gallows Hill,” Shonelle said. “I haven’t slept a wink since. . . since. . . And. . .”

  Shonelle started crying again. Em waited for the flood to end.

  “I saw something,” Em said with a nod. “Why do you ask?”

  “I. . .” Shonelle started. “You know how I’m a descendant of Martha Corey — you know, the Salem witch?”

  Em gave Shonelle a vague shrug.

  “Today is the anniversary of her hanging day, and. . .” Shonelle said.

  Shonelle waved her hand at John Parker.

  “With the demons and everything. . ..” Shonelle leaned into Em. “I haven’t really been here for him.”

  “I don’t think there’s been much him to be here for,” Em said. “He never woke up from the coma.”

  Shonelle nodded and blew her nose.

  “I was scared,” Shonelle said in a low voice. “And now. . .”

  Shonelle gave an exaggerated sigh.

  “Do you think it’s a coincidence that he died today — of all days?” Shonelle asked.

  “Well.” Em looked up and gave a little shrug. “There’s been more than three hundred anniversaries of Martha Corey’s hanging day.”

  “So you don’t think this is my fault?” Shonelle asked.

  “Your fault?” Em asked.

  “Because I’m like Martha Corey, and she was a witch,” Shonelle said. “And the demons and everything.”

  “In the first place, Martha Corey was a kind, decent woman of great Christian faith,” Em said with a sniff. “She was no witch.”

  “But. . .”

  “And in the second place. . .” Em made a conscious effort to relax. She smiled at Shonelle. “We all only have one life — Martha Corey, you, John Parker, me. You’re not responsible for what happens in someone else’s life.”

  She gestured to the corpse.

  “This young man was very ill,” Em said. “And, by the grace of God, he is finally at peace.”

  “And the demons?” Shonelle asked.

  “May they be at peace as well,” Em said.

  Shonelle seemed so surprised by Em’s words that she gave a little gasp. She stared at Em, who nodded.

  “No one starts their life with the goal of. . .” Em started one of Shonelle’s mother’s favorite sayings.

  “. . . becoming a demon,” Shonelle finished the statement with a smile.

  “Exactly,” Em said. “Why don’t you go to the bathroom get cleaned up? We’re meeting George for breakfast.”

  “Your pre-wedding meal!” Shonelle grinned.

  “Pancakes,” Em said. “I’ll talk to the attendant and meet you by the bathrooms.”

  Shonelle smiled and nodded. When the girl had left the room, Em pressed the call button. She was staring at the wall wondering how this John Parker was related to Alice’s John when she heard movement. Looking back at the body, she saw the shadow face of her demon on John Parker’s face.

  “You know what you need to do,” the demon said.

  “That’s the thing,” Em said. “I don’t know.”

  The demon opened John Parker’s mouth to say something, but the attendant came in. The demon was gone. Em thanked the attendant and went to find Shonelle. Together, they went to meet George, Isaac, and Isaac’s entire family for breakfast.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  One nice thing about immortality was that Em was the same size and shape she’d been when she died. Em stepped in front of her full-length mirror. She was wearing a
calf-length, silver beaded dress that she’d bought in 1917 to marry George. The word came the morning of the wedding — America had entered World War I, and Captain George Burroughs needed to report for duty. While George prepared for another war, Em had packed away this beautiful dress and her dreams of ever becoming his wife.

  She turned sideways. The silver beads made a lovely tinkling sound when she turned. Using magic, she made some minor alterations to modernize the dress. Of course, she’d used magic to clean the tarnish from the silver beads and reduce the weight of the ridiculously heavy dress. She smiled. It was lovely.

  She’d put her hair up in such a way as to create three roses at the nape of her neck. She was going to carry three long-stem white roses to match her hair. At Alice’s insistence, she’d stuck a silver hair comb with a length of tulle under the roses in her hair. She smiled at herself.

  “You look. . .” George’s voice came from behind her.

  Em looked up to catch his face.

  “Wow,” George said.

  “You look pretty ‘wow’ yourself!” Em said.

  George was wearing a light-grey tux with a white bow tie and tails that matched her silver dress. He smiled at her compliment.

  “Are you ready?” Em asked. “Two weddings, plus your own.”

  “I’m excited,” George smiled. “This day marks the start of a new era for us, for all of us. The demons are gone. We have from now until eternity to be together. Did you hear Mary’s news?”

  “I’ve been so caught up in getting everything ready, I haven’t had time for anyone’s news,” Em said and shook her head.

  “She’s pregnant,” George said.

  Em’s mouth dropped open.

  “What?” Em asked in a shocked whisper. She turned around to look at him. George raised his eyebrows and nodded.

  “John is thrilled,” George said. “I think that’s why they were so adamant about getting married. They want God to bless their union and the child.”

  George beamed.

  “I knew she wasn’t feeling well,” Em said. “I thought it was just the overwhelm of being back in Boston. I told her she should go see Ann. Did she?”