Inez came bounding up the stairs. "Hey, Jackie," her face brightened. "Hi, Sarah."

Sarah gave her a warm smile. "Hello, Inez, it's nice to see you again."

"It's so nice to see you again as well," Inez said. "Uh..how do you like it here so far?"

"This place is amazing," Sarah said. "There's so many things Jackie was telling me about."

Inez sat down on the bed. Jackie smiled and took her scrunchie out of her hair. "Inez, you HAVE to see what Sarah can do. Sarah, can you please move this scrunchie from my hand to the computer desk?"

"I shall try," she said, looking carefully at the scrunchie. She stared at it carefully for a short while, and then her gaze moved toward the desk. Suddenly before Inez's eyes the scrunchie disappeared and reappeared on the desk.

"Wow," Inez cried as she looked again at the scrunchie. "How does she do that?"

"Actually, I really don't know how I'm able to do this," Sarah said. "It's just come to me. I guess being dead al this time I've learned some new talents along the way."

Inez looked down. "Sarah..I hope it's OK to ask you this..did it hurt..when you died?"

"At first I did have a lot of pain, and I had to throw up quite a lot..but the pain soon subsided..and I died in my sleep. I made sure that my very last thoughts were of James." She looked down sadly. "I missed him so much..my entire heart belonged to him. I wanted to spend my last minutes on earth thinking only of my true love..my James."

Inez stared sadly at her. "I'm so sorry, Sarah..I didn't mean to hurt you.."

"Oh, but you haven't," Sarah said. "Believe me, I would rather have walked this earth like this than live the rest of my life in a lie. Had I chosen not to do this, I would have been married the very next day to a wealthy man who I did know as a child..be we wouldn't ever have been in love. I could not fathom living in the same place, giving my very hand, heart, indeed my very LIFE to someone who I am a stranger to. If I were to take those vows that day, I would have had to vow in front of God to love, honor, obey, cherish a STRANGER who I do NOT love, honor, or cherish. I would have been lieing and I cannot fathom telling any kind of lie. Not to my family, not to another person. And ESPECIALLY not to God. My only way out was death."

Inez brushed away her own tears. "Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry."

"But, really, Sarah, was this really worth it? I mean, look at what you're doing with yourself now. You told me earlier that you've been very lonely wandering around here, not having any friends for over three hundred years. You've seen your friends and family die, you couldn't reach out to them, you couldn't touch them, you couldn't talk to them..and the ones you were able to make yourself visible to were scared of you and ran away."

Sarah looked down." I do have regrets about what I did..I also know that I would have had to lie to God..I just don't know.."

Jackie carefully covered Sarah's hand with her own. "It's OK, Sarah, we don;t have to bring it up anymore."

"Yeah, we don't," Inez agreed. "We'll just say those prayers for you."

"I promise every night I'll say 20 Hail Marys for you."

"I will too," Inez said quickly. "Don't worry, Sarah. We'll help you get to Heaven, and you'll be able to see James very soon."

Sarah looked up and smiled tenderly. "Thank you both."

"Jackie," her mother's voice came from downstairs. "Ask Inez if she wants to stay for dinner."

"Wanna stay, Inez?" Jackie aksed.

"Sure, just let me phone my Mom." She went over to the phone, Sarah followed.

"What do you call that object?"

"It's called a telephone." Inez showed her. "You see, I pick up this receiver, I dial up the numbers to my house and I wait for my Mom to pick up, then we can talk."

"But shouldn't that be in your pocket, that's where I've seen a lot of the tourists carry theirs..and they didn't call those things telephones..I believed..what was the word..cell?"

"Oh, "Inez laughed a bit. "Actually, cell is short for cellular phone, which is a kind of phone that people do carry in their pockets or purses, but this is a regular telephone which is attached to the wall." She smiled. "When you see Ben Franklin again, tell him thank you for descovering electricity, it DOES turn out to be very useful."

"So I see," Sarah said, grinning. Inez then dialed her mother's number.

"Hi, Mom, it's Inez, Jackie asked me to stay for supper, can I please? Thanks Mom, yes I'll be home by eight. OK, I love you, too, Mom. Bye." she hung up. "I can stay for supper, but I have to be home by eight."



Later that night, Sarah was telling Inez and Jackie about how she met Abigail Adams and her family when the clock began to chime seven. "Oh my, I must start getting back," Sarah said, standing up.

"Already?" Jackie asked.

"Yes, the sun is beginning to go down, and I must return to the Gazette, or I will be drawn to go there against my will. But I can return tomorrow."

"Please do, I have no school, it's a Saturdaty."

Inez nudged Jackie. "But, Jax, what if.."

"I'll tell her if it happens," she assured Inez. "Can you come here around 11."

"I definitely will."



Later that night Jackie was sayin ehr evening prayers and didn;t forget to say the 20 Hail Mary's for her new friends. "Please, God, take care of Sarah, and let her sin be forgiven so that she might enter Heaven soon."