The doorbell rang. Mrs. Syme answered. It was Laurie.
“Come in, dear,” she said.
“How is Mike?” asked Laurie.
“The same,” said Mrs. Syme. “The doctor says it’s exhaustion, but he’s been sleeping for a day and a half now. Anyway, if you want to take a look, he’s in the spare bed. Julie and Richard are with him.”
Laurie walked into the guest room. Julie and Laurie hugged each other, then Laurie hugged Richard. “He mumbles every now and then,” said Julie. “But I can’t understand him.”
“She took a lot from him,” said Laurie. “I do think she would have killed him at the end. And he would have let her do it.”
Richard said, “Mr. Syme said that’s what love does. It lays down its life. He said that Mike really had it right. That’s why Annie could let go at the end. He gave her everything he had. She needed it.”
The doorbell rang again. “Who could that be?” asked Mrs. Syme, as she went to answer it.
It was Professor J. “I don’t mean to bother you, but I was wondering if someone could tell me what happened to me,” he said. “Last thing I know for sure, I went for a walk. Then I had some kind of horrible nightmare. I woke up in my bed and found out I’d missed a day of class. Then a doctor came and told me you people had taken care of me. Whatever happened, I’m grateful for your help.”
“Is that all you remember?” asked Richard.
“Well, to tell the truth I remember some other stuff, but it seemed like some kind of dream. Half awake, half asleep. You were all in it. I was walking with you. I didn’t want to go, but you made me. I couldn’t resist. Then Annie came and looked at me. That’s the last I remember. But Annie’s dead. So it must have been dream.”
“Not a dream,” said Julie.
Mrs. Syme broke in. “Why don’t we wait for Paul to explain it all to Professor J. Will you stay for dinner, professor?”
“Yes, thank you very much. And call me Jeffrey. I..I think Professor J may have grown up.”
Mr. Syme chose that moment to walk in the door. “Ah, Professor J, nice to see you. My name is Paul Syme.”
“That’s Jeffrey, if you don’t mind. Nice to meet you. I heard you helped me and I wanted to say thank you.”
“He still hasn’t sorted things out yet,” said Julie. “Confused as to what was real and what he dreamed.”
“Well, as a good first approximation it was probably all real,” said Mr. Syme.
“But I remember seeing this horrible face….”
“That was probably Annie in a particularly bad mood.”
“Annie? But she’s dead….”
“Exactly. Though I suppose right now she’s a lot more alive than any of us here.”
“Are you deliberately trying to confuse him?” asked Julie.
“It’s your fault, Julie. Once you mentioned it, I decided I like the idea of people reading my mind.”
“Hmph,” said Mrs. Syme. “It would be like reading WAR AND PEACE. Everyone would quit half way through.”
Everyone laughed except Jeffrey, who was still trying to figure out what was going on. Julie said, “It’s been an amazing few days, Professor J. You do remember about us calling you about a ghost, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. I didn’t know it was you. But I was beginning to wonder.”
“It was Annie Inoue’s ghost,” said Julie. “I think you knew her.”
“Yes. And I know—now—how much I hurt her. That nightmare finally got through the concrete,” he said, knocking his head with his fist.
“Talk about it,” said Julie. “Just seeing Annie in full ‘scare them to death’ mode put a new light on things for me too. Hey, are you going to become a Christian too?” she asked.
“Well, I hadn’t exactly planned on it,” he replied.
“You’d be a fool not to,” said Richard. “Now that you know all this stuff is real, it won’t go away. You need something—or someone—to keep you from being destroyed by reality.”
“Well, I really don’t know much about it. I didn’t even know that Christianity had anything to do with this.”
“Love, forgiveness, death, and life,” said Mr. Syme. Everyone waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.
“This is not a good development. His sermons were already pretty short. Good thing they’re not paying him by the hour,” said Mrs. Syme. “Anyway, dinner’s ready.”
They all sat around the table except Laurie, who wanted to keep watch over Mike. Jeffrey said, “You are saying that Christianity is all about those things, right?”
“Yes.”
“They sound like the right things to be about, but how come I never connected them to Christianity?”
“Maybe you weren’t paying attention,” said Julie.
“No,” said Mr. Syme. “It’s not completely his fault. There’s just too much superstructure sometimes. People miss the core because of everything surrounding it.”
“But why is there so much stuff surrounding it?” asked Jeffrey.
“Lots of reasons.” said Mr. Syme, “But that’s not the point. Do you want to hear about the core?”
“Well, I guess, yes, I do.”
“God made us to be his children. We gave away the farm to God’s enemy. That enemy gave us death in return. God sent his one and only son to rescue us. The enemy killed him. The rescue still worked. God had planned him to die so he could overcome death and reconcile humanity to God. Now death is no longer decisive for those who trust God. Instead, we share in God’s life which connects us to eternity.”
“So much for the Fellowship of the Daylight Moon,” said Jeffrey. Richard and Julie both laughed. “So where does forgiveness come in?”
“You’re forgiven, if you want,” said Mr. Syme.
“I want. I know Annie forgave me. I really felt it. It was so good after the nightmare. But then I realized that she wasn’t the only one I’d treated badly. I finally decided that my life was an offense.—No, I wasn’t going to kill myself, but I wondered if there was someone who could forgive my whole life, like Annie forgave what I’d done to her.”
“Yes. There is,” said Mr. Syme.
“You mean Christ, of course,” said Jeffrey.
“See, reading my mind is not that hard,” said Mr. Syme.
Just then Laurie came running in. “He’s waking up!”
They all rushed into the spare room. Mike was sitting up, blinking slowly. “Hello,” he said weakly. “Sorry to miss the party.”
A week and a half later was Easter. It dawned a clear, sunny spring day. As Richard and Julie walked together to the church, Richard said, “I can’t call you the goddess of spring any more, but you are almost as beautiful as Annie was.”
Julie stopped and looked at him. “Did you hear what you just said?”
“Uh, oops, sorry! I meant it as a compliment!”
Julie laughed. “I know. I’m just teasing you.”
“Now you know why I never finish a sentence. I always say the wrong thing.”
“I’ll give you another reason not to finish a sentence,” said Julie, and she reached over and kissed Richard lightly.
Richard opened his mouth and started closing his eyes and swaying. “Richard, are you all right?” asked Julie.
Suddenly Richard opened his eyes and smiled. Julie punched him in the arm.
“Hey, Julie, remember that restaurant we went to before we went to the Fellowship of the Daylight Moon?”
“Yes, it was pretty good.”
“Let’s go there tonight to celebrate.”
“OK. My treat.”
“Nope, not this time. Call me what you want, I’m going to have the pleasure of spending as much money as I can on you.” Julie smiled at him. “OK, Rich.”