One week later Grady sits in a car with his father driving through the countryside of Ireland. Outside his window rolling hills of green pass by the window and Grady realizes he missed the beauty of his home country. He looks forward and sees the black topped road stretching out seemingly to infinity before him.

His father awoke him this morning and said he had received a call. He had a mission and it was relatively close by. It would only be an hour’s drive and it was supposed to be easy.

During the past week things have been going well between him and his father. He cannot remember being closer to his father. He has learned to tune past much of the noise of the world. He feels he has control over his emotions. His father repeatedly states he is amazed at the depths of Grady’s power and how fast he is learning to control them.

“I don’t know if I want to go with you, dad.”

“You need to at least see what your powers are supposed to be used for. You should at least try to understand what it is we do in this family.”

“I don’t want to do this with my life.”

“Regardless I think this is key to you learning to control your abilities. This is key for you to understand what your powers are for.”

They drive until they reach a house that seems to stand out in the middle of a sea of green. Grady wonders if the entire scene is some kind of hallucination or some residual effect from the sessions he and his father have been having. When you have your mind connected with someone else's it can create some very startling visions, he has discovered.

His father has shown him how he has learned to perceive the world. The world his father sees is one of auras and memories. He has built, over the years, hundreds, if not thousands of filters to remove the unnecessary and the unwanted. Through concentration and meditation Grady had started to erect those filters for himself. They are not as strong as his father's and he still gets flashes from nowhere at times but they are not as painful. He can push them away.

Grady has learned that part of his problem was trying to erect a wall. His powers do not work in that way. Memories can be deflected for a time but they cannot be entirely blocked. His mind, his soul, his aura, is like a beacon for memories. You can close a window but if you still have a light shining into the darkness the moth will continue to pound against the glass. Essentially this is what was happening within his brain.

Now he has the images of his room lined with filters. That means the emotions and the memories can get through but he can control how much. His control over his mental controls is growing. He will eventually learn to open the spigot wide when he needs to and let the memories in and filter out everything else entirely.

Grady steps out of the car and feels the wind on his face. The sky is amazingly blue and clear. His long black coat flaps in the breeze. He has taken to wearing black when he steps out. He isn't even fully aware of the thought process behind this but it feels natural to him. He places sunglasses on his face and turns to face the sun.

The house is relatively small and white. It is amazingly white in the blazing sun. There is a gravel driveway and walkway up to the house. Around is all green. Grady wonders who decided to put this white in the middle of this green. It must look like at pimple on a giant green face.

Standing at the door is a man and a woman who both look to be in their fifties. Grady remembers the faces of the family members when his father would take him along when he was younger. They would always look at his father with a mixture of sadness, hope and fear. Although they always put a meal out for his father, or almost always, they always set it up away from the rest of the family. Sometimes they prepare the meal and leave it in the room with the dying.

These two have the same look on their faces. There is a smile on the lips of the woman but it is marred by the creased brow and the furiously twisting and folding hands at her stomach. The man looks like the typical skeptic and he stands behind her with a comforting arm around her waist and a look of supreme mistrust on his face. Grady has seen this before too and usually with the men. The look says that he knows his wife wants them here but if they make any false moves he would be more than happy to kill them both.

“Hello Maggie. Hello Dennis.”

“Hello. Please come in.”

“Thank you. This is my son, Grady. I hope you don't mind me bringing him along.”

“Oh, no, that's fine. Um, my mother is upstairs.”

“Thank you, Maggie.”

His father reaches out in his hand and squeezes her’s. Her smiling face cracks and tears flow from her eyes. Her husband leans in and whispers something into her ear. He glares at Grady and his father and then guides his wife back into the house. Grady and his father follow.

The house is nearly as bright inside as it is outside. The house is also immaculately cleaned. Again, this is something Grady has seen before. They always clean the house for a visit from his father. It is as if they fear he will pass along information about their house-care skills to God or that having a house that looks lived-in is some kind of sin.

They head upstairs. The stairs creak softly beneath their tread. Halfway up Grady gasps and falls against the wall. His father looks back at him and puts out a hand to steady him.

“Easy. You're ready for this. Remember what I've taught you.”

Grady nods. He closes his eyes for a moment and breathes. He adjusts his filters. He visualizes them. He visualizes his white room and he visualizes himself turning dials to affect the filters he imagines buried in the white walls. The moment passes and he nods. They continue upstairs.

There is a bathroom immediately at the top of the stairs. There is a bedroom off to the left and that room is obviously the room of the couple they have just talked to. To the right is a short hallway and another bedroom sits there. The door is brown and closed but Grady can see tentacles of blackness snaking out from beneath the door.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be.”

Grady's father waits not a moment longer and he walks for the brown door. He reaches out a hand and pushes the door open. Grady is close behind. There is a smell in this room. It is a smell he associates with the elderly. It is a disinfectant smell and a medicine smell. There is also the unmistakable smell of sickness and death.

