Ghostly Touch

He threw back the covers and started to get out of bed but he couldn’t get his legs to obey. His head began to spin, or maybe the room around him was spinning instead. Trying as hard as he could to keep his head straight, he looked for something to focus on. Suddenly, he couldn’t hear anything. It sounded as if the wind had picked up and was blowing through his room, and then everything appeared to be bright white and he raised a hand to shield his eyes. Then, just as suddenly, the world faded into total darkness and he fell with a loud thump. His breath was knocked from his lungs, and he slowly opened his eyes while gasping for breath.

~ Nine ~
Heroes & Cowboys
     
                  “No,” Zula screamed. “What is wrong with you people? Who are you and why are you doing this?” She screamed as loudly as she could but it seemed no one heard her. Or if they did, they certainly paid no attention.
                  She hung by bound hands and feet to a thin log, with the ends on the shoulders of two very large men who carried her to, well, wherever they were going. Zula hadn’t a clue what was going on or why. She didn’t feel like herself either, and as she glanced around at the crowd, they weren’t dressed like they were twenty-first century Americans, unless they were in some play that required dressing up like Quakers or something similar. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it.
                  “Drown the witch!”
                  “Drown her!”
                  “Witch, witch, witch! Drown the witch!”
                  Zula could hear the crowd chanting and for the first time, she realized they were talking about her. She was the witch and they were taking her to Miller’s pond to toss her in. She knew this story because great-grandmother Zula was drowned, hanged, and burned at the stake for “laws against nature”. That was ancient history. How could Zula be in the middle of witch trials that had been over for nearly two hundred years?
                  “Be careful,” a voice whispered in Zula’s ear. “Be careful my daughter. You were warned.”
                  “Great-grandmother Zula,” she whispered. “Is this what you were warning me about? Grandmother?” There was no answer to her plea.             
    ~ * ~
                  “What the heck is going on here?” Connor came to his feet, looking around. “And exactly where is here?”
                  Brushing himself off, Connor glanced around. He was in a meadow and in the distance, he could hear people shouting. He headed toward the voices, hoping to find some information that would help him get back home. Or explain why he wasn’t home right now. The voices were getting closer, and Connor picked up the pace to a jog. He had to find out what had happened to him. It wasn’t long before he could see a pond and the crowd getting closer to it.
                  “What are they do…?” It was then he saw the woman hanging on the pole between to large men. She was tied at the wrists and ankles, and it appeared they were going to throw her in the water.
                  “Hey!” Connor shouted, but no one paid attention. He broke into a run, hoping to help the woman, and as he approached the men, he could see the woman’s face. A face he knew all too well. Zula’s.
                  “Connor, help me,” she shouted, her eyes boring into his. “Help me!”
                  He ran faster but he wasn’t fast enough. The men set Zula on the grass at the pond’s edge, repositioned their hands and then picked her up and began to swing her back and forth. Then they let her go and she landed in the middle of the pond with a huge splash. Connor followed her in.
                  Swimming to the middle of the pond, Connor dove under, then, after a few moments, he came up for air. He took a deep breath and dove again. Finally, he found the pole with Zula attached and put his arm around her waist and pulled her to the surface. Zula gagged and choked, trying to fill her lungs with air. Connor pulled her to the shallows and began cutting her ties. It was then that the crowd stormed the pair and dragged them both out of the water to the grass. Connor and Zula were tied, and both were dragged to the town square.
                  “What is going on?”