Free Other Worlds by KATHY

farm across the river from his father's and lived alone with only his slaves for company. His nature was not so resilient as his sister's. His father's dreadful death had left memories from which he never recovered, and he lived in constant fear of the Spirit's return.
    John Junior was also living alone on his own property. In 1828 he brought home a bride, one of the daughters of the Methodist minister Thomas Gunn. However, he was still unmarried in February of that year when the Spirit, true to its promise, paid its second visit.
    The family had never doubted that it would return. At that time only three of the Bells remained in the old home—Mrs. Lucy Bell and her youngest sons, Richard and Joel.
    It came as it had come the first time, signalling its presence by scratching on the outside walls of the house, then moving inside, scraping and rapping and tugging at the bedclothes. Richard, sleeping alone in his former room, was the first to sense the Spirit's presence. Courageously he kept silent, hoping the unwelcome visitor would give up and leave. A few nights later, however, he heard sounds from the next room, where his mother and his brother Joel were sleeping, and knew his hopes were vain.
    Lucy and the boys talked the matter over and decided the best course was to ignore the manifestations. Perhaps they had put two and two together—on its first visit the Spirit had not spoken until it was spoken to. The strategy was effective. Two weeks of comparatively minor disturbances followed. Then they stopped altogether. The Spirit had not spoken a single word. But it had not departed. Little did the rejoicing survivors know that it had merely found a more receptive host.
    John Bell Junior had been one of the Spirit's most outspoken antagonists. He had berated and cursed it, he had offered to take on himself the sufferings of his sister and his father. It had suffered his threats with remarkable humility, so perhaps it is not surprising that on its second visit it should prefer his company to that of his mother and younger brothers. What does surprise us is how the entity had changed in seven years.
    One March evening, as John sat reading in his study, came a voice long unheard but instantly recognized.
    "John," it began meekly, "I hope you will not be as angry with me on this visit as you were on my last. I shall do nothing to cause you offense; I have been in the West Indies for seven years, and—"
    "Wherever you have been, or whatever you are, your proper place is in Hell," John said angrily.
    "There are thousands of human beings now living on this earth who are worse than I," the Spirit protested. "If their spirits could return to earth they would raise a thousand times more Hell than I have done."
    John replied with a scorching denunciation. "I would give my life freely," he cried dramatically, "if I could grasp your form in my arms and crush you slowly, giving you the pain you caused my father scores of times, and then throw you straight into the fires of Hell."
    Unmoved by John's threats, the Spirit returned on successive nights. The two bizarre companions had long conversations. The Spirit told John that there would be a great war between the states, to free the slaves. Though it was not fond of the Negro race, it felt it would be better to free them. It also predicted a war between nations, into which the United States would be drawn. There was danger of a second dreadful world conflict, which, "if it comes," would be worse than the first. Besides predicting these and other disasters—floods, earthquakes, drought—the Spirit entertained John with long, tedious descriptions of Heaven and Hell, the pre-Adamic history of mankind, and the nature of Jesus Christ. I regret to say that although its command of English had improved considerably, with no trace of the bad grammar and vulgarities that had marred its earlier conversation, it had acquired a literary style both pompous and imprecise. I will therefore spare you