Sera Ch. 24

"From here, please be advised that much of this story was told to Rebecca by one Armand Roche, a great grandchild of Michelle Pelletier, one of the few found of the original inhabitants of that farming community. Armand was an artist, by the way, and the four seasonal paintings down in the main level hall are his work. Roche's grandfather related most of the following events to him as it was related to him by his mother, Michelle. Only some of this has been corroborated by other sources, but the Roche testimony is the strongest overall, so both Rebecca and I give it cautious credit."

Having dropped this disclaimer, she continued, "Regarding the name 'Marie', you're probably thinking this is another strange coincidence, but it was actually a common name among French women who were born around that time. I don't have an exact date, place of birth, or any information on where she came from, or who her parents were. Other than a cursory check, I never really looked because, as Rebecca didn't, I don't believe it's relevant to our interests. As it was difficult enough to obtain records and accounts from as far back as we have, I felt efforts were best aimed in different directions. I'm not saying that it's impossible to further research Marie Roy, only that I've seen little point in gaining any information that wasn't relatively easy to come by with regards to our purposes.

"Okay, so Marie was a young bride, married to a farmer there in pre Markham. By all accounts, she was quite attractive with blonde hair, bright blue eyes and comely build, but she also had a rather serious problem. According to Michelle Pelletier, Marie would sometimes talk to herself, or imaginary people, make wild claims of incredible things that nobody believed for an instant, and was prone to 'hysteria'.

"I hold no degrees in psychiatry," Ashleigh admitted as she sat back in her chair, "but I'd guess the poor girl was schizophrenic. Since schizophrenia is a degenerative disease, it's possible that her husband wasn't even aware of any problem when he married her, but her condition would worsen as schizophrenia always does when left untreated. At the time, Benjamin Rush was twelve years old, still some years away from kicking modern psychology from the womb, and the idea that mental disorders weren't witchcraft or the cause of demonic possession was only just becoming widely accepted.

"Well, as the story goes, when the French abandoned the fort in seventeen-fifty-nine in the face of the invading British, some of the farmers and other settlers there went with them. One of these people was Marie's husband, abandoning her there with the fort and the few others who chose to stay for whatever reason. How she made out isn't known, but I'd assume that she had some shelter left behind by him, perhaps her choice of rudimentary homes among those abandoned there, and it's possible that some may have been open minded enough to look after her in some way. In part, I say that because while it was rumoured then that her sudden, illegitimate pregnancy was the result of a passing British soldier, it's equally possible that it was someone who was looking after her.

"Remember, she was young and attractive and her disorder would have made her easy prey. Her physical attributes would have offered enough incentive for any well meaning, maybe otherwise married man to reward himself for helping her. Who can say? In any case, this was enough to socially finish her off in pre Markham, but it wasn't only her pregnancy in itself that accomplished that.

"Reportedly, she would often go to the same fields her husband used to work before he left, looking for him. She would sometimes return telling of what a grand time she and her husband had that day and how they both looked forward to the arrival of their child. By the time she was six months pregnant and claiming the devil had ravaged her in the fields, nobody was listening and she was probably lucky she was even still being tolerated.

"People did start listening, however, when she began talking about hurting her own unborn. They started restricting her movements in order to keep her in sight and, sure enough, they eventually found it necessary to restrain her. I have no idea how far along she was when this became necessary, nor how they did it, but that's how the child was born. She named her 'Seraphine'."

"Interestingly, the name 'Seraphine' means 'serpent'. I'm assuming Marie knew this in some measure, given her claims of having been ravaged by the devil, and named her child accordingly. Soon after giving birth, Marie tried to kill her baby. Again, no details on this incident, but if the settlers cared enough about her child to keep her from killing it before it was even born, they must have protected Seraphine from her after she was born as well. In turn, we'd have to assume that Marie was able to somehow get around their precautions on this occasion but this, apparently, was the last straw for the settlers and their patience with poor Marie Roy came to an end.

"One can't blame them, really," Ashleigh mused. "It was a tough life and there was little time or resources for someone who couldn't pull their own weight. They weren't equipped in any way to deal with Marie and she would always be a clear and present danger to Seraphine, so getting rid of her was the only option. Some traders agreed to take her back East with them. Whether she ended up in an institution, or ever even made it back East, I have no idea. Again, she'd have been easy and desirable prey."

