“The man cursed in another language. He let me go, reaching for his own throat reflexively, and then the glass of the shower door broke and Goblin appeared again, tissue thin but visible to me and flashing a knifelike piece of glass at the stranger, which the stranger pushed away with his immense strength rather easily.

“Again the man cursed, looking hastily to the right and the left and then behind himself. I saw that his black hair was very long and worn in a slender wavy ponytail. He had sharply squared shoulders.

“He was maddened, pivoting and grabbing me again, but there came from Goblin another assault with both his fists, and more fine bits of glass hurled at the intruder, who let me go, backing up and twirling like a dancer.

“Glass was flying around the room. The stranger had to duck a fragment aimed right at his face. More glass clattered to the floor as the lower portion of the shower door broke into finer pieces.

“ ‘What is it?’ he hissed, warding off the shards with thrusts of his hands that came so fast I couldn’t follow them.

“Goblin bore down on him with his fists and then throttled him again. He threw off Goblin with visible effort, and furiously.

“The light flashed on, then off, then on again. I saw him fully illuminated, a young man with perfect skin and satin black hair, his black suit very fine and his face, even in its obvious hatred, no less than beautiful.

“ ‘What is it, damn you!’ he snarled at me. Daggers of glass were raining upon him and he batted them off like insects. The lights continued to flash.

“ ‘You think I’m going to tell you!’ I charged. ‘You’re in my house now, same as when you read your books on my island! Get out of it, or who knows what will happen? I can see the creature who fights you now. It’s plain as day that you can’t!’

“I was boiling with rage. I stood poised, lacking only the nerve to try to thrust a piece of glass right into his chest, and then he was gone, gone silently and swiftly as though he’d never been there, and I was alone in the bathroom, in the dark, amid all the broken glass, and Big Ramona in her bare feet and in her rose-print nightgown was staring at me.

“ ‘Lord, Child of Grace,’ she said. ‘What have you done!’

“ ‘It’s not me, it was him, didn’t you see him! Oh my God, didn’t you see him?’ I pleaded with her.

“ ‘I don’t know what I saw. Don’t you move, don’t you walk in that glass! I was sound asleep and I hear all this glass breaking.’

“Goblin stood before the lavatory, and in a reserved manner, a wise manner, he smiled at me. I threw my arms around him. I felt his shape.