“Fr. Kevin studied me intently throughout this speech and then he nodded. ‘Well, let’s leave it at this. If you need to talk to me, you call me. I’ve given my number to your Aunt Queen, and I’m in and out of Mayfair Medical doing rounds every day. I’m fast becoming the full-time chaplain here, and you’d be surprised what Dr. Rowan wants me to investigate. I’ll stop back in later to see you.’

“ ‘What does she want you to investigate?’ I asked. I was plenty intrigued. And I was simmering down, and I liked talking to him. He wasn’t the cliché I’d expected him to be.

“ ‘Near-death experiences,’ he said, ‘that’s what I’m investigating. You know, when people are pronounced dead and they see a bright light when they pass through a tunnel and greet a being of light—and then they’re revived and they come back here to tell us about it.’

“ ‘Yes, I know. I read everything on that subject that I can find. I believe in it. I believe it happens.’

“ ‘Often those people aren’t believed,’ he said. ‘I’m here to believe, but never to ask a leading question or maybe make a suggestive statement.’

“ ‘I follow you,’ I said. ‘Have you talked to people who’ve had the experience?’

“ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I have. Of course I give the Sacrament for the Sick too. And I hear confessions, and I bring Communion.’

“ ‘Do you believe me—what I’ve just told you?’

“ ‘I believe you believe what you’re saying,’ he said. ‘Now do you want the Sacrament for the Sick? You know it doesn’t require much of one.’

“ ‘I’m not sick,’ I replied, ‘and as to my sexual sins, well, I’m not ready to give all that up. I can’t go to Confession just now. I can’t take Communion. Sex is brand-new to me.’

“ ‘Yes,’ he said with a weary little smile, ‘it’s difficult at your time of life.’ He shrugged. And then he flashed a brighter smile on me and said, ‘I thought it was Hell when I was your age, and frankly I think so sometimes now. Priests go to Confession, you know. They go to other priests. It’s not so easy.’

“ ‘I like you. I know that may not matter much—.’

“ ‘Oh, yes, it matters,’ he said. ‘But I have to get back to St. Mary’s. I have my parish duties as well as some work later at the university. I’ll see you this afternoon.’

“He stood up.

“Something flashed into my head. ‘Father,’ I said, ‘what if you do see a ghost that’s evil, a ghost that leads you into harm, a ghost who wants some kind of dark vengeance? What do you do? You make the Sign of the Cross and you pray? Is that your only weapon?’