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“Heavens no,” replied Case. “It’s all an illusion, my dear, nothing more. You’ve all been creating your own reality. The island and the mansion are solid, they are here, but you’ve all reconstructed them to fit your delusion.”

“We’re not solid?” the psychic persisted.

“You are not.”

“Not even astral sort of somethings or other?”

“Give it up,” Dare advised her.

“Get a life,” added Freeboard in an undertone.

Dare turned to her and nodded approbation.

Case lifted his chin. “Now then, what have you decided?” he asked. “I must say, if nothing else, I do hope that if you cling to the earth you’ll at least have some pity on those poor, abused people who’ve been trying for so long to live peacefully at Elsewhere. You know; Paul Quandt and his family, poor darlings. You’ve given them a devil of a time. No pun intended.”

“What on earth do you mean?” asked Dare.

“You had them terrified out of their wits! You remember all that burning and flinging about and those nightmarish poundings that so frightened you all? Don’t you know what was causing all that?”

“I can hardly wait to hear,” Dare said dryly.

“The Quandts brought in Jesuit priests to drive you out!”

The author turned to Freeboard with a smirk of satisfaction.

“Did you hear that?”

“Oh, be quiet, Terry.”

“Priests!”

“Shut—up!”

They heard someone clear his throat. It was Case. “And so what’s it to be?” he asked. “A change of frequency? I certainly hope so. I must say, I’ve grown fond of you all. Very fond.”

Freeboard looked down and shook her head, uncertain.

“Boy, I really don’t know,” she said.

Case looked at her with fondness.

“I must say, I would miss you, Joan.”

She looked up in surprise and said, “Me?”

“There’d be no more loneliness there. No more tears.”

Freeboard’s eyes began to fill.

“That’s the deal?” she asked.

“That’s the deal.”

“This world was never meant to be a home to us, Joan,” said Case. “This world is a one-night stand.”

Abruptly Freeboard’s eyes lit up in surmise. “Hey, it’s you! You’re the angel in my dream! Gabriel! ‘The clams aren’t safe’; that meant the river!”

“Well, I know what I’m doing,” said Dare.

Freeboard turned to him and lifted an eyebrow. “You’re going?”

“Yes!” exclaimed Dare. “I’m off!” The author threw a kiss in the direction of the river. “Adieu, space-time!” he called out. “Be good!”

He was beginning to disappear.

“Hey, wait for me!” Freeboard shouted.

She, too, was beginning to vanish.

“Adieu, sucky speed-reading critics and reviewers!”

Dare was almost invisible.

“Hey, slow down a second, will you?” Freeboard nattered.

“Oh, well, of course, I’m at a much higher frequency, Joanie.”

The next moment they were gone. But a raucous cry of pique and frustration was heard, then a slap, and then the voice of Dare complaining: “No hitting in the afterlife, Joanie!”

Case and Trawley remained, and they looked at one another and smiled as they heard a dim yapping, as of two little dogs.

“Oh, my heart! Can it be?” came a waning cry from Dare.

And then Freeboard. “Can you puke in the afterlife?”

“Boys!”

Dare’s voice, intermingled with the dogs’ faint yapping, held a joy that he’d never felt or known.

In this life.

The sounds faded away.

“Well, Anna, and what about you?” Case asked her. “Are you coming? Bethie’s waiting, you know.”

Trawley frowned. “What’s become of Dr. Case?” she asked. “I mean, the real one. Did you off him or something?”

“No, Anna. Dr. Case is alive, poor soul. When he heard that you three had died, he simply left and went back to his teaching.”

“Oh.”

Case took a step toward her. “Now then, shall we go together?”

Trawley stuck her hand out in front of her, halting him.

“No, not yet,” she said. “First I want to know who you are.”

“Would you believe that I’m a being of light?”

“Try again.”

“Now I’m crushed,” Case replied. “What’s the difference who I am?”

“A very large one. Knowing where you came from might give me some clue as to where you might take me, if you get my drift. In this circumstance, I’d have to say that