Back to Salem

by Alex Marcoux

Taylor spoke. “Number 208 is my jacket.”

  The group looked around to see who did not have a jacket in front of them.

  “And the plot thickens,” Mark said when he realized that Jessie was the one missing a lifejacket.

  “I must have grabbed your jacket by mistake at lunch break,” Taylor said to Jessie.

  It took Ted a minute to understand the significance. “What about you, Jessie. Do you know anyone who would want to hurt you?”

  Instinctively Jessie’s eyes met Travis’s. But she didn’t say a word.

  Travis’s cold, dark eyes stared back at Jessie, his fingers casually tracing his goatee.

  “Jessie, didn’t Travis threaten you Monday?” Mark asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What did he say?” Ted asked.

  “He said I would regret the day I came on this trip.” Jessie maintained eye contact with Travis.

  “That does sounds like a threat. Travis, what’s going on?” Ted asked.

  When Travis didn’t open his mouth, Ted turned to Jessie.

  “Jessie, what’s going on?” Ted asked.

  “I told Travis Monday morning that I knew about Stacy Hopkins and Kurk Warner, and that’s when he threatened me.”

  “What about Stacy Hopkins and Kurk?” Taylor asked.

  “Kurk blackmailed Travis about Stacy’s death,” Mark said.

  Jessie was surprised by Mark’s bold accusation. Travis didn’t even flinch though, confirming Jessie’s suspicion.

  “Kurk was blackmailing you, Travis?” Taylor asked.

  Small beads of perspiration broke out on his Travis’s face and he broke his silence. “I think we’ve all had enough entertainment at my expense.”

  “You killed Stacy, didn’t you?” Mark said.

  “It was an accident. She overdosed.”

  “She was drinking and taking prescription drugs; she was an epileptic and on phenobarbital. But you didn’t know about it, did you Travis?” Jessie said.

  Travis would not look at anyone.

  “It got even more complicated when you gave her methadone. She had a fatal reaction. Did you know she was taking the phenobarb?” Jessie asked.

  “It was Kurk’s idea!” Travis admitted. “The three of us agreed to have a little fun and went to her place.”

  “What do you mean have a little fun?” Taylor asked.

  Travis looked up at Taylor. “You know the kind of group fun Kurk liked. But when we got there, she was nervous, so I gave her something to relax. The three of us started…and all of a sudden she got sick and seized and…” Travis took a deep breath. He was having trouble breathing. With his bandana he wiped sweat from his forehead and neck.

  “She died, and Kurk blackmailed you because you gave her the drugs?” Jessie surmised.

  “And…she was underage,” Travis admitted. “So for almost five years, that asshole bled me dry.” Travis’s voice rose. “I almost went broke because of him. Every movie I worked on, he had to be the leading man. Except Deceptions, because there was no leading man, so he demanded that Taylor get the role.

  “What do you mean…he got me the role?” Taylor now floored.

  “I was sick of having him in my face.”

  “Was that what you argued about the night Kurk was murdered?” Mark asked.

  “I told him I had nothing more to give him. I was broke and couldn’t work with him anymore.” Travis started to rub his arm.

  “So you murdered him,” Mark said.

  “Everybody is better off without that—” Travis clutched at his chest and grimaced. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped over.

  “Oh my God! He’s having a heart attack,” Jessie said.

  Ted went to him and felt his pulse. “It’s weak.”

  Taylor knelt next to Travis. “What are we going to do?”

  “We need help.” Ted initiated CPR.

  “How?” Jessie asked.

  “Let me try my phone.” Mark pulled his satellite phone from his fanny pack and called 911, but the signal was too low. “I can’t get a signal.”

  “Go away from the campsite, and keep trying till you get a signal,” Ted said as he compressed Travis’s chest.

  “Ted, you have a satellite phone, too, don’t you?” Jessie asked.

  “It’s in my bag, over there,” Ted nodded his head.

  “I’ll get it and head in a different direction.” Jessie fetched his phone. She saw that Mark head up toward Grapevine creek, so she turned toward the river, into the darkness.

