“Yes and no, Carolyn. I’m sorry if I’m confusing matters. Let me start by answering your first question. What I’m going to tell you will sound very strange, but I know that you too are a woman of faith, and that we share the belief that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, is that right?”

“Absolutely!” Carolyn said. They each felt their connection deepen.

“So to answer your first question: God sent me. And to answer your second question … I know about your going into your bedroom, and speaking to your Lord in the quiet and privacy of your closet, because God has shown this to me for a purpose.”

Carolyn began to allow herself to feel some sense of relief. Was it really possible that this stranger could help her, or was she so desperate for relief that she would allow herself to believe even something this preposterous? It occurred to her that Mitch would probably have her committed if he could hear this conversation.

“I truly want to believe what you’re saying, Joanna, but I think you can imagine that this is a little much to take in. Who are you really, and how could you possibly know these things?”

So Joanna talked about her childhood and told her the story of her father dying on his birthday, and the blue bubble rising to the sky, and the shoes and the bare feet. She recounted those extraordinary and bleak February days in 1962 when she discovered what she later came to describe as “the knowing.” She shared her stories of stumbling as she learned how to use her abilities, and the battle that she had raged with her ego. She talked a little about being called to ministry—how at first her personal calling had directed her to work with women who were in danger from abusive men, and how then, after she’d met and married Richard, together they had decided to minister to young men, to try to stop the problems before they began.

“So you see, Carolyn, I am just a simple woman who has the ability to help sometimes, but not always. For instance, I can look at someone and know that he is at risk because Satan or evil spirits have him in their grip. Sometimes I can help, as I did with a young man earlier this morning, and other times, free will takes over and then a person may make the very worst decision.”

“Joanna, my husband Mitch and I often talk about all the other options Danny had right up until the final moment when he stood at his kitchen door, looking out into the garage … but, I’m sorry, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about.”