Zoe's only wish is to be able to run barefoot through grass, but she knows it'll never happen. Ever since she was born, she's been unable to touch anything living without it instantly dying. It's a curse she would do anything to get rid of, but that...
I really wanted to press on. Really wanted to keep on pushing her to find out what it was they wanted her to do and exactly what it was that made her shake in fear from being close to them. But I knew her well enough by now to know that there was no point. The fact that she had told me as much as she had was already pretty amazing. So I knew to simply just let it go. Turn today to a happy day instead.
I was a bit surprised at her mention of the amulets, though. No one had ever noticed them. Alex had been over a thousand times and never seen them. For a moment, I had even thought that Zoe knew. That she knew they protected against magic. More ridiculously, I had even for a moment thought that she was one. That she was a witch.
That Scarlet Moore woman surely dressed like a stereotypical witch, at least. With the dress and cap, and she had seemed potential evil enough to be one. But it was stupid. Of course, Zoe wasn't a witch. She was so sweet, so kind and considerate. There was no way she was something as vicious as a witch.
Besides, if she was a witch, she had to know what my dad was and why on earth would she then want to spend time with me? And why would she want to protect me from her illness? She would definitely use it to hurt me if she was a witch. And she would also definitely have been able to cure it then.
No. She had to have just seen them and was a little superstitious, just like she had said. Nothing else and wearing one would make my dad happy also, so I thought I might as well start doing it.
"Let's forget about this for now," I said to work on my aim of turning the day around. "We'll go out and I'll show you some touristy stuff. Sounds good?"
I could see relief in her eyes.
"Yeah. Sounds good," she smiled.
"Oh, and we'll have dinner with Alex. You sure you are still okay with meeting her?"
"Stop being so worried. You'll get wrinkles," she laughed. Her happiness spread to me and I smiled back.
"Come on. Let's get going."
We walked around and I showed her some of the very typical touristy stuff. The Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford City Hall, the Ancient Burial Grounds. She was as excited as ever about everything. But the main place I wanted to show her, and that we walked towards, was Connecticut's Old State House. When we got there, she stopped and stared at the old brick building.
"Is that... Is it... This is where the witch trials were held," she said. Her voice shook.
"Yes," I answered. "You want to go inside?"
She nodded.
The moment we stepped inside, her destination was clear. She didn't care about looking at anything. Her eyes didn't wander to take in the interior at all. There were some other people there and I could see a child pointing at her, no doubt because of her clothes, they did indeed fit better into the era the house had been built than now. But Zoe didn't notice. She went straight for the room the trials had been held in. Once she got to the door opening, however, she froze.
I had followed her quietly behind, but went to stand next to her as she stopped. Only then did I notice tears forming in her eyes.
"You okay? What's wrong?" I asked and started to raise my hand to touch her cheek. But she shook her head and continued forward.
She walked through the rows of wooden chairs, her fingertips brushed against them as she passed, and went straight to the place the accused would have been. She put her hand on the wood railing that separated the accused from the rest.
"I'm sorry," I heard her whisper and watched as a tear fell from her eyes.
I stood in silence some distance from her and let her have her moment. I somewhat regretted bringing her there. I had known from that first conversation that our views on both witches and the trials were very different and seeing her mourn created knots in my stomach. In my head, I could hear my dad's anger if he ever found out about this.
Right then and there, I knew I had to explain some of it all to Zoe. Of course, I wouldn't tell her the whole truth. She would call me insane and leave if I started to claim that witches actually did exist. But I had to make sure she understood witches were a sensitive topic for my dad. I couldn't risk them meeting and her saying something that would set him off.
She stood there for maybe five minutes. I could hear that she whispered something, but it was too low for me to hear what. Considering her bent head, I assumed it was a prayer. She radiated sorrow but also a collected calmness. When she looked up, she wiped her eyes and turned to me.
"I want to leave," she said in a weak voice. Her eyes were red and her face slightly puffy from crying.
I didn't say anything, only nodded, and we left. There was a lot of grass surrounding the building and without saying anything, we walked until we were in between the building and the walk road.
"Maybe I shouldn't have brought you here," I said once we sat down.
"No. I'm happy that you did. It's just... I just think it's such a horrible part of our history. The death of so many innocent people," she said. She seemed to be looking at something far away as she spoke. Almost as if she looked into the past.
"Yeah," I just answered, not wanting to agree but also not wanting to seem insensitive by saying that some of them had been very guilty.
We sat in silence for a while. She was still and continued to look into nothingness. I picked up grass with my fingers, tried to find the right words.
Finally, I took a deep breath. "Zoe. There's something I need to explain."
She slowly looked back at me, her eyes empty but somehow also filled with understanding.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