Another pause on Ashleigh's part allowed us to ingest all she'd just told us. My mind buzzed about this new information, grabbing and placing the new components of a larger picture here and there with the ones I'd already had. Having to force my premature questions to the backburner, I waited for my aunt to continue.

"Seraphine was taken in by a young couple who had no children. Larouche was their last name, though they raised Seraphine with her mother's family name. This is possibly the same house that had harboured Marie, possibly the same man who'd impregnated her. Things work out funny that way sometimes, but that's pure speculation at this late date.

"Up till now, Michelle's story comes from what her mother told her because Michelle herself was born in the same year as Seraphine, that being seventeen-sixty-one. So, here we move ahead some years to the point where Michelle has solid memories of growing up with Seraphine.

Ashleigh paused here, looking at us as though appraising how we were taking the story so far before jumping back in again.

"She was every bit as beautiful as her mother, as she had her face, but with black hair. They said she was the spitting image, but it was her eyes that drew people's attention. Unlike her mother's bright blue, Seraphine's were bright hazel and described as 'stupefier' and 'aveugler'. Both these words quite directly translate as 'bedazzling'. As a child, she had a sort of...thing that people noticed. The Larouches spoiled her to the extent that they could, and she tended to get her way with everyone as she grew into a teen.

"Once she hit that time when adolescents naturally start to rebel, to test their borders and limitations, things began to change. In those days, it was normal and necessary for children to work the farm with their parents, but Seraphine no longer bothered with this. People observed a home where she seemed to be calling the shots and the happy couple who took her in now acted like they were sleepy all the time, as the account says. In the meantime, Seraphine would often go off alone for the entire day, sometimes to the very fields her mother used to often return to in her schizophrenic delirium.

"I'd think that would have tripped people out," Ashleigh sighed with a raised brow. "I mean, having her mother's face would have been remarked on, but ultimately overlooked as it was with Kathleen and Mum. To see her spending time in those very fields, though... Of course, we must assume that someone told her of her mother and that particular behavior of hers. Someone mentioned something to their children, or conversation regarding it was overheard by one of her friends, possibly Michelle herself, who then told Seraphine but, even so, this wouldn't go over quite well.

"This was when Michelle's mother informed her of Seraphine's parentage, Marie's claim of being ravaged by the devil and also when she told her to have nothing more to do with the girl. From the account, one gets the impression that Michelle wasn't one of Seraphine's close friends anyway, as the information comes across from the point of an observer rather than a participant. It's possible that Seraphine had no close friends at all, but I say that from gut instinct and it's not based on any information I have. Whatever her social standing in regards to her peers up to that point, the story says that she was... politely shunned.

"So, no longer comfortable around others, she withdrew completely, never leaving the Larouche farm and often not even the farmhouse itself. At first, the curious, or concerned neighbors if you will, started finding reasons to visit the Larouche farm, sometimes getting a brief sighting of an unkempt girl before she withdrew to the farmhouse. Her parents wouldn't allow any visitors and soon discouraged people from dropping by at all. They accordingly withdrew and wouldn't speak much when they had to go to town for supplies. People noted their tired eyes and clucked at what a nightmare the poor couple must be putting up with in their mad, adoptive daughter.

"I'm sure they were just glad there was someone to take care of it this time around. They didn't have to deal with her, or worry about the girl being around their own sons and daughters and, apart from an understandable, curious kind of concern that people show when they've got nothing to lose, they were happy enough with the arrangement and it became the norm.

"Then some several years later- Michelle puts her age at eighteen, which makes Seraphine the same- the norm changed when a priest from town showed up at the settlement. I don't know if he was told about the Larouche place, or if he went out their way in the same random manner as he may have visited the other farmsteads but, after several days, he didn't return.

"Fearing the priest had gotten lost in the woods, a small group went out to the Larouche place to ask after him. This group, a man with his wife and two other men, must have expected to be run off as they approached. Whether they were prepared to stand for that this time, who can say, but that's not what happened anyway.

