The Travelling Witch.
- Ethan Mc
- Nov 10, 2023
- 16 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2023
Far back in the 1700s in London England, when people where tried for witchcraft, a woman sat writing to her husband, she wrote (oh dear husband, how I miss you so, each time I look at our picture frame I feel sad, knowing you hand to go, knowing that you had to go to that other land, that place called Dublin, I know you didn’t want to leave me, as you placed that final kiss upon me, I'm wishing you well, also hoping you're in good health, love from your faithful wife, p.s. looking forward to seeing you in our new life.)
Finishing her penmanship, she folds the paper and places it into a letter, then she grabs a seal as one of her maids heated up some wax, she places the seal into the wax coating her family initials AC on it, she sits up straight sighing heavily trying to relax her neck, then looks out the window seeing it was dark, as she says “won't you please hand that of to... oh darn who is it again, the letter boy, his name again what is it?”
The maid standing behind her says, “it is the mail man, miss, you're wondering about, is it?”
Nodding her head, she says smiling “aye, I'm mean yes, what's his name again?”
The maid says, “I believe his name is Alfred, if my memory serves me right.”
Again, the woman of the house nods her head “yes him, give it to him, for him to give it to my husband.”
Smiling the maid says, “as you wish.”
The maid leaves with the letter as two more maids came in to change her, the woman gets up and struggles to move in her mantua, but she manages to go to the changing area in her room and the two maids helped her out of it, into something mor breathable, the maids put on her bed attire, she walks out with her saying “I still feel awkward you all doing this.”
The older one says, “we know you say that every time we do this, but it is our job.”
Sighing she sits thanking them, as the both then leaves, she falls back on the bed looking blankly at the bed frame thinking “I want to see him, but he told me to stay, thing is I know why he left but, I want him back in my arms like it was three years ago, the warmth of his breath on my neck, I miss his warmth.”
She looks over then at the smoldering fireplace, she stands up and walks with a pitter patter of her bare feet on the stone floor reaching the fireplace, she then kneels reaching up the throat of the fireplace and picking out a closed metal box, she goes to the table once more opening it and there a picture of her and her husband on top of a large amount of pound’s.
She picks up the picture caressing it smiling fondly, once she was done with that, she placed it beside her as she started to count how much she had in the box, there was two hundred pound in there, satisfied with that she puts all back to where she took it from then goes to bed and sleeps the rest of the night through.
The next day she wakes bright and early, with a maid knocking on the door and entering, the maid noticed that the woman of the house was up and sitting at her desk in her old clothes peasant clothes to be exact she sat in a thin Bumroll & Corded Petticoat.
The maid questions this but the woman retorts “I want to wear something breathable, since I am leaving to Ireland today.”
The maid again questions “wouldn’t you rather want to go in something more proper?”
She gets up smiling “no, no, no need I rather stay in something comfortable than something unbearable, bear in mind tight area too so, before I go can I ask can you get me a book to, for the long haul one that I can write in.”
The maid does as she was told she got a small book handing it to the woman of the house she places it in her satchel that wrapped around her shoulder and they both walk out to the hall where they met the head maid escorting her out to the front door.
They get outside and the sun was beating the rocks with the warmth, there in front of her was a carriage and horses the lady says “you, carriage man undo the horse lead from that I want to ride by myself.”
The carriage man does as he was told and as he undo's the buckles the head maid comes out shouting “what do you think you doing, put that horse back.”
But before the carriage man could do anything the woman of the house jumped on and rode off, shaking her head the head maid says, “that girl will never change.”
As the sun was highest in the sky, she reached halfway between her estate and the docks of London, she sees a person sitting on the side of the road, she then stops the horse saying, “are you alright?”
This person was a female child, she holds her arm saying, “I've very bad pain in my arm, I fell walking home.”
The woman gets of the horse and kneels checking her entire arm as she spoke softly, the shoulder was dislocated she says “ok this is not bad, it's only a shoulder dislocation, I’ll pop it back in.”
The child looked scared at her, so the woman started lilting and as she did, it calmed the child's nerves, she held the child's shoulder putting her hand against hers, placing it against her shoulder relaxing the child's entire arm, then in a quick motion placing it back into place and once she did the pain in the child started to fade.
The child thanks her as she ran off, the woman smiles and waves the child off, she continues to ride with nothing stopping her.
Finally reaching the docks in London, she jumps of the horse onto the mud with it splashing on her ragged clothes, she smiles as she walks up to the harbormaster asking, “is this the ship to Dublin?”
