Scream Quietly
by Sheila Crosby
In 1849 England, Sophie’s abusive husband abuses her and beats their one-year-old son,
so at the first opportunity, she and her son flee to a friend’s house where they are
visited by apparent faeries.
They said they were not faeries, but men, “even as yourselne,” from the far distant
future, and they were journeying in time! They were most astonished to hear this was the
year of our Lord 1849, for they had believed themselves in 1343 and were in great fear of
being burned as witches.
“Scream Quietly” by Sheila Crosby, in Farthing,
July 2005.