  Bill sat next to Ted. “What can I do to help?”

  “We can rotate. Here, watch my hands and the pace I’m doing. Take over for five minutes.” The men switched.

  Taylor stood feeling helpless. “What can I do?”

  Ted thought. “Collect driftwood. If there’s any chance of an evacuation, we’ll need to signal where we are. We have only one flare. A fire would be a good backup.”

  “Okay.” Taylor went off into the darkness, down near the water. After stumbling around, she wished she had a flashlight. Then it hit her that her flashlight was with her sleeping bag. She picked up some pieces of driftwood and hauled them back to where Ted and Bill worked on Travis. She dumped the first load.

  Where’s my bag? Taylor looked around the campsite. An hour earlier, when there was daylight, the camp looked different. Now, she felt displaced.

  Then she recognized a unique boulder, and recalled it was near it. She found the dry bag on the backside of the boulder, and sat, resting her back up against the rock. The boulder temporarily shielded her from the situation. The only light source was the moon. Taylor opened her dry bag and reached in, groping for the slim flashlight she knew she had left in the bag that morning.

  Taylor found something slim, tangled within the sheet. Must be it. She pulled the linen from the bag, and the object fell from the cloth onto her lap.

  Taylor’s heart skipped a beat when she picked up the wooden ankh. She forgot that she had brought it with her on the trip. She traced the wood grain with her fingers, recalling the day Jessie had given her the precious piece. With her fingers she followed the natural course of the wood until she hit an irregular indentation on the back. She unconsciously traced the grooves over and over, realizing how familiar the pattern was. It felt so natural to her and she wondered what she felt.

  Taylor lifted the ankh up to the sky till the moonlight illuminated it. She glimpsed the pattern she had traced so naturally with her finger. Her heart fluttered when she realized it was the initials “RJ” freshly carved in the back of the ankh. Stunned, Taylor shut her eyes then opened them again, this time the initials were noticeably aged. She knew the first time she held the ankh something happened, and now this.

  Calmly, Taylor closed her eyes and retraced the initials on the back of the ankh. It didn’t take long for the carving to change from being smooth to being rough. She felt the freshly cut maple in one hand and a sharp-edged rock in the other. A stench and a chill filled the air. A part of Taylor didn’t want to open her eyes, but she did, and she didn’t see the moonlight. Instead there was a flicker of light coming through a grate adjacent to her. She held up the ankh to gazed upon the newly carved initials in the lantern’s light. As she blew the shavings from the amulet she realized, My God. I’m back in Salem.

  Chapter 30

  Taylor would never understand how it happened, but she knew she was back in Salem. But why? She wondered.

  Rebecca’s back leaned against a hard stone wall. She dropped the small stone she had been carving with, pocketed the ankh, then stood away from the straw-lined bench she had been sitting on. Rebecca couldn’t see very well around the room, her vision limited by where the lantern lit the cell. At the walls, she felt the cool, damp stones, then a solid wooden door blocked her freedom. The door grate looked onto a hallway where a lantern flickered. Down the hall, there were similar barred openings and from within the other dungeon cells came cries from other prisoners.

  The stench
was overwhelming, and Taylor thought she was going to get sick. Just then, she realized how weak and hungry she was, and needed to sit. She was ill. Her hand felt her forehead, confirming she was feverish. It was then she realized the source of the foul odor. It was her. She wondered how long she had been in the dungeon.

  Why am I here? She closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping she’d return to the twenty first century. Maybe I’m here to find out what cycle needs to be broken. She needed to find out what happened to her, she needed to remember.

  Rebecca closed her eyes. Within minutes, memories started flooding back. She recalled her marriage to Daniel, and the Osgoods alleging their child had been abducted, and then finding the Bradburys. She remembered that Daniel had been arrested in her place, and she had made an arrangement with Jacob Bradbury to exchange her freedom for Daniel’s. She was arrested, and spent weeks here, waiting for a trial. But it wasn’t much of a trial. She had admitted that she was a witch and was sentenced to be hanged…this morning.

  With the realization she opened her eyes, I’m supposed to be hanged this morning.

