Chapter Eleven - A most unusual wind

The days grew colder and shorter. Felicity stood at her window looking out at the dull slate-grey sky. The bright leaves of fall now lay like a carpet on the forest floor or blew wildly about in the courtyard below her. The snow line on the mountains to the west moved ever downward. Winter would be here soon.

Felicity pulled on the cape her aunt had given her and tied the scarf from Miss Brattle around her neck. Her aunt had been right about Salem Academy's building getting cold in the winter. Despite Sarah's best efforts to keep the coal fire burning in the small iron stove, the room was uncomfortably cold.

Sarah's mother had sent her several sweaters, which she wore in layers. They made Sarah look sort of plump and round.

Felicity was thankful for the cape. She had discovered a note in the pocket from her Aunt Joan, which gave instructions in the useful things the cape could do. Most notable was the spell "caleo," which would cause the cape to heat up like an electric blanket.

Sarah grabbed her scarf, as well. "Looks like snow," she said, looking out the window.

At breakfast the two of them met up with Roger.

"Is Franklin as cold as Dickinson is?" he complained.

"Most likely," Felicity said, looking down at the bowl of oatmeal in front of her. The food at Salem wasn't bad, just always the same.

"Say!" said Roger. "Do you want some maple syrup on that?"

"They have maple syrup?" Sarah looked around at the other tables.

"Here," Roger said, taking out his wand. He moved it over Felicity's bowl and said "Suavis acernus"; from the wand's end poured a thin stream of amber liquid. "Want some, Sarah?"

"Sure!" Sarah said, placing her bowl under the stream of syrup.

"Neat trick, Roger, where did you pick that up?" Felicity asked.

"I found it in a book in the library."

The library; Roger's remark reminded Felicity that she had told neither Sarah nor Roger about the clue she had thought of that day in the library.

"Speaking of the library," Felicity pulled the note from her books. "I think I figured out part of this note." Felicity flattened it onto the table.

"See where it says ÔGo to the rest of those who have gone before'? I think it's talking about the graveyard over at the church."

"Why don't we go and ask Miss Brattle if that's what it means?" offered Sarah.

"We can't do that," Roger said. "Don't you remember last week when Dr. Mather said that no one was to disturb her without seeing him first?"

Roger was right; Dr. Mather had left strict instructions that no one, including the faculty, was to visit Miss Brattle without his permission. He had made it clear that there were going to be very few such requests granted. Felicity had thought this quite odd.

"Let's go down to the cemetery and take a look around after supper," suggested Roger.

They decided to do just that, though they did not really know what, if anything, they were going to be looking for.

"We had better be going," Sarah said. "We'll be late for class."

The three gatherered up their belongings and wrapped themselves up. It wasn't just the dormitories which were cold. Most of the school itself was poorly heated. "Builds character," Dr. Mather said. Roger noted that Dr. Mather had a fireplace in his office.

As they walked by Dr. Mather's office, something about the three caught his attention. Those scarves, he thought. It had been many years but he still recognized the colors. "Wherever did those students come upon scarves like those?" he wondered.

Felicity was bored.

She sat in her sacred geometry class trying to pay attention to Mr. Higginson as best she could. Her mind, however, wandered away toward the strange note from Mss Brattle and the fact that she could no longer visit the old woman in the tower. The whole matter was taking on the qualities of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

Mr. Higginson was trying to explain the movements of the earth in relation to the sun and the importance of particular days in that cycle. Over the heads of the students he had conjured a model of the sun, earth and the moon, which were now revolving about one another.

Mary Jacobs had just finished explaining the summer solstice in more detail than was really needed when Mr. Higginson turned his attention to the equinoxes and to Felicity.

"Miss Stockwell." His voice shook her from her day-dreaming and back to the class at hand. "Could you do us all the favor of explaining the fall and spring equinoxes, if you please."

Mr. Higginson was holding out a long wooden pointer to Felicity.

Felicity got up and pointed at the earth. It swung into position in front of her.

"The equinoxes mark the start of fall and spring. On those days, day and night are the same."

Sarah's head shot up from her notebook where she was writing. Her eyes were wide. "The same what?" she asked.

"The same length," Mr. Higginson said. "Because the sun is over the equator, we have 12 hours of daylight and 12 of night." He went on.

Felicity had caught Sarah's eyes and, by now, the two were looking closely at each other.

"Is there anything else, Felicity?" Mr. Higginson asked.

"No, no, that's all," Felicity stammered. She wondered if Sarah had the same idea she did. She went back to her seat and looked down at her notebook. Sarah's note appeared on the page before her.

Felicity! The note, the first line, that's the day!

Supper seemed to drag on forever that evening and it was nearly dark as Sarah, Felicity and Roger walked down the hill in front of the school. The dead leaves crunched under their feet and Sarah excitedly explained her theory on the meaning of the first line of Miss Brattle's note.

"It says, ÔUpon the morning of the day when night is the same.' It can only mean the first day of spring," she said.

"Or the first day of fall," Roger said.

"But that can't be," Sarah continued, "because Miss Brattle gave us the note in October and the fall equinox had already happened."

They came to the old church. It had a steeple that rose up from the trees. In the top, there was a set of windows on each of the four sides. The church faced east as most New England churches do. To the west of the church lay the old cemetery, surrounded by an iron fence.

The three went around to the gate, which moved only with difficulty. It was a still night and cold. Small flakes began to appear in the air, fluttering down from the grey sky.

"Snow," Felicity said.

The cemetery dated to the town's founding and the old slate stones, with their carved images of weeping willows and clasped hands, were, as Sarah put it, "kinda creepy."

The stones bore the names of the old Salem families: Bishop, Farms, Martin, How. At the back stood a stone building about eight by twelve feet. As they looked at it, a wind came up.

The wind seemed to blow in from the east; it picked up the end of the scarves the three wore and whipped them wildly.

"A most unusual wind," Roger said, looking at the two girls. "It moves our clothing but not the leaves on the ground or the branches."

Felicity looked up at the trees overhead; they were still. Even the snow that fell did not move from its course. Only her scarf flew out from her toward the odd little building. All three looked at it closely. Carved above the granite door was the name "Burrough." The door was made of a great granite slab; on its face was carved a sun surrounded by a compass and a sextant. Under the sun were the numbers 3-1-9.

"Felicity!" Sarah sounded excited. "Look at your scarf!"

Felicity and Roger looked at the scarves still fluttering in the wind. Each scarf was now glowing in the pale light. Roger's silver and blue scarf gave off a soft silver glow; Sarah's yellow and black, a light yellow; and Felicity's glowed brightly with gold and scarlet.

"There is something about that building," Roger said. "I think we need to know who the Burroughs were."

"I think you're right," Felicity said; and, with that, the wind ended just as quickly as it had begun.