Jamie Corcoran stared directly into the mirror. He didn’t know what would happen, or if anything would happen. Was it possible? Would he actually be able to see his Grandpa Joe’s image beside his own darkened reflection? It was almost impossible to see anything, due to the fact that the tent in which this strange occult ceremony was transpiring was illuminated only by a single candle, which Jamie clutched in his trembling hands. The mirror into which he peered was something of an antique. It was a mirror which was attached to a wooden swivel and stand. It was not his mirror. It was provided for him.

“Why did I let Crystal talk me into this?” he asked himself.

Perhaps because he would do anything that Crystal asked of him. True, they were just friends, and the fact that she had turned 18 over six months before, and that he had just turned 15, made any romantic designs that he held for her seem ridiculous. But it was also true that Crystal Blair was extraordinarily beautiful, and Jamie had made passionate love to her more than once...in his wet dreams.

“Alright Grandpa Joe, I’m getting bored,” he said, with an air of flippancy, which still could not conceal the terror he felt, that just maybe, some image besides his own, would actually appear in the mirror.

And then, Grandpa Joe’s reflection was suddenly there. It had happened so swiftly, perhaps between the unconscious blink of Jamie’s eyes. Jamie turned around to see if his Grandpa was standing behind him, but all he could see was the rustling flap of the tent quiver in the night breeze. When he turned back to the mirror, Grandpa Joe was still there, looking exactly as he had when Jamie had seen him alive for the final time, last Christmas eve... or was he alive?