  Suddenly, there was pounding at the door. “Stand back against the wall,” a man’s voice yelled.

  Rebecca complied and backed against the wall while the large wooden door opened. When Daniel entered, she instantly recognized him and he rushed to her taking her in his arms. But when she looked up into his tired and worried eyes she realized it was Jessie. There was no physical resemblance between Jessie and Daniel except their eyes. There was something in them she couldn’t explain. She had heard the expression once that the eyes were the windows to the soul. Now, she knew it to be true.

  “I’ve missed you so,” Rebecca said as they embraced.

  “God, I’ve missed you too, Rebecca.”

  “We don’t have much time,” John interrupted, standing by the dungeon door that had been shut behind him.

  “Hi, John,” Rebecca greeted.

  John looked inquisitively over his head. “High?”

  “I mean…good day, John.”

  “Good day, Rebecca. Let’s quickly go over this,” John instructed.

  “Over what?” Rebecca asked.

  “We’re going to get you out of here,” Daniel whispered.

  “How?”

  “I will return shortly. I’m going to take a hostage and swap him for your freedom,” Daniel said.

  “No,” Rebecca objected. “It’s too dangerous. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

  “I won’t hurt anyone, I promise,” Daniel said.

  “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  Daniel smiled. “I’ll be fine. You just be ready to move. Understand?”

  John had been listening for the approaching guard. “He’s coming!”

  Seconds later there was a bang on the door, and the guard looked through the door grate. “Goodwife Johnson, stand against the wall.”

  Before she complied, she asked Daniel. “When is the execution scheduled?”

  “High noon.”

  “How far off is that?”

  “It’s now just after sunrise.”

  Rebecca placed her hands on Daniel’s chest, then kissed him goodbye. “In case I don’t see you again—I love you, Daniel.”

  “You’ll see me, again,” he whispered in her ear. “I love you, too.”

  The door closed, separating Daniel and Rebecca. Rebecca sensed something dreadful was to happen. My execution must be my destiny.

  Some time later, Rebecca heard shouting outside the doorway. The voices amplified and Rebecca stood against the wall, waiting. The door opened and two guards walked in the tiny cell.

  Rebecca heard Daniel’s voice from outside the doorway give orders. “On the ground. Now,” he barked. They got to their knees, then lay on the ground. “Rebecca, come out,” Daniel said.

  Rebecca looked outside the doorway and walked out. Daniel was holding a dagger to Jacob Bradbury’s throat. As Rebecca walked through the door, Jacob’s and Rebecca’s eyes met, and it was that glimpse into his soul she realized that Jacob was Travis. Once Rebecca was safely beside Daniel, he pushed Jacob into the cell. The solid door was quickly closed and locked.

  Daniel lifted Rebecca in his arms and bolted. Cries for help from the men as well as other prisoners echoed the hall as Daniel and Rebecca fled the dungeon. Out front, a horse waited and Daniel helped Rebecca climb. He mounted and sat behind her, reined the horse and they trotted out of town at a steady pace, not to draw attention to them. Rebecca glanced back at the gallows and the locust tree on top of witches’ hill.

  Once outside the town limits Daniel increased the pace. The horse ran hard for over an hour before the couple stopped at a pond to water the horse. Daniel dismounted and helped Rebecca from the horse. As the horse drank, they embraced for the first time since their escape.

  “Where are we going?” Rebecca asked weakly.

  “We’re meeting John. He’s waiting for us.” Daniel pulled out some dried meat from a pouch and handed it to Rebecca.

  “Thank you.” Rebecca hungrily gnawed at the meat.

  They were back on their horse in no time. Two hours later, they arrived at a cottage set deep in the forest. No other cottages were in sight from this location. There was a clearing behind the cottage, and soon Rebecca realized that the house was near a lake. A covered wagon and horse stood in front of the small house, and John was waiting on the porch.

  Rebecca had been feeling weaker with each passing minute. Daniel dismounted, and as he helped her off the horse, she collapsed in his arms and he carried her quickly toward the house.

  “What’s wrong?” John asked.