Nodding his head, he says “aye mam this galleon is, do you have the money for it?”
She nods her head handing the harbormaster 10 pound to be in an average cabin, he nods his head telling her “It will be three days to get to Dublin, get to your bunk.”
She smiles and goes to the ramp way up and steps onto the deck and was guided to the interior of the boat, the wood creaked and cracked as she steps around, many men and women sat drinking and talking up a storm, many people moved some cargo to the lower floors for more room to allow people in the ship, walking through this she finally gets to the stern of the ship and sat on a badly built bunk bed but strong enough to put your entire weight on.
Sitting there she pulls out the book and writes once more (oh dear husband, I'm looking forward to are fated reunion, I have much to tell you like the sites I've seen, the child I helped relocate her arm and many more things I have done this last few years, this book is to tell you what happened and my adventures.)
As dark began to creep in many people were sitting on their beds with some children running around the area, which annoyed many people, but it didn’t last long as the children started to sleep on the beds, the woman smiles zoning out thinking she wants a child of her own, she leans her head back against the deck and falls asleep rather quickly with the boat rocking her back and forth.
As she slept, she remembered how they met, in the slums of London a year before they got married the woman sat in the fetal position hungry for food, she puts her head in her knees trying to breathe away the pain, until a shadow shielded her from the light, she looked up and seen this male looking figure his face hidden by the sun behind himself.
He asks, “are you hungry?”
She said not a word just nodding her head in conformation, he puts out his hand and she takes it but hesitantly, He asks “what's your name?”
She shyly mutters “Aoife.”
He brings her to his carriage saying, “you're not from around here are you, where you from?”
The woman still shy says “I'm from Ireland.”
Playfully he says, “never been there.”
But as they talked, they met with an elderly maid asking, “where did you go sir.”
The man smiles and reply's playfully “ah Rebeca, don’t be like that I went out for a we walk, and oh yea look I brought a guest.”
The maid smiles not meaning it and tells the two to get in the carriage with Rebeca doing the same sitting beside Aoife as the man sat in front of them both, as the carriage went of Rebeca says to the man “you're bringing in another stray, why this time?”
He simply says, “because she was hungry.”
Aoife wakes up with a jolt as a crew mate shouting, she rubs her eyes wishing she was still in that dream, Alex comes in shouting “is anyone here a Physician.”
Aoife puts up her hand waving it still sleepy “yea I'm a Physician, what's the problem?”
The crew man says in a panic “follow me.”
Which she does as they went through the boat Aoife asks, “what's the problem?”
As they reach the deck of the ship the crew mate explains “it's our captain, she fell sick we don’t know what's wrong with her.”
Nodding her head, they both get into the captain's quarters, Aoife walks in and sees people crowd around her, she tells them to leave all except one, that one person that brought her here, she asks the man's name, with him responded Alex.
The captain was muscular with brown hair tine up away from her face. She wore trousers and a shirt. The trousers were rolled up slightly. Her skin was pale as the clouds in the sky, she had an eyepatch over the left eye.
The captain was laying on her long chair, her eyes closed with her breathing away what pain she had, she was breathing heavily though with her skin slightly bruised, swollen legs, she thinks “this might not be good.”
She looks around the room picking up a unused feather and through what she was doing she told everything she was about to do, opening her mouth with it the gums where slightly swollen with her yellow teeth, next up was to check her eyes again she says to the captain what she’s doing, opening her eyes they had jaundice but again only mild.
Sighing she says “well, she has scurvy, a mild form of it which is good, all she needs is more vitamin c.”
The crew man says, “what’s that, a spell?”
She smiles “no, she needs more food like tomatoes, strawberry’s, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower stuff like that…”
The crew man says “we can’t open the cargo…”
But Aoife intrudes rather loudly “if not, she has a chance of dying!”
So, Alex ran off to the hold to a barrel with paper on it that that had a picture of vegetables on it, so he smashed the top of the barrel and grabbed some cabbage and some cauliflower and runs up to the captain's quarters with Aoife places a wet rag on her forehead, he hands it to her as Aoife feeds some cabbage to the captain with her breathing the pain away slowly.
Aoife gets up and pulls Alex aside saying, “she’ll be fine if she eats those types of food, she is not fit to be the captain at the moment, so the Quartermaster is going to have to be in charge for this voyage, I'll stay with her, so go tell your Quartermaster all this.”
Alex leaves and sits watching over for some time with the captain sleeping, Aoife stays quiet looking around the room, the wood looked cracked with it looking like it’s staying together with spit and hope, in the middle of it was a table nailed to the floor with a lot of maps on it, a few chairs around it and along the walls were shelfs with books about nothing and everything, lanterns where hung up on the beams.
