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live her life in this world without his intrusions."
    "Don't be absurd, Sydney! He can make no such promise. No one person can stand against the force of fate and the inevitable. If, in fact, they are meant to be together then it will be as it must."
    Were they speaking about
me?
    "We learned the same thing fifty years ago, didn't we?"
    I can feel the space between them and close my eyes to soak in the momentary tenderness of her voice. I remembered the story of how they met on a magical night in Jerusalem so many years before.
    "It's too dangerous, Sophie. You of all people know better than anyone. We have control, we can choose! Change our fate."
    "I was with her before, on the roof. She
knows,
Sydney. She is becoming aware that she has the gift. Things are happening to her, and she wants explanations. She clearly possesses the abilities—and she's the only one I've seen it in. She has been born into this family for a reason. I am convinced of it. It is as Benjamin said."
    I strain to hear everything they are saying. I want to run away but am too afraid to miss any of the shocking information.
    "It does not have to be this way!" The rage in my grandfather's voice frightens me.
    "What has happened to you, Sydney? You've changed, lost your belief. Your desire to pursue the truth at any cost. You've become like the others. Accepting the rules imposed by those who came before, who are guided by fear and uncertainty. That was never you."
    "This is so much bigger than just us, than simply what I might want. You see—"
    "You're a
scientist!"
My grandmother yells, interrupting. "You've devoted your life to uncovering the mysteries of this world and everything in it. If you've found the connection, the link through the barrier of this world to beyond, then—"
    "I have always aligned myself with the ones who did not believe, who needed irrefutable proof of the existence of something other than what we can touch and see and feel. The search for something beyond this life has never been considered scientific, yet we now have the ability to prove that it is. You see, Sophie, it's all so clear. The answer has been in front of us all along. Doggedly pursued by those who claim that nothing else matters. Nothing but discovering the Truth. Their god is science."
    "You were always one of them."
    "Ironic isn't it," he laughs.
    "When will you decide, Sydney?"
    "Perhaps it's simply enough to know. To finally have the proof that there is so much more beyond this world."
    "That's the question you've been trying to answer your whole life." My grandmother's voice is low.
    "This
is the world we live in and must protect," he says.
    "And what about Gabriella?"
    The sound of my name sends chills down my spine.
    "She will be kept safe, Sophie. I have seen to it."

----
6
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    A ND THEN, A FEW days later, I know my childhood is over.
    The terrifying and powerful ability I have to see things before they happen, shows me. I see the unthinkable: that I would lose one of the few relationships that filled the dark, quiet spaces of my life.
    I can't understand where the beginning will be in this ending.
    The summer is drawing to a close, and Lily, Emily, and I run along the dusk-lit streets, holding hands. My feet hurt, wounded by the new shoes I had insisted were comfortable enough for our last summer adventure together before I need to go back, so far away. I hoped their shining promise would bring the same qualities to my new beginning. Fall, cold and fresh, was ready to wipe away the heat of summer with opportunity and change.
    We are almost home, the last light of day casts a deep orange fire across the beach. We kick through the leaves, breathless and laughing, as we race to see which of us would reach our imaginary finish lines first. We have our new books, sharpened pencils, and paper waiting to be filled. Our days' treasures from the hunt, placed safely in bags that swing around our small frames.
    Endless possibilities lie ahead.
    My perceptions