I think I might have something for you today," he says, reaches beneath the counter, and his hand comes back with a book, cloth bound cover the color of antique ivory, title and author stamped in faded gold and art deco letters. Best Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood, and she lifts it carefully off the countertop, picks it up the way someone else might lift a diamond necklace or a sick kitten, and opens the book to the frontispiece and title page, black-and-white photo of the author in a dapper suit, sad kind eyes and his bow tie just a little crooked.

Threshold