“Immediately I typed out the answer. ‘Listen to me,’ I said aloud as I wrote. ‘I will never leave you. The only thing that could part us is for me to die, and then, yes, my spirit would leave my body and I would be gone, I don’t know where. Now ask yourself again, Where did the spirit of Lynelle go? Where did the spirit of Sweetheart go? Where did the spirit of Pops go?’

“I sat waiting and there was no answer.

“Then the keys before me began to move. He typed out: ‘Where did these spirits come from?’

“I felt a tightening, a keen sense that I had to be careful. I wrote: ‘Bodies are born into the world. Remember when I was a newborn? A baby? Bodies are born into the world with the spirit in them, and when those bodies die the spirit leaves.’

“Silence.

“Then the keys moved again: ‘Where did I come from?’

“I felt a dull fear. It was the panic breaking through, but it was something more as well. I typed out:

“ ‘Don’t you know where you came from? Don’t you know who you were before you became my Goblin?’

“ ‘No.’

“ ‘You must remember something,’ I typed. ‘You must have been somewhere.’

“ ‘Were you somewhere?’ he asked. ‘Before you were Quinn?’

“ ‘No. I had my beginnings when I was born,’ I wrote. ‘But you are a spirit. Where were you? Were you with somebody else? Why did you come to me?’

“There was a long pause, very long, so long that I almost rose from the desk and moved off, but then the clicking keys came again:

“ ‘I love Quinn,’ the writing said. ‘Quinn and Goblin one together.’

“ ‘Yes,’ I said out loud. ‘We are, one together.’

“The machine was clicked off. The gooseneck lamp flicked on and off twice and then went dark.

“My heart was pounding. What was happening to Goblin? And how could I confide to anyone in this world about him, what with Pops dead and everything at Blackwood Farm hanging in the balance? To whom could I go to say this spirit is taking on new strength?

“For some period of time I sat there, and then I turned on the machine and asked:

“ ‘Danger, this danger you speak of, is it from the stranger who came into this room?’

“No answer.

“ ‘What did you see when you saw the stranger? What did he look like to you? You must remember that to my eyes he was only a dark shape. Goblin, listen. Tell me.’

“A breeze sifted through the room, something chilling against my cheek—but no answer. He didn’t have the strength. He had done enough for one day. Or he didn’t want to answer. Whatever the case, there was only the silence now.