Madame mulled over the idea of "reconstituting" the Captain. She understood the term as it related to cooking, but not as it pertained to ghosts. While Obediah Brewster seemed confident it was the right course, his younger brothers seemed to have some reservations and Crackstone was absolutely certain it was neither necessary nor something to undertake lightly. Crackstone often seemed the most sensible of the bunch and a veritable genius as well, so his concerns concerned her greatly.
As for Obediah, he seemed to come alive looking for this answer and he certainly did not want to abandon it without cause. The other brothers granted that it could be a smashing success, but also felt it was important that Madame know it could also be worse than a failure. It could in fact have disastrous results.
"Exactly how disastrous are we talking about?" Madame asked.
Absalom started to speak but Zachariah beat him to it. "The Captain, as you know him, may never be seen on the face of the Earth again" he said in the darkest of tones.
"Oh don't be so melodramatic, Zachariah. My goodness. Here Madame, have some of Lady Baltimore's Cake. Always perks me right up" offered Obediah.
"Until it makes you cry," cautioned Absalom. "Oh it won't do that to you Madame, but it has that effect on Obediah."
Obediah did look a bit lost in thought for a moment. "True. A bad romance with a beautiful lady leaves bittersweet memories, alas. Still, we have her recipe to comfort me in my darkest hours."
Madame tried and failed to picture a romantic Obediah. Most of the time he looked more like a corpse- but Madame was too polite to mention that. "The cake is lovely," and it was with fluffy white frosting - since first meeting the Brewsters Madame had gained at least 10 pounds and noticed a definite tightness in her waistline. "but I really would like to know more about what exactly is involved in reconstituting the Captain."
Settling around the table, Obediah explained about life and death and ghosts.
Addressing Madame, he began, "You probably think the Captain is a ghost because he died. This is not the case. If all it took to be a ghost was death, the world would be filled with them. There are many ways one becomes a ghost, in the Captain's case, I expect it was because of Mrs. Muir."
Madame took a large bite of cake and thought the poor man had gone round the bend as surely he understood that Mrs. Muir had not been born when the Captain died. In fact her parents hadn't even been born when the Captain died.
As if reading her thoughts, Obediah continued."Although Mrs. Muir had not been born, that did not matter. The Captain's soul knew it was waiting for its soul mate. The only problem was, it had no idea how long it would have to wait, no idea of the rather cruel twist of fate or cosmic error, however you wish to see it, that landed them in the right place but at the wrong time making it impossible to meet in normal time in the mortal realm. But what is time to a soul? Nothing, that's what. Nothing at all. A day or a century its all the same. So when his body unexpectedly expired, his soul chose, actively chose to remain."
Everyone remained silent, looking thoughtful as they pondered Obediah's statements.
"That moment when the Captain's soul chose to remain is when things really took a turn for the worse and created the problem which we will solve by the process of re-constitution."
Madame looked skeptical, Crackstone looked ill.
"You see, in order to be a ghost and not just a vague wandering wisp of a spirit, the Captain's soul had to combine with matter."
"Matter?" said Madame.
"Yes, matter," said Obediah. "Your soul is made of energy, your body is made of matter. A soul that has not combined with matter has only the faintest of appearance to the naked eye in broad daylight. It is easier to see them at night because being energy, they do glow."
(Obediah thought to himself if only people knew the true nature of the Northern Lights, that it was actually a Dance of Souls, but nobody would believe that so he just kept it to himself)
"Now, the tricky bit is finding compatible matter. The Captain's soul left the body and re-combined with the closest matter it could find - Gull Cottage. I am convinced this is the case. Apparently the entire cottage. Now if the cottage. had been living organic material things would be different, but its not. Its matter gives the Captain the ability to be visible, to move things and so on as energy + matter can produce great power, but it also has in a way crippled him. He is bound to the cottage as it is as much a part of himself as, well a part of himself. He can probably make short journeys away in the physical plane, and of course he can travel the astral plane, but still, ultimately he is bound to the cottage. More importantly, as long as he is combined with the cottage, he can never change - he cannot move on to the next step for a spirit, nor can he move back towards life. Its a Devil's Bargain he chose in what was no doubt a rash moment. We can change that. We will uncombine the Captain from the cottage. Separate his soul from its matter prison and set him free. He will have a choice as to how to exist, all thanks to you Madame!"