X Salem III

Part III
The night embrice Salem and I continue to read about Melissa Scullee's trial.
A rummaging coming from the external stairs informs me that some members of the Tribunal are going back to their rooms.And again, the place falls silent.
The light of the fourth candle shakes, so I light another one.

Alexander Kry'kev, 34 years old, Salem Village,
Swore in front of Wait Still Winthorp, john Richards, John Hathorne, on the 13th day of May…
That a month to this date he was sleeping in his locked room and in the light coming from the fireplace, Melissa Scullee appeared to him, at the feet of his bed, wearing a long black hat, with a strange yellow bird on her shoulder. Fearing for his life as he experienced a strong pain to his throat, he tried to hit the apparition with a fist, however she disappeared.'
' Extract from Edward Jersey's deposition '
As Still Winthorp asked whether Melissa Scullee attempted to charm him into committing indicent acts, the man replied with a yes, specifying, however that he did not submit to her charm, and by praying ever night, he never heard her tempting voice again at night…'

These depositions remind me of the misoginy of the Witches' Hammer, still in use by the catholics as a basic taste for their trials against the devil.
I put the documents down, checking the chronological notes I have previously copied from the ecclesiastic registers.
Melissa Scullee was Kate's older sister, I realize by the christenings' dates.
According to the witnesses, Melissa was a witch, capable of appearing and disappearing according to will, to torment in figure or voice strong men afraid of God, as Phillip Padgett's deposition suggests too.
This reminds me of the Bishop's case too, in some particular instances.
I wonder whether they have really appeared to them, the alleged witches who were executed. Or whether it was only their very strong imagination to have evoked their ghostly figures, in men who can only desire in sin, and in such a manner have decided to give vent to their desires and temptations: describing it in front of a jury.
Executing the alleged temptresses?
To make temptation so extreme, to give the guilt to someone else, makes your conduct a lot less sinful.
To eliminate the very beign who evoked luxury and lust, to liberate themselves from sin.
Satan tempts and the man refuses, but cannot avoid the images.
The Lord's own Son, did he not have to overcome temptation himself in the desert?
The spirit of Evil tried him and He remained pure.
But not every member of mankind can remain pure to evil, as a second nature.
Againt Melissa, some accounts suggests she used to torment in the form of a black cat.
I look, in my bag, for a book I have taken from Oxford.Some Philosophical Considerations touching on Witches and Witchcrafe, by Glanvill.
Conscience tells me I shouldn't, he is an Anglican, but I shut it up, looking for the part of the book I am interested in.
He was still a man of faith, I conclude.
I read until a passage I remember clearly.
' Beforehand to presume that things ( of witchcraft) were impossibile, and the to conclude that the fact could not be proved…' this is Glenvill's critique of Hobbes, the godless philosopher.
' …we can only perceive the weakness and imperfection of our knowledge and our learning capabilities, not the impossibility of such performances.'
Human beings have the right to insist about the impossibility of anything, I wonder mentally.
Magic, according to Glanvill, is possible so…but only as functional argument against Hobbes, who in turn, believed the Roman Clergy used belief in spirits and ghosts, to keep the people ignorant and to manipulate it. Avoiding a personal and individual political growth.
Us protestants grew stronger, away from Rome's power.
And what if here, in Salem, ignorance were united with the most horrid fears, with envy?
What if Evil had used the weaknesses of those girls?
If he had used a Caribbean slave to do so?
Was it enough to cause all this?
Is Satan here, amongst them?
Why, for what purpose?
The fire that happened a few years ago in Boston, the death of so much cattle, could they have cause fear amongst these good citizens and fishermen, as obscure divine premonitions?
We are still standing here fighting apparitions and ghosts, or are we fighting the power to intervene on another human being, as our Lord allows us?
Lucifer has his reign, and this is new territory.
Our Lord left us to our personal fate, which he chose Himself, at the beginning of Times.
Because of our original sins, impossible to erase.
I lower myself onto the bed, thinking of how much Scullee must have suffered, when looking at her sister, she had to witness the rope tied around her neck, looking at her for the last time with watery eyes, to say goodbye one last time, a privilege I, myself, was not granted so many years ago.
A thin arm touches my face in the dark,
A woman, with her mouth and eyes sawn with a black wire, blood on the side of her mouth. A face so familiar and at the same time foreign to me.
Her dead hands tighten around my nec, and her mouth vomits black blood.
Her hair is like infernal flames.
A loud sound similar to teeth grinding, clouds my hearing
Her finger are so strong, so thin and cold.
I try to free myself and my throat but her blind eyes keep me in place.
I choke, and the air feels like death.
Black blood drops fall on my face, I am terrified, and I jump at every cold and devilish drop which fall on my face and infiltrate my mouth and my eyes. A hole in the black ground seems to ingurgitate me, I know it is for me…I jerk from the bed, sweat pouring down.
Evil invited me to a nightmare, I condlude, trying to catch my breath, I find myself again the small room, still lit by the small candle.

The following day
Salem town,
Scullee's house
06:35 p.m.

