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He frowned "It’s siood reason to keep on as we had been You and your a Springs? And that fellow Burton kept co bored me"

"So how did you do it?"

He sat back on the sofa "The entire business was easily ed Dr Wilson -- you remember him, the felloho treated your sunburn -- is one of us, and he signed the death certificate And old man Sullivan (another one of us) cremated an empty coffin and interred the ashes Dennis" -- he spoke the naed for the sale of the house, and the relocation of the laboratory here All of your things, by the way, are in storage"

I took a deep breath "It was a cruel trick to play We saw photographs of your grave"

He seeht that you would see theht amuse you, that it certainly would tell you that uess In the end" I yawned "Along with the Picardo and the roses"

He looked baffled

I told hirave "You didn’t leave then?"

"No," he said "I wonder who did"

I had one more question "May I tell Michael about Malcolood idea, Ari Not now, at any rate The McGarritts deserve to knoho killed her, of course, but think of the repercussions for us We’d have that ain Arthur Pym would have to disappear or die, and I’ve already died once this year"

I persisted "When can we let them know?"

"When we’ve resettled," he said "I doubt we’ll stay here" He frowned "Xanadu The place isn’t to , at all Once we’ve found a new hoent Burton sit on Malcol secrets isn’t hard for ht, tell him what I’d learned

Instead I went to bed, but I didn’t feel sleepy Outside, the windcreak and sigh as it passed My mind raced in spirals I wondered whenwith her or with my father? Was it possible that I’d ever live with both of theht that life be like?

When it came, sleep was uneasy I dreamed of shadows tall as Xanadu, of eclipsed suns, of incense, ice, and s: the lithophane larandfather clock in the library, the shadowbox on the wall But in my dreas beat against the glass

I awoke in a room full of smoke The room had no s, and when I opened the door, sely sweet s wasn’t working, and the lights were out

I called forfroain, and then I began to cough

In the bathrooulped down some water The faucet sent out a stream at first, but tapered quickly, then stopped

The bathroom had no s, either The whole central part of the condon in water-front condominiums, I’ve co point; aside from that, the units resemble kennels

I took a deep breath and ran to my father’s room Its door was open, and the rooh the sroom, unlocked the balcony door I yanked its handle, but it didn’t budge I pressed the button to open the hurricane shutters Nothing happened

Think, think slowly, I told s burned, and I began to pant On my hands and knees, I left the room and entered the study, and I tried to open the shutters there Nothing

We’ve lost electricity, I reasoned It’s common in a stor unusual

I crawled to the end of the roo its little song Nothing unusual Nothing unusual Nothing

"We’re only born once"

Mãe says those were my first words in the hospital And she says she replied, "Didn’t he teach you about reincarnation?"

But I doubt that’s what she really said It wasn’t a jokinghyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) The treat the first two I regained consciousness during the third treat up in what seemed to be a transparent cylindrical coffin

My body was surrounded by 100 percent oxygen gas, dissolving in her than norh to sustain life with no blood at all I was told all of this during the third treatment by a nurse, who spoke slowly and clearly into a microphone connected to the HBOT chamber

When I recovered the ability to think and speak, I thought, I’d ask a hundred questions about the treatment I wondered if ht not need blood if we had our own glass coffins at home? Then I wondered, where was home?

"Her eyes are open," I heard the nurse say "She’s trying to say so"

And then my mother’s face appeared on the other side of the chamber