"Latin," Madame Ceara mumbled without looking up. "No wonder it's a dead language." The old woman folded her hands on top of the book. "Now, you're here for a lot of reasons, most of which you don't even know, but one of them, I can a.s.sure you, is because you are being beckoned to remember, and you simply cannot."

Jessie pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm going insane. Is that it?

The drugs have royally messed me up, right? Because I don't think-"

"Is that why you're here? To have me convince you of your sanity?

Oh, my dear, if you were to truly look deep inside yourself, you would know why you are really here. However, I can a.s.sure you why you are not here. You are not here so I can convince you of your insanity, as if sanity were even important."

"It is."

"Is it? Is it even anything you can define? Because I sure can't."

Jessie inhaled deeply. Well, she did sort of come here to discuss her sanity, but where to start? Did she start with the door? Her new knowledge? The dreams? Yes, that was it . . . she'd start with the dream.

"I had a dream."

Madame nodded, a satisfied grin on her face. "Ah, a dream. That explains it."

56 *57.

"Explains what?"

Rising, Madame Ceara lit several sticks of incense before pulling out a second ancient text. "The dreams-the memories. So much of our lives could be explained to us if only we listened. But that's not all, is it?" Madame Ceara leaned closer and gazed into Jessie's eyes. "No, no it isn't. You've managed to find your way through the slit, haven't you?" Madame inched closer; her icy eyes grilling Jessie's. "Ah yes, I see it. You have actually been and returned." Clapping her hands together, Madame Ceara picked up the book and held it to her chest, singing a song in a foreign tongue. For a moment, Jessie thought the rumors about her might be true.

"You have no idea the gift you have been given, my dear; a gift that not many people of this world or the next will have the chance to experience. You have stepped through a seam in the fabric of time, and you don't remember. That's a common occurrence for first-time travelers."

"Time travelers?" Jessie jumped out of her chair wanting to run for the door, but her feet were rooted. "Are you nuts?"

"Some certainly think so. If I talk about time travel right now, you'll really think those boys might be right about me."

Jessie looked at the door. She wanted to go, but she didn't want to go. "First off, I do not believe anything those dorks have to say.

Secondly, I'm-I'm not afraid."

"Good. Because we have a lot to work to do."

"Work?"

"Yes. I'd say that our first mission is to get Jessie to remember whatever it is they want you to remember."

"They? Who?" Jessie looked around, as if someone were lurking in the shadows.

Madame Ceara chuckled gleefully and rubbed her wrinkled hands together. "Whoever is imploring you to remember. Someone came across to get you. Someone wants you to do something. I knew when I saw you-when I'd heard you were the one who moved into the inn."

"That's it, isn't it? The inn is haunted. This is about the inn!"

Madame Ceara waved her off. "Pshaw, Jessie. Haunted? Yes, there *

58 *59.

are beings gathered about, and they are none too happy, but this-this has nothing to do with them."

Jessie grabbed her head in her hands. She was living in a haunted house, but that had nothing to do with whatever it was that was happening to her. "Then who are you talking about?"

Sitting back down at the table, Madame Ceara leaned over and laid her hand on top of Jessie's arm to still her. Then she slowly pulled her back to the table. "Perhaps it is best if we start from the beginning."

"There's a beginning?"

Madame Ceara nodded, her eyes flashing with excitement "Oh yes.

If you want to know what is happening to you, you'll sit here and listen.

I do not have patience for disbelievers or naysayers. If you truly came here for answers, you will at least hear me out."

Jessie inhaled deeply, and sat down.

"Now, tell me exactly why it is you have sought me out. Leave nothing out, no matter how silly or odd it may be."

Jessie looked into those blue eyes and felt a calm wash over her. "I came because all of a sudden, I know things I've never known before."

Ceara smiled, her eyes lighting up. "Excellent. Oh, you truly are going to be a quick study. Do go on."

Jessie hesitated about the door. She didn't want to sound like she was completely unhinged.

"Tell me about the door."

Jessie leaned so far back she almost fell over. "You really can read minds!"

Ceara shook her head. "Not really. I just know there is a time portal in that house and I think you've gone through it and lived to tell about it; a feat not many accomplish."

"What do you mean, portal?"

"There's a door in the inn that comes and goes, doesn't it?"

"Yes!" Jessie sighed and leaned back.

"That door is the reason you're here right now. It may very well be the reason your family has come to Oregon. But that door in your inn has been waiting a long time for someone else to see it. Seeing it is one thing. Stepping through it is another story altogether. One cannot go *

58 *59.

through it without changing. The question is what did you see?"

Jessie closed her eyes and saw the forest, and then quickly opened them. That had been no dream.

"My dear, you must suspend your belief in what you believe to be real. You must embrace ideas and notions that others would scoff at.

Do not judge your vision or doubt your feelings. Do not doubt you.

Trust that what you saw was what you saw."

"You said that to me the other day."

"Because so many of us see that which the world denies, and in our fear, we deny it ourselves. We deny that which science cannot explain or even bear witness to. We deny the spiritual realm because not to do so would make others think we were not of sound mind. In this society we are all afraid of that which has not been scientifically proven. Do not be afraid. I will help you through this."

"Help me through what?"

"You tell me. What is it you've seen that scared you so?"

Leaning forward, virtually whispering, Jessie proceeded to tell her about the forest she'd seen the moment she opened the numberless door, and how, after that, she seemed to know everything that surrounded her in the woods behind the inn.

Ceara listened attentively, until Jessie said she could have sworn she saw an oak grove in the distance. When Jessie finished with what little else she could remember, Ceara again clapped her hands together.

"That's it. Oh my, dear girl, you've found it!" Jumping up so quickly she knocked one of the candles over, Ceara threw her arms around a stunned, and slightly scared, Jessie.

"Found what?"

Ceara reached across the table and took Jessie's hand in hers. For a long time, she just stared into Jessie's face. "Forgive me, my dear.

It's just that I have waited a very long time for someone to be able to do what you did, and I'm just overly excited about it. Forgive an old woman her eccentricities."

"Can I get you some water or something? I mean I don't want you blowing an artery or anything."

"No, I'm fine. I'm better than fine. I feel like today is Christmas."

60 *61.

Jessie shook her head. "Umm-Ceara? I found a forest in the room of a third story, haunted inn. I'm sorry if I don't understand your joy in that, but-"

Ceara waved her off. "I am sorry, my dear. What happened after you opened the door and saw the forest?"

Jessie shook her head. "I looked down and I was wearing a robe.

That's all I remember."

"But you did go in, and you do have a tiny memory of your time over there."

"I was in there about ten minutes, but where is there? What was that place? I don't understand."

"That's all right, my dear. No one is expecting you to get it all right the first time. I know it's difficult. The whole thing can be disconcerting, especially in this time. More will come to you later, but for now, we will work with just what you saw and experienced."

Jessie nodded. "That works for me."

"If that's all you remember for now, then tell me about these dreams of yours?"

"I don't remember much of those, either. The dream I keep having is of this red-haired young woman who is being chased through the forest by a Roman soldier."

Ceara leaned forward. "A Roman soldier?"

"Yeah. Wait. I don't know squat about Rome or Roman soldiers.

How do I know this?"

"What kind of forest?"

"What?"

"What kind of forest? What trees were in the forest?"

Jessie reflected. "It's an oak grove, I think." She shook her head. "See what I mean? I never use the word grove. Where is this coming from?"

Ceara motioned for Jessie to continue. "What else?"

"There was a super intense woman with gray eyes telling me to remember."

"Hmm. Interesting. Anyone else?"

Jessie nodded. "A tall, good-looking man who kinda looked like Jesus, and a short red-headed woman."

60 *61.

"What were they wearing?"

"I can't remember. I just remember seeing their faces and hearing them tell me that they wanted me to remember." Jessie sighed. "That's why I came here. I thought if I wasn't crazy, maybe you might know who they are and what they want."

Ceara nodded. "It's possible. Do you remember what the girl was wearing? The one who was being chased?"

Jessie nodded. "A robe. Yeah . . . she was wearing a robe like the gray-eyed woman. A different color, though, I think."

"Well done." Ceara leaned back and sighed. "You have let her in, and that's a great start."

"Who?"

"I can tell you nothing yet, except that you are most certainly not crazy, and don't you ever think that about yourself. There are plenty of people who are all too quick to label that which they do not understand as crazy or whacko. I should know. I have lived with the likes of those for too many years to count."

"Then what's happening to me?"

Ceara sighed and licked her lips. "Nothing is happening to you, my dear. You are not a victim of any sort of prank or sickness."

"Then what's going on?"

Ceara exhaled and studied Jessie's features. "Promise me you'll sit through the whole explanation, reserving judgment and comments until I am through."