The Crucible Epilogue.

It was the end of 1692 when Parris was kicked out of office and went out on the highroad. He had absolutely no where to go with inevitable trails far ahead and far behind him. He has been alone for almost two days now, knowing what hides in the shadows of the trees, framing the long and narrow trail he was on. Tired and thirsty with no sense of direction, he walks like a wounded animal; unsure of where to go. The horizon is closing in on Parris now as the sky turns deathly reddish. Shadows are starting to lurk behind Parris and there is an eerie silence developing. The night creeps faster upon Parris, but just before his vision becomes blackened by the night, he spots something off into the distance. He runs towards figure slowly blending in with darkness among it. Stumbling upon rocks and fallen braches, he still makes his way along the path. Losing his breath, Parris nears the end of his destination and comes to a small, quiet town. Blackness now completely covers the town and sky like a blanket.

Getting nervous, he spots a dim light in a window of a small house. He slowly walks up to the house and hesitates to proceed. After a moment of thinking, he decides to walk. He steps on the rickety old steps to the house and pauses with every creek there is. He knocks on the door and no one answers. Growing impatient, he knocks on the door harder, yelling louder with every knock. Feet are heard shuffling in the house and coming to the door. An old man opens the door and looks at Parris and smiles a small smile. As he goes to greet Parris, Parris pushes past the old man and goes into the house. The old man stands and stares at Parris questionably.  Pacing around the house with regret in his eyes, Parris mumbles to himself. The old man sits in his small little chair by the corner of the room and watches Parris now with concern. Parris stops in his tracks, turns to the old man with wide eyes, and directly asks the old man if he had any money. The old man stares blankly at Parris and says that he has very little money. Parris was upset with how little the man had and still asked if he can have half of his amount. The old man smiles shyly and kindly, asking Parris why he needed it. Parris put his hands up on his head in frustration. All Parris can think about is how he could possibly have been kicked out of town and out of office and ending up putting himself in this kind of situation. Parris looks at the old man and says with a bit if a temper that he needs the money to buy a house and make a living here. The old man sadly admits that he hardly has enough to provide for himself. Processing this information, Parris looks around the room they are in. He spots nothing but a small table with an uncomfortable looking chair, a tattered old curtain that hangs lifelessly in front of the pitch black window, a small wooden cabinet, and a small wooden chair the old man was currently sitting in. Unfazed by this true statement, Parris again asks the old man for a good amount of his money. 

Parris, only thinking of himself, grows even more furious with the unresponsive old man. Remembering that he has no where else to go, Parris asks at the old man if he can sleep here. The old man kindly nods and gets up from his small wooden chair slowly, as if he could break with one false move. The old man heads to the small cabinet mounted on the wall on the opposite side of the room and takes out an old faded blue blanket. He turns to Parris and holds his hand out with the blanket in it. Parris looks at the blanket with discuss and asks if he had any other blankets. The old man frowns slightly and shakes his head. Sighing as if nothing could ever get worse, Parris takes the blanket and then goes to sit in the old man’s chair. Parris closes his eyes and sleeps. The old man shuffles over to the candle sitting on the window sill and blows it out. The room is now being surrounded by the pure blackness of the night.

The sun shining through the window is illuminating the room with a faded glow. What was once a cold and dark Saturday night, now turns into a warm Sunday afternoon. Startled by a loud bang on the door, Parris wakes up startled and looks around. He yells for the old man to tell him that he has visitors. There was no answer, just silence. After a moment, Parris decides to get up and open the door. There was a middle aged, rugged looking priest standing there with a thin book in his hand and a pen in the other hand. Staring at Parris with question, he asks if Mr. Richards was there. Parris is overwhelmed with confusion then asks who Mr. Richards was. The priest repeats himself and asks if Mr. Richards was there. Parris asked if that was the poor old man who lives here. The priest nods his head and tries to look passed Parris into the room. Seeing a figure seated in a chair and slumped over the table, the man barges passed Parris into the house. The priest runs over to the old man, sees his pale and icy skin, and then checks the old man’s pulse. Seeing the facial expression on the priest and realizing that the old man had died, Parris tries to escape out the door. However, Parris turns into three people blocking the doorway. Parris stands there in front of the door uneasy. The priest turns to Parris and asks if he killed the old man. Panicking and starting to sweat, Parris says that it must have been someone else. The priest questions Parris asking who else was here. Searching for an answer, Parris quickly blurts out that the old man must have been playing a trick. The priest looks into Parris’s eyes for a moment and says that this old man is kind and would not skip church on a Sunday for a prank. The priest, now yelling, points his finger at Parris and accuses him of being a witch for murdering the old man.  Parris belts out that he is a good man and he would never hurt or lie to anyone. Not believing this, the priest looks at the three men by the door and says in a demanding voice to take Parris away. Interrupting the priest, Parris falls to the floor on his knees and looks up at the ceiling. He holds his hands high and says that the devil made him kill the old man. In shock, the priest asks who else was with him in this scheme. Not wondering what to say, Parris looks out the window and sees some random people walking along the path within the town. Parris screams and points to those people and says that they were with the devil too. Seeing the four men rushing out of the house, Parris feels relieved and then goes to run out the door but then stops. He is remembering that he needs money for his journey. He searches the small room and then finds some money hiding underneath a plate in the cabinet. Putting the money in his pocket, he runs out of the door trying to avoid the four men. As he is running, he looks back and sees the priest and the three other men arresting an old woman, a young teenage boy and another man. Unfazed by this, Parris is happy that he had not been arrested and runs along the path leading out of the small little town. Once again alone, he is running through unknown land with unknown troubles. The sun sets again in the West making the shadows around Parris creep upon him. The sky turns deathly reddish with inevitable trails far ahead and far behind him.