DIALOGUES WITH THE DEAD

There the journal ends, and I am suddenly thunderstruck. I thought back to that day. I had gone to Von Slinstoch's basement and found him dead. But the computer was still on, and when I had gone to the monitor, the words "SUCCESSFUL LINKUP" appeared on the screen.

It couldn't be!

Taking Von Slinstoch's journals, I ran downstairs to my basement. I ripped the plastic off the Entity Enhancer and set up the computer on the floor. Then, as quickly as I had gotten the energy for this, the wind left my sails.

"What am I doing?" I said aloud. Did I actually believe that I could contact the dead with a contraption that would send inspectors from the Underwriters Laboratories screaming off into the night? But there it was, all right in front of me. Where was the harm in trying? Von Slinstoch had caused a few blackouts, but he had never burned his house down. What's the worst that could happen? I decided to try.

It took me until somewhere around 5:00 A.M. before I could actually set everything up the way Von Slinstoch described in his journals, including the specifics of replacing the burned out wire. When I finished, I said a prayer, asked God for forgiveness (just in case), and turned on the computer. Following Von Slinstoch's copious notes, I entered the information that he had so painstakingly laid out, until I got to the final prompt: ENTITY TO BE CONTACTED.

As both of my parents were alive, the choice was relatively simple. I would attempt to contact Von Slinstoch himself. I typed in his name, and hit the "enter" key. The screen went black for a moment, then read: ENGAGE ENTITY ENHANCER. I scurried to the Enhancer and pushed the power button. It began to hum and whir softly, and the lights dimmed under the tremendous power drain. As I did not have Von Slinstoch's wooden chair handy, I quickly dumped out the contents of a nearby wooden crate and flipped it over to make a crude seat. The skin over the entire length of my body sprouted goose bumps in anticipation.

Then, it happened.

A ghostly image, blurry at first, began to appear. As it focused, it became quite evident that I was now seated face to face with the late Heinrich Von Slinstoch.

Exactly who spoke first, I cannot recall. It almost certainly was Von Slinstoch, as I was in a mental state somewhere between shock and awe, with my mouth agape like a basking shark. Obviously, the Entity Enhancer worked, and Von Slinstoch was not insane--unless I was undergoing the same dementia.

The exact words of that encounter with Von Slinstoch are gone forever, as I was no longer functioning rationally at that point. What I do remember is that Von Slinstoch congratulated me, both for following his design so precisely and more importantly, having faith (or curiosity) enough to try it out. He discussed his final day on Earth, and explained his death.

He told me that once people are brought back from the dead with the Entity Enhancer, they cannot be brought back a second time. He likened it to breaking an egg: once the shell is broken, it still continues to be an egg--but no longer in its pristine form. After that, their spirits return to the Afterlife and cannot be recalled--at least, not with the current technology. That was the reason why he had not been able to contact Anna a second time when he had excitedly taken me into the cellar. When I asked for the reason behind this phenomenon he simply shrugged and admitted that he did not know. Anna, he assured me, had safely returned to the Afterlife, as did his mother.

Due to the extraordinary circumstances, I was ill-prepared for my first encounter with a deceased individual. Luckily, Von Slinstoch, something of a veteran at this, suggested that I go and get a cassette recorder while this was happening. Unfortunately, he did not suggest this until some twenty minutes had elapsed, and I quickly scrambled upstairs to find the suddenly-elusive recorder (and even rarer fresh batteries). I was so nervous that I must have dropped the cassette three times before successfully loading it, much to Von Slinstoch's amusement. What follows is a verbatim transcript of the tape in its entirety, for the balance of the time remaining with Von Slinstoch: