Today in Salem: The constable is stumbling through the day, so tired and distracted that he hardly understands what’s said to him. His two-month-old baby girl was violently ill last night, and he and his wife have hardly slept. In the middle of the night, desperate, he’d asked his mother to come. She’d brought a doctor with her, but there was nothing they could do. They agreed there was an evil hand upon the child.
How did this happen? What did he do to deserve this? He can only think of one thing: the nervous Sarah Cloyce’s examination was three days ago, and she was sent to jail to join her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse. After the examination the constable had said he wasn’t surprised they were witches, since their mother was one, too.
It seemed like such an easy comment. He could have said much worse. But still: Were Sarah Cloyce and her sister Rebecca Nurse angry? Were they sending their specters to hurt the baby in revenge?