The bed is a queen-sized one. It sits beneath a window that is bright but has a curtain drawn. On the bed is a white comforter. Beneath that comforter are sheets but Grady cannot see them. He sees the wrinkled hands that rest flat, palms down, on the comforter. They are covered in sleeves attached to a white nightgown. They are connected at the shoulders to a wrinkles neck above which sits a wrinkled and withered face. Within that face fierce blue eyes stare at them.

“Hello Grace.”

“I was wondering if you would get here in time.”

“You have to trust me, Grace. You knew I would make it.”

“I see you've brought yourself some company.”

“Yes, this is my son. His name is Grady.”

“I see, does he have some of the same abilities that you do?”

“Yes. He's sort of in training.”

“I feel like I'm back at the hospital. They put me into one of those teaching hospitals. Whenever they did anything to me I had to be watched by twelve people.”

“This will be a little bit different, Grace. I hope you don't mind.

“No, not really. Please, both of you, come in and sit down. Have you eaten?”

Grady's father moves toward a chair wedged under an ancient desk along one wall. He removes it and sits down on it backwards near the bed. He nods at Grady who finds his own chair and sits near his father. Grady's father takes the woman's hand.

“You know I don't actually need to eat in order to use my abilities, Grace.”

“Forgive me for not wanting to rush you in your use of your abilities today. I was just trying to be a good host. Your son looks too thin.”

“I agree. He's found himself a good woman, though. I think she'll help fatten him up.”

“So, Grady, are you going to take over the family business once your father retires?”

Grady folds his hands in his lap and shuffles his feet. He clears his throat and then smiles at the woman.

“I'm not really sure at this point.”

“Grady isn't sure this is what he wants to do with the rest of this life, Grace.”

“Well, I can understand that. This can't be an easy thing.”

“Well, there are times when it isn't so bad. I've enjoyed getting to know you, Grace.”

“Yes, but a lot of good that does you now, eh?”

“I do a service, Grace. That's all I know how to do.”

She smiles at him and pats his hand which is covering hers. She turns to look at Grady. Grady feels the power of her eyes boring into him. He cannot see the aura of death around her. He closes his eyes and imagines adjusting the filters in his mind. When he opens his eyes he can see the aura around her. It is like a thing alive and it reaches all over her body. However, unlike before he can also see her through the haze of the blackness. He can still feel the eyes.

“You can see what your father sees, can't you?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Your father and I have talked for some time now. I know he can see death around a person. There must be a lot of it around me right now.”

“Yes, there is.”

“I don't think it will be painful. I've had a lot of pain over the past couple of years but this, I don't think, will be very painful.”

“I hope not.”

She smiles again and sighs. She looks back at his father and she turns her smile on him. She sighs again. She closes her eyes. Grady sees there is still the hint of a smile on her face. Grady looks up at his father and his father looks back at him and nods. Grady stands and waits as his father gently puts the woman’s hand back on her chest and he too stands. They slowly walk out of the room.

Grady follows his father as he descends into the living room where the man and woman who were standing at the front door are now sitting. Tears still stream down the face of the woman. The man looks like he wishes he were anywhere but where he currently is. Grady and his father step into the room and sit down.

“Is she still - ?”

“Yes, Maggie. I don’t think she will be much longer, however.”

“Is this what you and your son do for fun? Do you go and visit people weeping and crying and dying and have a jolly father and son moments?”

Grady turns his head and looks at the husband who has just said this as he sits beside his wife glaring. His face is full of nothing but the kind of loathing Grady cannot imagine anyone would deserve who had not committed war crimes of some sort. The man is trying hard to cope. He isn’t sure what he should be doing but he thinks he needs to act tough. As such he is lashing out at the two men in front of him without really knowing why he is doing it.

“No, Dennis. This is my job. My son has abilities like mine and this is part of his training.”

“I see. So, my mother-in-law’s death is just some kind of lesson for you then, eh?”

“Not at all, Dennis. It is painful. It’s painful for me as well. I have gotten to know Grace quit well over these past few weeks. I don’t want this to happen anymore than you do. However, we all have to face the fact that it will and it will probably happen soon. I can do something that will help in some way. Grace has asked for that help.”

“Yes, but she’s old and she’s sick. She’ll cling to anything even two-bit shysters like yourselves.”

“Dennis, stop it! Attacking them isn’t helping!”

Maggie glares at her husband. Her face is flushed with anger and her eyes blaze. Her tears have stopped for the moment and, in some way, this means her husband has served a purpose. She stands and looks at Grady and his father.

“Would you care for something to eat? Maybe something to drink? I have some coffee made.”

“Thank you, Maggie, that would be fine. Grady?”

“Yes, please, I’d like some coffee.”

She nods. She has a purpose now. Grady’s father stands and walks with her into the kitchen. Grady looks at Dennis for a moment as the man stares down at his hands and then joins his father and Maggie in the kitchen. Maggie is pouring coffee into cups and offering milk and sugar.