- My daughter was not a witch, she just made one mistake, to trust little Abigail and Mary.. She played with them…She cared about all our neighbours, she was very kind to everyone…- sobbing, Margareth Scullee tried to regain composure.
I have not been here long, here, immersed in this family's pain.
She sits at the table, Kate stands next to the fireplace, calmly drying up her tears, without looking at us.
Another woman, younger, folds an Army uniform with practical hands. She sits away.
- Have you got any more children, Ms Scullee?-
- Yes, two boys. Their late father's pride. Both in the Royal Army. Tara, here, she's William's wife. – she answers drying her eyes with her apron, pointing at the lady sitting quietly in a corner.
She doesn't look back
Fruit appears from a bowl on the table, a white cat licks his fur, next to the door.
- I am so sorry, I hope … - she gets up.
- I pray to God everynight that no one can end up that way. They didn't even allow us a chrisitan burial ceremony for her..- she says disappointed.
- God bless you..- she says and leaves me, through a small door, with her heart full of uncertainty.
Talking to her did not inform me of anything new-
I should find out what kind of contact the possessed had with the withces.
I walk towards the open door and look up to Scullee.
Tara, who had not spoken yet, whispers something to her, getting closer and then leaves too.
- Did you know my sister? – she ask, following me outside the door.
The mischievous cat plays with the hem of her skirt, and follows us lazily.
I answer her positively with my eyes.
It was good to see her again, after last night's nightmare, I didn't think I could have dealt with her sad and hard look. I didn't think I could cope with it. Instead, here between her familiar things and her family, has chased away the coldness of my nightmare.
We walk towards the path to the sea.
- She loved the Lord and His Creation, she thought that living this life, full of sacrificies, would make us better.. but it wasn't like that.. The only sin she's ever done was to not to be smart enough to avoid people's evil rumors…- she folds her hands on her apron, considering the path we embarked on.
- Tell me, what kind of connection was there between her and the people who accused her?- I ask quietly, afraid to ask too intimate details.
I have not known Scullee for very long, I understand however that she has received a very strict religious education, but this thought does not prevent me from looking at her when I ask her questions.
The blue in her eyes reminds me of peacock's, the shiny blue of their regal necks.
We shine in the summer light and dust.
- She pushed them away when they asked for her hand… She felt free, maybe too much..- she answers, after a small pause, distracted by an annoying insect flying by.
- And what about the possessed girls?
- All I know is that one time, she found them in the woods, she condessed they had tried a spell…maybe they saw my sister who tried to explain to them thye didn't need spells to know the future.. I think maybe they tried to make her pay for her honesty…accusing her of the very thing they are guilty of…- she adds angrily.
- Can I ask you what you were reading yesterday?- I am starting to worry for her that all this talking about the possessed girls could be too dangerous.
- Increase Mather's sermons, the ones about the comets of a decade ago. In foster's print..- she says innocently.
- I know the topic very well. Heaven's Alarm. So you know that supernatural apparitions to a believer must be…- I begin but I am interrupted.
- ' God operates in a supernatural way on the wolrd, refusing to use the ordinary course of natural law…'- she quotes
- So supernatural is used by God as means of 'occasional' activity in the wolrd.- I conclude.
- Yes, but the apparition of a comet, just like ten years ago, should not be read as a signal by God that innocent people should die because of mad people's accusations. – she says indignantly
I am surprised by this woman's smartness, by her competent intellect.
If I picture her immersed in her reading, I feel secure, she make me feel like she never leaves anything unsure and vague.
- Obviously not. It doesn't say that. But it poses the roots for the belief in the supernatural, even within the divine creation. – I try to divert the conversation
- I cannot believe that. I prefer to believe Newton's 'Mathematical Principles', you know, the new member of the Royal Society. He tries to give a natural explanation, to every physical event. Why could we not give a Newtonian explanation to what appears to be witchcraft?
- Are you aware that what you are saying now could very well incriminate you too? – I tremble, hearing her extreme theories in such a small and sinister corner of the world.
A woman interested in science should be feared more than a witch.
- Of what – she looks at me, and I understand she is seeking to know whether she can trust me or not.
I try to do the same, I would love to trst her, I would like her to understand that…
- Alchemy.. you know better than me, that it is dangerous to investigate the Nature, only God has the plan for his Creation…Why are you so interested in men's science? Is your faith not enough?
I am not trying to make her stop, I would like it if she could speak forever to me.
I would listen to her for hours.
- Be calm, you are the first and last person I speak to about this. I believe God has allowed us to understand, beside feeling, the Nature around us. When our fathers arrived here, they found a bizarre and hostile world, which they were able to tame with their work, guided by Go. Natural or scientifical theories on nature could serve to avoid superstition. I wish science could take away our fears, to live happily in God's faith. ' I belive to understand, I don't understand to believe', Anselmo wisely belives – when she speaks, I could damn myself in her
Her eyes are so tempting.
She is similar to a net, a cobweb of silk and velvet, wherein I could…I want to lose myself.
A labyrinth where I wouldn't look for a way out, and her, my mythological Arianne could get lost with me.
- Be careful, you are falling into those theories which believe Satan is a silly story for weak women. And you can't afford that. You are a Puritan: you believe in God therefore you believe in his nemesis too- I say
