So, she closed her eyes and focused on her sister. She pictured her face and body in exact detail, breathing deeply and holding her palms toward the ceiling again. She felt her soul lift out of her physical body and travel up through the roof, then move quickly in the direction the pendulum had indicated, and over to the nearby town of Ipswich.
Freya kept her sister’s picture in mind as she flew over the streets and noticed buildings disappear, roads become narrower, and pavement turn to dirt. She must’ve been traveling back in time as well as a short distance. Structures looked older and further apart, with farms in the distance. At last, she came upon a white wooden building with a stone foundation, a wooden step up to the front door and a sign over it. The sign proclaimed Ipswich Gaol.
She landed gently and studied the sign again. Crap, that’s how the early English settlers spelled jail!
Walkingaround the perimeter of the building, she saw no low windows where she could peek in. Her active imagination was running away with her to the possible dungeon beneath. How would she find her sister and grandmother? She hoped they weren't confined in a cell.
There was only one way to find out. And that was to walk through the walls in her astral form and see what she would see.
She passed through the stone and wood of the wall in front of her and descended into a dark, depressing place. The sound of dripping water met her ears. As her vision adjusted to the lack of light, she noticed two long sets of bars and a corridor between them. Then she heard the squeak of a rat, as it sensed her presence.Oh, dear Goddess, please don't let my sister and grandmother be incarcerated in this place.She walked further in and realized there were women there; some leaning against the bars and some lying in the straw.
Freya didn’t check the faces closely. All their clothing seems to be from the Puritan era. They wore white bonnets tied under their chins, although they were no longer white. Their clothes were gray and wrinkled. White collars were covered in dirt. It was incredibly sad to see women treated this way.
Now, if she could find two women wearing jeans and sweaters, maybe she'd be in luck, so to speak. She walked down the long passage with shallow cells on either side. There were two women huddled together in the middle cell, both dressed in the same seventeenth-century clothing. Further down, there were a few men in another cell. Her sister and grandmother must be among the ones she had already passed, so she turnedaround and walked back to peer at the faces of these women. There must be a clue as to why she was brought here.
She checked closer and realized that the two she had walked past in the second cell were her grandmother and sister, but they had been dressed in the garments of the time. Her grandmother coughed. She wondered about her health, but at least she had found them—alive!
She tried to get their attention by waving her hands and calling, “Hey!” Her sister looked up.
Brianna felt astral touches. Her grandmother could sometimes communicate with spirits. Freya was not a spirit, so it was unclear whether or not her grandmother could hear her. She entered the cell and touched her sister’s shoulder. Brianna clapped her hand over Freya's. Without Freya's body, she couldn't have touched a solid hand. Yet, Brianna whispered, “Freya? Is that you?"
7
Esther quickly raised her face toward Brianna. “Do you sense her?" Then she turned her head and coughed again.
"Yes. I swear she's touching me. Oh, Freya. If that's you, I don't know how you can help us. We've been tossed in here as witches. We don't know exactly where we are, but we think we are still in Massachusetts around the year 1692. The height of the Salem witch trials. I don’t think we’re in Salem, but we know other towns were imprisoning supposed witches.
They tied us up, tossed us in a cart, and brought us here. They made us put on these clothes, and they burned our jeans and sweaters. If you can hear us, please, please give us a sign.
Freya touched her sister on her other shoulder and then kissed her forehead. Her sister burst into tears.
“That's it! I know it's you,” Brianna said. “When we were young, you used to kiss me on the forehead. I saw pictures of you doing that when I was a baby. I know it's you, Freya. I don't know how you can get us out of this time, though.
“We’re not even sure how we got here,” Esther said, then coughing wracked her body again.
“We went for a walk along the river.” Brianna continued. “There must've been a portal that we didn't know about. One moment we were walking beside the river as usual, and the next moment we tripped and fell. There was someone in this period’s costume, pulling water out of the river with a bucket. She screamed, and even though we tried talking to her, soon we were surrounded by men with muskets, all wearing Puritan clothing from the 1600s. At least the illustrations I've seen from that time would support the idea.”
“That and the fact that we’re being accused of being witches,” Esther added, then coughed.
“It's getting cold in here at night, and they took away our blankets last spring. We huddle together for warmth and lie on top of the straw that hasn't been soiled. We barely lived through last winter. Please get us out of here!”
“Yes. Yes, I will get you back!” Freya yelled. They didn’t react, so it seemed they weren’t able to hear her.
Freya needed to return to her body and find that portal! She closed her eyes and pictured her body outside again, then she floated back to her kitchen. She let her spirit reenter her body and opened her eyes.
Devon stared at her.“You’re back! Bloody hell, I was wondering what I’d do if you didn’t return.”
Freya jumped up. “I know where they are, and I have to get to them! They’re in Ipswich—in jail! In 1692-ish. There’s a portal by the river…”
Before she reached the door, Devon rose and grabbed her around the waist. “Wait! Shouldn’t we prepare? If you go to that time period, you’ll need to blend in. Is there a costume shop ortheater group that could dress us appropriately? And even if you find the portal, do you know how to get back?”
All good questions. So why did Freya want to push him off her front stoop, just for thinking of them?
“I—I can’t wait. They looked cold and emaciated. Diseases often spread in filthy conditions like that. My grandmother didn’t look well.”
“Yet, we need every advantage to get them back safely. We could be tossed in the same jail cell if we go running in there, demanding their release.”
“I know… You’re right.” She burst into tears.
