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Luis's uncle hugged theyou can help lanced over his shoulder at Luis and s open and he couldn't find his voice The ood friend ould one day live in the stone cottage at Cider Mill Far there now even had the same deep, throaty voice that bellowed froestured to Luis “This young rown nephew, Luis Fortune He says he coot here” He turned to Luis “And Luis, this is ed at the oldthe old man's name with the accent on the second syllable instead of the first, “I can't believe it's you I've never been so happy to see anyone in ed hiuy aled glances and the Reverend said, “I don't think we'venize hiood to see you”

“Let's go inside and get out of this snow,” The Reverend said “These cold fronts frooing to swoop down on you”

When they went into the stone cottage, the Reverend Tho room and Luis's uncle explained Luis's probleet back to his real life, in the year 2011, and join his farabbed von Klingensed the old et back to his real life so he could be with Jase and his son again Luis said he would be willing to do anything the oldthey said, and then he paced the room a few ti, he told Luis and his uncle to sit down and wait for him He said he had to prepare and it would take a e and didn't return until twentysoious clerics that re queen His long purple robe was studded with rhinestones and triold embroidery on the back and front On his head, he wore an over-sized purple pillbox hat that had a huge round diaes On his feet he wore purple velvet slippers with rhinestones He had a large, exaggerated ring on every finger and it looked as if he'd dotted his lips with pale pink lip gloss In one hand he carried a large book; in the other a small red velvet sack

The oldand ostrich feathers fluttering, and set a large book down on a gae and turned to face Luis “I haven't done anything like this in a long tiinia Beach with the old psychics I'm not sure it ork The frequencies have to be in the exact perfect positions But I'll do my best to help you” Then he handed the red velvet sack to Luis and said, “Go back to the s The spirit guides are telling ensmith and opened it When he looked inside, he saw a paper thin slivery, sparkly robe and a pair of slivery, sparkly quarter boots with six inch spiked stilettos He blinked and said, “I' weirder by theand two inch fake fingernails

The Reverend sent hilance “It's the only way, if you really want to get back to your life”

Luis glanced at his uncle “There's no way I' this I'd feel like an idiot”

The uncle was standing off to the side of the roo, and his hands were folded below his waist He smiled at Luis and said, “You can trust hihed and took the red sack to a se He stripped down to nothing and covered his body with the thin silver robe, and then he slipped his bare feet into the silver stiletto quarter boots and looked into a cloudy mirror The robe was so short it barely covered his buttocks The spiked stilettos were so high he could barely stand up straight

When he went back out to join his uncle and the Reverend, he glanced at his uncle and said, “I don't have a good feeling about this I feel like a blithering idiot”

The uncle smiled “You'll be fine, trust in?” He was staring at the open book

Luis's gaze rein” He claether and leaned forward If this did work and Luis did go back to his real life in 2011, he ain He told his uncle, “Please do me one favor You have to take care of yourself I want you to know my son and my husband in the future You have to take your ed “But there is no medicine for what I have, kid”

Luis shook his head “But there will be, and you have to take it I want you inas I can You have to promise me you'll do this”

The uncle walked to where Luis was standing He hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, and said, “I'll doThat's not how life works, and you know it Sos fate takes over and a larger plan develops and we're helpless”

Luis held his uncle tighter than he'd ever held anyone in his life For a moment, he believed if he held hi feeling in his sto attention to him “Do your best, then That's all I ask”

“I will,” said the uncle, and then he went back to the side of the rooensmith lit about four dozen candles all over the roo, spicy incense and started swinging it back and forth very slowly The s, perfect streaensa out in a language Luis didn't recognize It sounded part French, part Latin, and part Italian The words he spoke ran together and reseibberish While the Reverend spoke, Luis felt a breeze pass through the rooan to flicker The next thing Luis knew the Reverend lifted his aruage and all the candles went out at once