The women watched in horror as Charles pressed the main switch, not realizing he had just turned the power off. Then he sat down inside on the little bench so he could hold the door closed. When he realized his mistake, he stretched out a long arm to hit the power switch. He was going, leaving them again. Murphy and Grady howled. A lone tear rolled down Myra’s cheek.

“Mom, don’t let him go. If he goes, he will NEVER come back. You have to take Charles on faith. You know that. Pride, Mummie, is a terrible thing. Hurry, Mummie, hurry!”

Myra whirled around as she tried to reconcile what she was hearing from her spirit daughter and at the same time saw Charles reaching for the switch that would activate the cable car and take him to the bottom of the mountain. She literally leaped past the two dogs and pulled Charles’s hand away from making contact with the switch. “We want you to stay, Charles.”

The collective sigh behind her told Myra all she needed to know. The girls wanted Charles to stay but were willing to send him packing, thinking it was what she wanted. When she stepped back, she felt Annie’s arm go around her shoulder. It felt so comforting that she wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep.

“Will you get rid of those weenies already? Charles will be preparing dinner this evening,” was all Myra could think of to say.

Annie laughed as she peeled the string of weenies from around her neck and handed them all out to the dogs, who were waiting politely for the rest of their unorthodox early dinner.

Charles stepped out of the cable car and started to walk toward the main building, the girls following behind. Yoko was the last in line, her head down.

“Honey, I admire your courage,” Annie said to her.

“I’m sorry, Yoko. I should have been the one to speak up to tell Charles to stay,” Myra said. “It’s refreshing to see you for once have the courage of your convictions. I don’t know what we all thought we were trying to prove back there,” she went on, waving her hand behind her, “other than to make Charles sweat and punish him in some way. It’s my fault entirely. The others thought I wanted to send Charles packing, and they went along with it.”

“We need Charles,” Yoko said softly.

“Yes, we do,” Annie said forcefully.

“I agree,” Myra said. “But we are going to have a few new rules this time around.”

“Do you believe Charles is not allowed to talk about whatever it was that went on over there by orders of Her Majesty, or was he pulling our leg?” Annie asked fretfully.

“Charles never lies. Rather than tell a lie, he simply says nothing. The fact that he even offered up the explanation makes it all ring true. Whatever went on over there, we are never going to know about it, so we had better get used to the idea,” Myra said.