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It felt like a polite, e between them No matter what they’d both said, how they’d backed off, the kiss couldn’t be taken back

He disappeared into the dark and hts came on

Then he was gone And when Abby turned around, she caught her breath and pressed her hand to her pounding heart

It was her Edith Foster

Sa hair that touched her shoulders Sa look in her eyes She was here Real but not real Like Abby was seeing her through soh every detail was clear

Her heart thudded in her throat as she asked clearly, “Edith? What do you want, Edith?”

There was no answer, but Edith turned and walked toward the stairs

Abby’s heart pounded so loudly she could hear it in her ears When Edith paused at the bottom of the steps and looked back, Abby knew that she expected her to follow And while Abby was co instructions froh she wasn’t afraid She didn’t feel threatened in any way And so, with the fleeting thought that sheher mind, Abby put one foot in front of the other and followed her great-grandmother up the stairs

On the second floor, Edith paused and looked out the back ard the outbuilding that had once been the carriage house and, later, a garage Edith only paused a lass before she turned back to Abby, her face profoundly sad She then led the way into the bedroom with the smaller room linked to it Abby was sure now that this rooer room been Edith’s? A nurse’s?

Edith paused near one corner of the room and stared at her feet Then she looked up, directly into Abby’s eyes

And then, just when Abby had been about to repeat her question, the figure melted away

The room turned cold Abby’s heartbeat was still accelerated and she stared for several seconds at the spot where Edith had been There was no do

ubt in her host of her great-grand Edith wanted her to do She wouldn’t have led her up here otherwise But what?

Abby went to thein the larger bedroohts on she could only see her own reflection in the glass She wasn’t calhts and look into the darkness; considering the strange twist in the evening, who knehat she’d see if she looked out? Shivering, she retraced her steps back to the nursery, taking slow steps until she was in the corner where Edith had stood Why had she stopped here, in this precise spot? What was she trying to say?

The floor creaked beneath her foot, audible in the complete silence, and Abby looked down at her toes