¨Mother, can I go play outside with the other children?¨ I asked.         

¨Yes, of course Sweetie, just be safe, and don't get your smock all dirty,'' my mother said in her relaxed and calm voice.

¨I will.¨

It was June 22, 1692, and even though the trials had only been happening for about a month, it felt like it had been years.  I was always worried that some big man was going to come knocking at my door and take me or anyone from my family away. They already took my best friend, Penelope Brounfeyld. She was hanged four days before at Gallows Hill. It was really hard without her. I missed her so much. All I wanted was to see her again.

¨Hey guys, can I be it?¨ said my friend Hellen.

¨That's fine with me.¨

¨Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5….ready or not, here I come.  I found you Alice, and you Mabel. Now the only person left to find is Katherine.¨

When I was hiding behind the barn waiting for Hellen to come find me, some big man dressed in all black came up behind me and grabbed my shirt.

¨Katherine Foster, your coming with me.¨

Five minutes later, I was locked up in a jail cell, realizing I just lost everything I had, and wondering if I was ever going to see my family again.  I was so terrified about what was going to happen to me. Was I going to be accused? Was I going to be hanged? In my cell there was one other person; she looked as old as the Egyptian pyramids. I walked over to her.

¨Excuse me, hello, my name is Katherine Foster. Do you know what's going to happen to us?¨

¨Hello, Sweetie, my name is Edith Winters.  We’re in here because the local magistrates believes that we are witches.¨

¨But I'm not a witch, I promise.¨

¨I know you aren't, I'm not one either, they just think we are because of the way we act and dress and how we do not go to church.¨

¨I don't like the basic clothes we’re supposed to wear, and church is so boring; who wants to sit in a big room for hours with nothing fun to do?¨

Later that night, Edith and I talked for hours together, just about our lives.

¨Edith Winters, you’re next,¨ said a tall big man dressed in all black.

¨Okay, it's my turn to go to trial; goodbye, Katherine.¨

¨Good luck, Edith.¨

¨Thank you.¨

          Now I was all alone with nothing to do, no food, and no one to talk to.  All there was in the cell was a small toilet and an old uncomfortable bed that felt like I was laying on bricks.  I sat down on the bed and wondered what was going to happen to Edith? Is she going to be hanged? SmeI ever going to see her again? Am I ever going to see my family again? Thinking about all this flooded my body with tons of different emotions. I was sad, confused, mad, and scared.  I just sat down on the bed and started crying. I tried to hold it in, but I couldn't keep the water in my eyes. I cried for hours, wondering these things.

¨Edith Winters, you are accused of witchcraft,¨ said a deep voice from the courtroom.  Hearing those words made me so furious. I was never going to get to see Edith again. I was getting more nervous because it had been two days since I was in jail, and I was wondering when I was going to go to court.

¨Katherine Foster, you’re next.¨

As I walked past the wooden benches, I saw my parents and brother sitting in the back of the room. My mother was crying, and my father looked furious. It was so hard for me to think that this could be the last time I would see them. 

The trial had been going on for about an hour now, and it was time for the judge to decide if I was a witch or not.

¨Katherine Foster, you are accused witchcraft; do you have anything to say?¨

¨I promise I’m not a witch; I do not practice witchcraft.¨

¨Then why do you skip church? Why do you dress differently from the other children? Admit it; you're a witch.¨

¨Church is so boring, and their clothes are so basic. I'm not a witch.¨

¨Stop with all your lies.¨

¨You will be hanged on June 27th, no visitors allowed. Put her back in the cell.¨

¨Come with me,¨ said a big tall man dressed in all black with a long gray beard.

As I was walking down the cold and dirty hallway back to the jail cell, the air was thick and heavy, and my head was throbbing.  I saw lots of kids and adults crying, hoping that they could see their family again, but they all knew they never would. I was tossed in my jail cell, but now there was another kid here. She was scrawny and pale; it looked like she hadn't eaten in days.

¨Hello, I’m Katherine Foster. Who are you?¨

¨Janet Goldburg.¨  She looked so familiar I felt like I'd seen her before.

¨Do you go to The Boston Latin School?¨

¨Yes I do.¨

¨That's where I recognize you from.¨

¨I'm so scared, I just want to be with my family,¨ Janet said.

¨Yeah me too.¨

 

It had been two days since I was accused. Sometime that day I was going to be hanged. I was getting really scared. I started to feel sick; BLAHHHHHHHH. I threw up all over the floor of the cell. I didn't know what to do. The guards were going to yell at me and hit me.

¨Katherine Foster, come out here with the other children.¨

I walked out of the cell with the same man dressed in black that I had seen all week. We walked up to the top of Gallows Hill.  All I saw was a thick tan rope hanging from a branch on the tree.  I watched one by one as children and adults were being hanged.  Each body hung lifeless in front of me, weak and pale.  I didn't even feel scared anymore.  I had accepted my fate that I was going to be laying there with them by the end of the day.  All that I could wonder was what was going to happen to my family?  Were they going to be okay?  I suddenly felt overcome with sorrow, thinking of how I was never going to get to have a family of my own. 

There was one more person in front of me.  I watched as her head was put in the rope.  After about a minute, her body was pale and lifeless like a wall.  She was taken out from the rope, and I knew it was my turn.

¨Katherine Foster, you’re up now.¨

I was slowly walking up to the tree on the top of the hill.  I put my head in the loop of the rope.  I could feel the rope getting tighter and tighter around my neck.  Everything started to get blurry. I could feel my life slipping away. Now I felt nothing; my life was gone.

 

 

 

Katherine Foster

1681-1692

Hanged on June 27th, 1692

 

 

-Mikayla M.