An Uncertain Future

"I have to find out," Samantha said. She opened the front door to the reverend's house and began searching for any clues in the sitting room. She flipped over the chairs, stomped on the floorboards, and felt along the walls for anything he might have hidden. She found nothing in the sitting room and then moved on to the kitchen, flinging pots, pans, cups, and plates from their cupboards.

In the bedroom, she needed Prudence's help to lift up the mattress. They found nothing there or in any of the cabinets or dressers. This left only one room: the reverend's study.

On a simple wooden desk, Samantha studied the reverend's papers. Most were future sermons dealing with The Way and avoiding temptation. She opened a leather-bound ledger sitting next to Reverend Crane's Bible and gasped.

"What is it?" Prudence asked.

"It's a census," Samantha said. "It has the name of every child in town on here." Samantha ran her finger along the list, stopping at the name of Prudence Elizabeth Gooddell. Beside her name was listed the entry: 'Born 3 February, 1625, Wessenshire, England.' When Samantha read this to her, Prudence put a hand to her lips and took a step back.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"It means you were thirty years old when Reverend Crane first poisoned you." Samantha turned through the pages, finding a census taken in 1700 that listed Prudence's age as three. Through the censuses, Samantha determined a pattern. "Whenever anyone might start to remember anything or question anything, he poisoned you and wiped your memories so you had to start all over again."