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"Lie down," she told me. "I'll bring you some soothing salve."

I didn't trust her. When she returned this time, she had a jar of one of her herbal salves, but I cringed when she began to wipe it on my body, expecting some more pain. It didn't hurt. It brought relief.

"Hopefully we have driven what remains of the evil out of your earthly body. Sleep now. Noble." she said. "And say your prayers. We have to pray you've been completely cleansed, that all that corrupted you has been exorcized."

She left, closing my door. I heard the familiar sound of the key in the lock.

I was going to be put on a fast again. I thought. and like someone condemned. I closed my eyes and listened for the tolling bells of doom.

She surprised me, however, by bringing me cups of tea, toast, and jam. She brought me no breakfast in the morning, but she did bring me some hot cereal for dinner and some fruit. She rubbed the salve over my body again and told me to rest. Later that evening, she burned her incense around me and held vigil. Every time I tried to speak or get up, she shook her head and said. "Not yet. Its not time yet."

I was permitted only to go to the bathroom. After two days, she opened my door and told me I should dress and go wait for her at the cemetery. Grateful I could finally emerge from my room. I hurriedly did what she asked. She didn't come to the cemetery for quite a while, and when she approached, I saw she was wearing her mourning clothes and was completely in black from her shoes to the veil she wore.

There, before the old tombstones, she held my hand and sang her hymns. Then she stopped and offered a prayer, begging the spirits not to take me from her. She had me plead with them as well, repeating the words she dictated. When it was over, we returned to the house. Mommy changed into her everyday clothes and then behaved as if nothing unusual had happened. She went about her house chores and gave me my schoolwork and the list of things she wanted me to accomplish around the house and the property. Not another word was said about Elliot Fletcher or the policemen who had visited us.

Every once in a while during the days that followed. I would catch her looking at me, or more accurately, around me, and nodding. She saw someone, some spirit. I was sure. and I held my breath and waited for some sort of verdict or conclusion, but she said nothing. I was happy she at least looked content.

Finally, one evening a week later, after we had eaten our dinner, she folded her hands on the table and leaned forward to speak to me. I could tell from the expression on her face and the tone of her voice that she was going to assume her teacher mode.

"There will be other times, other challenges like the one we just had." she began. "It is very important that you tell me immediately when anything like that occurs. Never, never again will you keep anything secret from me. Noble. We are all we have and all we will ever have,"

She smiled.

"Once you were inside me, a part of me physically. Then you were born and you were outside me, but what tied us together was never untied. Do you understand? Do you understand now how very important it is to be trusting and truthful with me and how that keeps us bound together? Do you?"

"Yes," I said.

"Good. Because I have a wonderful surprise for you tonight." she said. "First. I'll clean up our dinner dishes and put things away. You go wait patiently in the living room," she said and I rose and left the dining room.

I sat in Mommy's great-grandfather Jordan's rocking chair. I really didn't think about it. I just did it, but when she came to me, I could see in her smile that she thought it was something significant.

"It doesn't surprise me to find you sitting there," she said. "We are often drawn to our ancestors through set pieces in our home. Remember that. Remember how important it is to cherish everything that binds us to them."

She held a candleholder and an unlit candle in her hand.

"I know that it was always upsetting to you that Celeste was able to cross over so quickly at so young an age while you were still waiting at the wall with no sign of any doorway. As we learned, that was because they had other plans for her, plans we didn't

understand then. Now," she said. "they finally have plans for you."

I barely moved a muscle listening. What did that mean? What sort of plans for me? What was she going to do?

"Come with me," she said. smiling. "Come on." She lit the candle, turned, and walked to the doorway, waiting.

I tried very hard not to be afraid, but the memory of my scalding bath was still quite vivid. My skin cringed. She saw it in my face and laughed,

"There is nothing bad awaiting you. dear Noble, only good things now. Don't look so frightened. Come along."

I realized all the lights in the house were turned off. In the darkness, with only the glow of the candle showing us the way. I followed her to the stairway. The shadows slid over the walls along with us. We walked up slowly, her cupping the small flame to be sure it staved lit and bright, and then we continued to the turret room. She unlocked the door and entered first, turning to beckon me to follow.

When I walked in. I saw a mattress had been placed on the floor. Around it were all the pictures we had of the relatives, and in front of them were other candles, yet unlit. Next to the mattress was a black pitcher and a goblet, an heirloom we never used. Previously, it had been on a shelf in the armoire in the dining room.

"Do you know where you're going tonight?" she asked me. I shook my head.

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sp; "Tonight, you will go through that door we spoke of, and as brief as it might seem to you, you will walk with them and you will finally hear them speak. It's a gift they have decided to bestow on you."

She looked about the dark room, holding the candle high to throw its glow over the walls, the windows, and the floor. She moved slowly in a circle so that the light washed across every part of the room, as if she was sterilizing it with the yellow glow. Then she stopped and turned back to me.