- I know Satan tries to take hold of the human soul, but I also believe in the unconditional action of the Divine Grace – here she is again, she goes back to being a contradiction, skeptical and full of faith.
I am surprised how this woman could grasp all my thought is this way, that she could contrast me in the most certain theories!
I feel my suppositions shake, and my faith doesn't seem to be this strong anymore…
- What about your sister? You said you think she was innocent. But her infallible destiny was already written, as is everyone else's…you are aware of the impossibility of changing it…we are not free – I try to soothe her pain, but I don't feel like I am able to.
- We are not free, it is true, but this awareness makes us worthy. Our work makes us worthy. She has always acted for the good…Melissa is in God's heaven, I know that, because this comforts me immensely. Through my prayers I feel her happy, with my father and the Omnipotent. God does not intervene so to do bad. You know that better than me, you had the opportunity to study. I received a puritan education and found myself interested in some books and sermons I found while working .- she is so sure of her faith, at the same time she is so sure of her will too.
She could be a dangerous woman.
I have met dangerous women, when I was a young student, but they were only tempting, daughters of Venus, followers of luxury, they tempted me and I fell.
But with her… she has an active mind, like mine..
Her body is hidden and I shyly blush before my thought.
It's her mind the dangerous temptation
I should start the conversation again, I should confuse myself with quotes, sayings, theories.
- You know, sometimes I thin catholics are better off, with their free will. This freedom of will could explain how those girls could have accused your sister by their own will instead of being pushed by the Evil. And that the Evil could be destroyed through you Newtonian science. I would love it to be that way. If this hemisphere God does not want to interfere and leaves everything to Evil, then could science destroy Evil- I have her attention now, we stop, warm by the walk and by our theories.
- Evil is necessary, from the contrast Virtue rises up. It will never be defeated. Catholics are quite superstitious, don't you think? – she pauses – Are you going to tell what I have told you? Are you on their side, pricker? – she challenges me, look bluntly into my eyes, beyond the measure allowed to us.
- I am on no one's side. I trust no one. I believe in God, not in men. – I say dryily.
- You are being bitter…- she says sweetly.
- I am because of my past. – I admit to her, maybe for the first time in years.
We remain quiet and start walking again, reaching the top of a cliff with a view of the village and the town, as if they were bonded.
- Look..Seeing it from here, Salem almost looks like a nice place to live in . – she invites me to look at the beauty, but with a sad tone.
- True – I convene without being very convinced
How can this be?
How can one feel so attracted to someone one doesn't know at all?
I sit by a rock, distant from where she stands, looking at the sea below us.
With her arms around her midriff, she is almost lulling herself.
I feel tenderness for this woman, for her family hit too hard, and I understand I will not be accomplice of the Oyers and Terminers..
She flinches a little when she realizes I have moved away.
I see her getting closer, hugging herself in the wind rasing her dress.
She sits and looks down, on the grass she's playing with, and I can see her fingers bend and intertwine with the grass. She awaits.
Is she waiting for me to tell her about myself? For me to give her my trust, but how can I?
I am the last of the men…or is this my imagination too?
- I am surprised by how you trust me…a strager. – I admit confused.
- That is precisely why I trust you, you are away from this place, you belong somewhere else. – she says
- Is it so – I say unhappily
- What is wrong?- she wonders worried
- It's nothing. Some old memories. – Maybe this place makes me feel so homeless, but I am starting to feel out of place.
It is true, I don't belong here, I don't belong to anyone..
God cannot placate my pain…I swear inside myself.
- By serving God I have learnt to listen…- her voice appears suppressed, hidden.
Her pale skin shines pink.
- KATE! Come back home immediately!- a scream makes us jump and break away from our intimate thoughts.
She gets up serenely and explains
- That's William, by older broche. The head of the family. Calm down now. – she says convinced, not afraid, talking to me first and then to him.
- Isn't Melissa's reputation enough? Do you want to compromise yourself in front of the whole town with this Bostonian? Our father would have never approved of your behavious! Do you want to burn in hell? – he roars
She does not look up, absorbing his screams and shaking violently from side to side.
But not me.
I get up quickly and get closer to the siblings.
- Leave her alone, you're hurting her!- I try to convince her
He angrily looks at me and the shouts his words at me
- Don't you dare stick your nose in this! You are here to catch the witches, not to get involved with our girls. LEAVE NOW, or I'll tell the deputy governor!!- he threatens.
- If you prefer, we can deal with this right now, me and you – I roar back
I am shaking by the need to hit him.
We stay there, breathing against each other, for a few instants.
- William stop! Think about mother! And about the son God is about to give you! Let's go back home. – she clams him, and he lets go of her bruised arm, she drags him away from me.
- If you fancy any other information, you city-bound bastard, come looking for me!!- William Sculle screams, as his sister tries to drag him away.
I have met almost all the members of the Scullee's family.
My anger does not calm, when I see them walk away talking.
My destiny? Always the same: creating troubles and not being able to get out of them.
My curiosity, my boundless passion to look into the abyss.
This will take me to eternal damnation.
Have I shared chaste issues with a woman only to allow myself to burn with desire?