“You’re so right! But don’t say it that way! That’s not so old! She said, pretending to be offended.

Carolyn went on to make a fuss about how young Joanna looked; she then talked about her own age, her religious upbringing, and how she was married with three kids, born and raised in Cuyahoga County, and had gone to John Carroll. She concluded by confiding that she and her husband had been going through an exceedingly difficult time of late.

She was normally a very private person, particularly with strangers, so she was a bit bemused and surprised by her candor. Carolyn thought perhaps she had said too much, too soon, but she felt so comfortable with Joanna. However, she backed off a bit and tried to change the subject.

“I don’t know why I just dumped all that on you, Joanna. I just met you!”

Joanna answered with her angelic smile and said the words that truly stunned Carolyn, but were intended to allow them to shift to the true purpose of her visit.

“Oh, please don’t worry about that. Haven’t you figured it out yet? I was sent here to help you.” She looked down at the row of prescription medications that Carolyn had lined up like soldiers and completely forgotten about.

“Oh those? I was just looking at them. I really wasn’t going to take them. The doctor said they would make me feel better…” She scooped them up and put them on the counter behind a loaf of bread, and cursed herself for leaving the pills out on the table and for announcing that a doctor had prescribed them for her. But then how was she to know all this would happen when she innocently sat down in Mitch’s chair just a few minutes ago? And what was that Joanna had said about being sent here to help her? Things were happening very quickly.

She looked at Joanna quizzically. “What do you mean sent here to help me? Who sent you?”

Mitch shook his head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs. The last thing he remembered was sitting in the rental car and praying intensely, and then he must have fallen into a deep sleep. He recalled having an incredibly powerful dream. He had a vague recollection of a woman speaking to him and telling him something important. What was it? He saw himself walking through a forest, lying in a clearing, staring into the sun—but before that, he had plunged through the earth to some secret place.