She looks back at the captain, hours pass of this and as the sun started to fall from the sky, the captain awoke with a massive headache Aoife tells her to stay laying down, but the captain tries to stand but falls back on the chair.
Aoife says, “please stay sitting and eat these.”
The captain looks at the food then says rather angrily “is this the food that’s in cargo?”
Nodding her head Aoife respond’s “yes, it is, but before you get mad these here food will help you get better.”
The captain stays quiet but accepts it, so she starts to eat most of it, so the captain sits there breathing away the pain as her face sometimes scrunching in pain, she the captain introduces herself “I'm Mary and you are?”
Aoife putting out her hand introduces herself and they get to talking and the conversation went to “where do you live?”
Aoife responds, “I'm from Ireland originally, but I moved to London about six years ago now, yea six years ago and within those six years I went through ups and downs met a man and married him, now I'm going to meet him again back in Ireland, so I'm excited for that, what about you?”
Mary looks up grunting “no I have no husband for myself, but I'm from London too, born on a boat and could sail it before I could walk, I'm a part of my father's fleet now, there of God knows where in the sea, my fathers the captain and my mother his first mate, anyway, hand over some paperwork I need to write up one barrel is used.”
Aoife does as she was told grabbing a lump of paper with a solid book for her to have a solid surface to write on, she also gets ink and a feather giving it to Mary with Mary asking, “so your husband, what's he like?”
Smiling fondly, she tells her how they met first, “he brought me into his estate just outside London, it was the first food I had in a week, he sat on one end by the table by the head maid orders, the head maid gave me the food to the behest of herself, she didn’t like me for a while, well I don’t think she still does, but no that’s how we met.”
Their conversation continues till nightfall, with Alex knocking on the door and with Mary saying “come in.”
Alex does and asks, “is all ok in here?”
Mary says she's fine as Aoife tells her to take it easy for the rest of the voyage, she leaves with Alex and as they get out the door, she grabs the Alex’s arm telling him to keep an eye on for the night, which he agrees and goes back to the door knocking on it and reentering the captains quarters.
Aoife smiles and turns around now seeing the deck of the ship near barren besides a few crewmembers barely awake besides the Quartermaster, he stood on the wheel steering the ship, the quartermaster see’s Aoife and calls her up, he smiles as she reaches the wheel “how are you this fine night.”
Aoife looks up at the nearly clear sky saying, “yea it is.”
The man introduces him as Micky, he had a full beard and bald with an eyepatch wearing ragged clothes he then says, “can't sleep?”
Still looking up at the sky “no, it’s not that, I was looking after the captain.”
Mickey says “ah, so you’re the witch?
Aoife quickly looks at Mickey in confusion “what, word travels fast on this ship.”
Mickey says “aye, this ship is a gossip central, anything you say to one it will move around the ship until everyone knows, even though many don’t say it to your face, they talk behind your back when they think you can't hear, but anyway I won't keep you go to bed, sleep the night through, I'll be here in the morning.”
Which she does, she heads to bed, and writes up what happened that day and in the middle of her writing she falls asleep on the book.
The next day she awoke to a child poking her, making her jolt up in shock “sorry child what's the matter?”
The child says, “my friend he's hurt, come follow me.”
She follows the boy through the lower deck of the ship and sees the child's friend crying holding her hand, the child says, “Shannon I brought the witch, she will help you.”
Aoife smiles and kneels to see what the problem is, she holds out her hand and it was only a splinter the only problem was it was in between the index and middle finger, so she simply pulled it out to the relief of Shannon, Aoife asks “how you get this?”
With Shannon smiling now she says, “we went to the hold, where the food is, we were playing tag and shay here pushed me making me fall to the floor and that’s how I got this.”
Aoife smiles once more advising them not to go back there again, so she leaves as they thanked her, Aoife walks back to the sleeping area reading what she wrote last night, it read; (oh dear husband, I made a new friend, her name is Mary, I healed her from her agony, she had a condition called scurvy, I told her for this voyage to take it easy...)
And that is where she left it, so she started writing once more (this writing might seem a tad off as I fell asleep writing this, but I helped another, there was a problem with some kids, one fell and had a splinter, now time for the next day.)
She gets up and decides to go above to the top deck for some air, closing the book she puts it in her pouch on her bed, then starts to walk see many people play board games trying to elevate their boredom, she reaches the top of the stairs and meets Mickey going to bed, they both smile at one another as they pass.
