The First Witch of Boston

by Andrea Catalano

“When I am gone, do not be weighed down by sadness. Be lifted by hope—the hope that we have always shared. Be rid of this life, be rid of every vestige of it—of me!”

She had said it was because they had been made for each other, intended from the time they ceased to be stars and took their first breaths in the world of the living.

They were like nesting cups, one protectively covering the other.

“It is best not to lie. For every lie you tell you shall have to tell three more to cover for it, and three for each of those, and soon enough you’ll be trapped in your own web of lies times three.”

power resides in gold, and gold resides in power. It matters not who sits on the throne or who controls Parliament. This is the way it always has been and the way it always will be.”

The men in power could not abide by a woman speaking her mind and gaining the admiration of others.

You see, I had only known men who threw their weight and voices round as though they were kings, as though it were their divine right. Most think they know everything and speak like they do, when it is nothing but empty words. They know naught, most of them. And the louder they are, the less they know. The more they boast, the less they have. The more show they put on in front of lasses, the less show they’ve got for you under the bed linens.”

“I wanted a man who had enough faith in his own worth, his strength, and his mind that he had no need to put on some absurd stage drama. I wanted a man who was confident enough in himself to handle the likes of me.”

“Déanfaidh mé thú a chomhlánú.” I will make you complete.

They called her a “healer,” though Sam told Thomas that he overheard some in the public house call her a “cunning woman.” This unsettled Thomas, because “cunning woman” was one step shy of “witch,” and “witch” was most certainly a name to fear.

When a woman caused too much trouble or spoke too plainly, it seemed, there were those who would take umbrage and use piety as excuse and reason to take her in hand.

“Taisce.” “What does that mean, my Irishman?” “Treasure.”

A cunning woman is easily made the handmaiden of the Devil.”

But when people cannot understand something, when they can’t make sense of a thing, they always become fearful. People fear what they do not understand, you see?”

“I shall speak as I see fit. I’ll not let some hysterical cow stop me from uttering what I believe to be true. And you’ll not tell me what and what not to say!”

She has gone, my life, my heart.

“My wonder and delight. My wonder and delight.”

He held her in his arms until the whole of him, his body, sank into the earth beneath the wood floorboards, where he was cool and made of rocks and the rocks were impenetrable, and he no longer felt the loss like a knife in his heart twisted over and over, over and over.

The sky to the west turned to a ghostly glow of dusk as storm clouds from the east roiled and rolled inland. Lightning flashed, followed by the low growl of thunder. It was as though the heavens mirrored his insides, his life, his predicament.

Where were the little girls and boys whose foreheads I stroked while I sang and rubbed camphor and mint tinctures, banishing the evil humors away, away, to the corners of the room, to the windows I would open wide so that they would be gone?

Men are governed by their whims and passions far more than us women, yet they ascribe such traits to us. It is the purest form of hypocrisy there is. It has existed since the dawn of our time. Think of Adam and Eve. Oh aye, the Devil tempted Eve with knowledge, and she thought to better herself. And so she took the bait, and then Adam grew curious and envious and wanted a piece of it all. Just like a selfish child. But go ahead and tell me again how man is governed by his mind and woman by her heart. They have lied to us from the beginning.

“Margaret Jones of Charlestown, on the charge of witchcraft, you have been found guilty.”

“Love makes us daft,” I said with a wry laugh. “Love makes us whole. Love makes us rise above.”

laughed in her face. “You carry his bastard. And rest assured, he wants never to see you again.”

A tempest brewed over this land. Of course it did, for this land, this place at the edge of the world, was about to execute a woman for the sin of being a woman.

For you are about to execute an innocent woman. You are about to execute an innocent woman for the crime of being a woman, a woman who lived fully, spoke plainly, listened intently, observed acutely, intuited wisely, loved passionately. I am too much for this world of yours,

Here I confess to you, my greatest shame, and purest gift.