  “She’s feverish. She’s starved,” Daniel carried her into the cabin.

  A fire was going in the hearth, above it kettles of water steamed along with a kettle of stew. Daniel laid Rebecca on a bed in the corner of the room. A tub was next to the bed.

  Rebecca’s eyes opened. “I’m sorry…”

  “Shh, don’t be sorry. Can you eat? We have some stew.”

  Rebecca nodded. “I’ll try.” Slowly, she sat up and Daniel propped her with pillows. Then he fed her.

  After Rebecca ate she felt stronger, and she expressed interest in a bath. Daniel and John poured the kettles of boiling water into the half-full tub. John left the cabin, and Daniel helped Rebecca remove her clothes and get into the tub.

  After her bath, Daniel helped her into clean clothes, then returned her to the bed. “Sleep for a little while,” he suggested. Gently, Daniel kissed her lips.

  When she awakened, she saw John sitting alone at the table. “Where’s Daniel?” Rebecca asked. She sat up.

  “He’s fetching water for the horses. Should I get him?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  Rebecca stood. The dizziness that had troubled her was almost gone. “I feel like a new person.” She sat at the table with John.

  “That’s a strange expression…feel like a new person.”

  Rebecca realized there was a language barrier between colonial New England and the twenty-first century. She smiled. “It just seemed right. Thank you for all your help, John.” She looked around the one-room cabin. “Where are we?”

  “This is Jacob Bradbury’s summer cottage.”

  “Jacob Bradbury? He knows we’re here?” Rebecca asked.

  John nodded.

  “Why would Bradbury help?”

  “I don’t understand either,” John admitted. “If you ask me, he’s risking much to help you.”

  “I guess you are, too.” Rebecca smiled. “Thank you.”

  Daniel must have heard Rebecca’s voice from outside because he abruptly entered the cabin. “Rebecca, how are you feeling?” He rushed to her side. He felt her forehead, then kissed it. “Your fever is down.”

  “I’m better.” Rebecca’s eyes met her husband’s. She marveled at how similar they were to Jessie’s. “Daniel, why would Jacob help?”

/>   “I’m not sure,” Daniel admitted. “After the trial, he approached me. He was very grateful that you didn’t disclose the information about Ann. The hostage scenario was his idea. He said we could use his cottage, to get you better before we travel. Both John and I have been working the last three days getting a wagon ready. I think he’s a good person. That’s all.”

  He is a good person. Rebecca recalled the time she went to Jacob and proposed to swap herself for her husband’s freedom. She didn’t understand why Travis was so different. What happened to him? How can people be so different from incarnation to incarnation?

  “We left Travis in the dungeon. When will he be freed?”

  “Who?”

  “I’m sorry. Jacob…we left Jacob.”

  “I’m sure he’s free, now,” John said.

  “How do you know?” Rebecca asked.

  “At high noon, nine people, including yourself, were to be executed,” John stated. “I’m sure when they retrieved the prisoners, the guards and Jacob were freed.”

  “Nine people executed?” Rebecca’s heart sank. How could it have gotten so out of control?

  “Eight now,” John corrected.

  “What’s the date, Daniel?”

  “It is the 22nd day of September. Why?” Daniel asked.

  The last executions were in September. “How long was I imprisoned?”

  “Over two months.”

  “Two months? Where are we going, now?”

  “We’re heading to a town called Framingham. I’ve heard that a woman named Sarah Clayes escaped from jail and fled to Framingham. Many running from this witch-hunt are fleeing there. If it’s not safe, we’ll keep heading west. We can stay here for the evening then leave in the morning at first light.”

  “I’ll leave in the morning also, and head back to Salem,” John said. Daniel was reminded that he would be leaving his friend and did not know when he’d see him again.

  Daniel took Rebecca’s hand and led her back toward the bed.

  “Rebecca, please rest. You’ll need your strength for traveling.” She knew he was right and she certainly was tired. She climbed onto the straw mattress and lay down.

  “John and I will be right outside. We have some more work to do on the wagon.” Daniel held her hands and his lips met them. “I love you.”