She now on the deck goes to the bow of the ship just looking out at the endless sea she leans on the railing not noticing an elderly drunk man sitting against the mast, the drunk man starts to sing startling her she smiles at him leaving, walking to the stern of the boat, as she did, she watches the crew man the ship. She gets to the stairs that lead up to the captain’s quarters, she passes it hearing Mary talking to Alex, she continues up to the stern of the ship.
Aoife walks to the top of the stairs with only one person up here the person sailing the boat, she walks to the edge of the boat looking down at the clear water sparkling of the suns gaze, she sits on the box that was in the corner just staring losing herself in her mind, thinking about what a lovely day it would be when she meets her husband again.
Night falls over the horizon with Aoife getting tired she gets up and walks to the stairs and as she did, she seen the captain's door opens and Alex walk out half naked, she giggles to herself and stays there until he goes under to the lower deck, she walks past the door hearing Marry giggling to herself.
Aoife walks to the lower deck and sees a crowd surrounding a few people dancing, a group of people hitting boxes, clapping and some singing songs as many of them spelt of alcohol, Aoife detested that smell, so she decides to leave, but before she could leave a hand grabbed her arm, it was the drunk from the bow earlier that day, again he spoke still in mumble unbearable to most, the only word she could make out was “witch, help.”
Smiling she says helping him to a quiet room “its ok, it’s ok, follow me.”
She brings him to a quiet place that was next to where people slept, as the man walked, he limped the entire way, sitting on the box the man waves back and forth drinking from his whisky bottle, she says while forcing a smile she asks, “are you sore, if so, where is it?”
The man holds his head mumbling “here.”
She again asks, “so it’s a headache?”
He nods his head as she thinks for a moment, then says “if we had ice, we would be elected but I don’t think we have it on this ship.”
A crew person walks past them, but Aoife asks, “young man, is there ice being traveled on this ship?”
The crew person shakes his head “ah no, we don’t why, why do you need it?”
Aoife explains the situation, with the crew person saying, “it’s alright, I can take this drunk of your hands.”
Aoife explains to the crew person “just give him fresh air and he should be fine.”
The drunk man walks off with the crew person and Aoife walks to her bed picking out her book and starts to write; (oh my love, one more day to go, I feel our reuniting is a blessing from above, know this my love for my feelings for you still grows, I can't wait till I'm in your arms once more, like it was so long before, I love you dearly, Aoife.)
Once, she finished writing she fell asleep rather quickly and like a blink of an eye it was day, she gets up excited to reach the Irish shores, she grabs her bag putting it over her head and runs to the deck of the ship with her heart a flutter seeing land come into view, the children excitedly ran around the deck.
Aoife hears her name being called from the back of the boat, it was Mary and Alex, he held her up with her left arm around Alex’s shoulder while she stood held onto the banner with the other.
Aoife walks up to them with her saying “I told you to take it easy for the voyage.”
Mary smiles saying, “I wanted some fresh air; I've been cooked up in that room for three days so it's good to get some air.”
Aoife looks at Alex asking, “and how are you, Alex.”
Alex smiles looking at Mary smiling “never better.”
Smiling Aoife nods her head as they all look on to the port where they made dock, Aoife smiles as Mary says, “if you are ever looking for work, this ship is available.”
Thanking them she walks of the boat, with Mary and Alex waving as she leaves the port, Aoife walks through the muddy streets of Dublin she continues to the edge of the city thinking where was he, I know where he lives so this will be a massive surprise for him.
Looking around the town she notices it expanded since the last time she could remember, she walks to the building she had remembered he lived at, the building was grey and built with brick, it was a two-story building where no lights were brightening the windows, thinking this curious she walks to the door, knocking on it softly and enters with not a single noise coming from the vacant halls she walks through the building and no person was here.
She reaches the second floor and the only room that was lit was a single room in the back, walking slowly to the room, she sees a male figure sitting on a seat looking out the window, slowly she walks behind the chair with her heart in her throat thinking the worst, the turns the chair around to see...
A decade later many people of Dublin seen a female figure dressed in all black walk the streets to a cemetery near the center of the town, she walks in with elegance into the grave with her standing over one that read; husband and son, Robert Carver 1665 – 1700.
She leaves a final note that read; (dear husband, I hope these words find you well, I know your looking down on me and smiling, I am the same age as you when you passed, and these years have been so difficult without you, I love you, I hope you felt the same, yours faithfully you wife Aoife Carver.)
Story By: Ethan McCloskey
Art:
Woman:
Ship:
Cloud:
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