"They get to the front door, knock and get an answer. It's Mrs. Larouche wearing an apron. Just an apron, I mean. Heh. So, they ask her about the preacher and she says that he did make it there and was in fact still there. The group wants to speak to him, so Mrs. Larouche invites them in.

"Now, the woman agrees to go in but, likely because of Mrs. Larouche's fashion sense, tells the three men to wait in the dooryard. They wait for quite some time before she comes back out. She tells them that the preacher is just fine and about the lovely time she had visiting with the Larouches, but when asked about Mrs. Larouche's attire, she laughed. Basically, she'd only say that it was alright and not to worry about it. When they asked if she'd seen Seraphine, she said that she had and that the young woman was very friendly and charming."

"But it didn't stop there..." Mum assumed in a low tone.

"No, it didn't," Ashleigh assured, elaborating, "As many days later, that preacher still hadn't returned, but people had seen this woman who'd been inside the Larouche house that day on her way back out there with her husband on a few separate occasions. When asked, they said the Larouche's were very nice people and that they enjoyed the preaching.

"Uh huh," Sheila laughed.

"Yeah," Ashleigh agreed with a knowing smirk. "But then- and I don't know the time interval here, or if something else went on that the Roche account leaves out- people started... waking up with the wrong spouses."

"Huh?" Kitten asked.

Shrugging, Ashleigh explained while looking at her, "Apparently, people just started waking up with someone else's husband or wife in their bed with them. At first, nobody said anything because it was such an embarrassing... thing. I mean, just imagine it. It would seem like a horrible and embarrassing mistake of some sort.

"Now, I'd like to note here that this refusal on the part of the settlers to act brings into focus what I'd said earlier of how society was only then learning not to look at mental illness as a form of witchcraft or demon possession. They had to have been looking towards the Larouche house and thinking something along those more traditional lines and their hesitation to act, as both Rebecca and I see it, is evidence enough of this as it translates to fear.

"So, they keep sneaking around, trying to cover up these embarrassing 'mistakes' until it becomes apparent to everyone that nobody's immune. At this point, maybe nobody wanted to put a stop to things. Maybe Seraphine had been around to most of them and they were influenced to roll with it or whatever, but they soon stopped worrying about waking up with other people's spouses. Michelle remembers one of her young friends waking up in her parent's bed on many occasions, herself waking up in several different houses over some months. By the time it became common for women to go topless that summer, it also seemed alright to have sex with whoever a person woke up with before simply going back home.

"Also, people were speaking very highly of Seraphine, although there are no accounts of anybody interacting with, or even meeting her other than the preacher, the woman who'd asked after him and her husband. Even Rebecca mentioned in her personal writings that it was as though the settler's questions were being answered practically before they could ask them, so everything was alright.

"This is where Roche's story becomes sparse and uninformative up until the end, and I think you'll get a sense as to why this is. Apparently, not everyone in the settlement was affected by 'whatever' it was that was going on, and these people probably slowed the social degradation of the community. Michelle, a woman who Roche's grandfather described as, 'pourri', or 'addled', as that word translates, remembered being confined with her mother to a room in their home one late autumn evening by her father. He went out afterward and later returned, rushing them from the house and into the woods, urging them to run and to keep running as fast as they could.

"Please do keep in mind that rushing off into the woods in the black of night in pre Markham was almost as bad as going for a swim in crocodile infested waters. Yet, they and around ten others hurried over a trail throughout the night with the sounds of angry, pursuing shouts behind them.

"Two days later found them miraculously at the larger settlement of pre Toronto where Michelle's father told she and her mother that there'd been a skirmish the night before and that some people had died. When asked when they could go back home, he said that they could never go back, nor ever tell anyone what happened there in that little farming settlement. From there, the group made their way back east, eventually settling in Quebec.

"That's the end of the Roche account, and I have no further information regarding that time period other than the official record, which states that pre Markham was abandoned soon after and left uninhabited until after the American Revolution. Rebecca was able to track down two other descendants from the small group that escaped that night, but the accounts passed down to them weren't nearly as complete, or as detailed and mostly only served to back up the Roche testimony. Seraphine, the Larouche's and the rest of the community effectively disappeared. However..."