“I’m sorry about my husband. He’s just not sure what he should be doing.”

“It’s all right, Maggie. I have seen all types of reactions to death in my time. It affects everyone a little bit differently. Some want to be angry and lash out. Others just give in to the inevitability of it.”

“I’m trying very hard to be brave. I’m afraid I’m not doing a very good job.”

“There’s no rule book, Maggie. You’re behaving just fine. Your mother is dying. I would expect some tears. I might be a bit concerned if there weren’t any.”

“Can you, um, you know, tell how long she has?”

“No. I can see when death is approaching someone. It surrounds them. It is around your mother and it is dark which usually means it will be soon. However, I cannot give you exact times.”

“She’s not in any pain. The doctors gave us medicine to make the pain go away.”

“She seems comfortable, Maggie. You have done a fine job.”

Grady feels a change happen in air in the room. He cannot say exactly what it is but something about the house changes. Grady looks at his father and he sees a pained expression on his father’s face. He is trying hard to hold on to his coffee cup and his brow is furrowed deeply.

“Maggie, I need to sit down.”

Maggie points to the kitchen table. Grady’s father moves quickly and sets down his coffee and sits. Grady follows without being asked and sits down next to him. His father extends his hand. Grady reaches out and grasps it.

Over the past few weeks they have grown close. The ancient chemicals that they have been using to enter each other’s minds have a residual effect. They can do it even without ingesting some of the potion. In an instant the house is gone and Maggie is gone. Grady is inside his father’s mind.

Indeed the place where his father goes when he is using his power is different from what Grady sees. Grady’s father has explained that this is essentially a dream. Their minds have to create a place to visualize the experience of using their powers. At first his father’s place was much like Grady visualizes. He has explained that each of them at first visualizes the white room. Some have continued to see only the white room but some have learned to adapt the place. It is much like someone who learns how to control their dreams and make them bend to their will.

Grady’s father sees a great green field. Tall grass extends as far as the eye can see. In the distance hills rise and they are covered with trees in shapes, shades and colors that can exist only in imagination. There is wind here and heat from a dazzling sun. The sky above them is a brilliant blue and without clouds.

They stand there now. Grady can even smell the grass the vision is so realistic and complete. His father is looking up into the dazzling blue of the sky. Grady follows his gaze and sees a tiny dot way up in the sky. It is black and it stands out against the clarity of the sky. His father still holds his hand. He turns to look at Grady.

“Be ready. Here she comes.”

His father turns back with his face toward the sky. Grady looks at his father. His father is not afraid. There is no pain here. There is no fear. His father has accepted what he does and he is doing it with joy. This place is not a place where things end but a place filled with life even if that life is only imaginary.

The dot hurtles out of the sky toward them like a meteor. Grady turns to face it and sees the blackness grow in size as it gets closer. It slams into them without a sound. Most of the blackness embraces his father and his father disappears from the view within his mind. It swirls around him and through him. The blackness punches through the middle of his father’s chest and it comes out as clear white light through his back.

Tentacles reach out and touch Grady. He prepares himself for the pain and shock he felt when he was touched by the blackness before. Instead, this time, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much. It washes over him. It is cold but not unpleasantly so. His mind fills with memories.

The memories are of sins going back to when Grace was young. They are sins both great and small. They are sins that you might expect from any life. Some of them are strangely endearing. No matter the life so many of the sins are the same and Grady cannot help but smile as the images fills his head. Before, when Grady felt the mind of his schoolmate and then his friend, he felt as though his own mind was being overwhelmed and controlled by the memories of the other person. This time he feels more in control.

He turns to see his father. Tears stream down the face of his father. His eyes are closed. His face is still turned up toward the sky. The darkness is turning gray. The white light is gathering in greater amounts behind where his father stands. The last of the darkness passes through them. The sins and memories dim.

His father opens his eyes. He turns slowly to stare at the whiteness that is also standing in the field behind them. The whiteness has a shape and it is undeniably human. His father smiles and nods at the whiteness. The shape, the soul, the light reaches out toward them as though wanting one last touch and then it is snatched upwards, ascending into the sky and vanishing into the blue.

Grady gasps and opens his eyes in the small kitchen. He looks over at his father. Tears are drying on his father’s face. He squeezes his father’s hand and his father squeezes back. His father smiles at him.

Maggie is standing at the sink. Her face is worried. Tears are flowing again. She knows what is happening but she does not want to acknowledge it.

“Has she - ?”

“Yes, Maggie. She has passed.”

His father manages to reach the woman before she collapses and holds her in his arms as she cries. Grady goes and motions to Dennis in the other room and soon the woman is crying in her husband’s arms. His face has softened now and Grady sees tears in Dennis’ eyes now.

Grady feels a strange urge to do more. His father tugs at his elbow and Grady forces himself to turn. There is nothing else for them to do. This family must be left alone now. Grady turns and walks with his father out into the light.