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Just trying to make a connection with one of the kids, I guess.”
        “Me too,” Conner said. “Just an acquaintance really, some kid who got in with the wrong crowd, I think. I thought maybe I could be of some help, but unfortunately, I think I may have just made things worse. I don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of stuff.”
        “Yeah.” Jim looked down and sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
        They both fell into an awkward silence for a moment. Conner didn’t really know the guy well enough to make further small talk, and frankly he was going to be late getting to the office as it was.
        He turned to leave. “Well anyway, nice to see you again. I hope you have better luck than I did. Take care.”

7
    MITCH GAZED DEEPER into the stranger’s window of liquid light. He could see the images more clearly now.
        “There’s . . . like, another room back there,” Mitch said. “Some kind of room.”
        Nathan stood still. “Good. See anything else? any details? What kind of room?”
        Mitch squinted, pushed the dark glasses tighter against his face. “Umm . . . I see something. A bed, I think. And some other stuff . . .” Then he straightened up. “It’s a hospital room.”
        Nathan moved closer. “Can you see the bed?”
        “Yeah . . .” The surface seemed to grow calm, and the entire room came into focus. Someone was lying on the bed. Mitch could see a network of tubes, lines, and monitors behind it. He couldn’t quite see the person’s face. It was wrapped in gauze. The person was big—too big to be a woman or a child. It was definitely a man.
        There was some kind of picture on the patient’s arm. A tattoo. In fact there were multiple tattoos, the biggest one resembling a snake coiled around the upper arm. Though not exactly a snake . . . more like a dragon. A Chinese dragon wrapping around his arm, jaws open wide, fangs bared, horns curling up from its head…
        It looked like . . . exactly like Mitch’s tattoo. On his arm!
        Mitch lurched away from the window. “This is some kind of trick,” he said. “Just another hallucination.”
        Nathan grabbed Mitch’s arm. “It’s no trick. Look again!”
        Mitch saw movement through the portal. Someone had just come into the room. It looked like a doctor. He leaned over the bedside and touched Mitch’s head.
        Mitch frowned. “Who’s that?”
        “Listen,” Nathan hushed him again.
        Mitch could hear another voice, echoing softly, as if far off in a vast canyon.
        “Mitch.”
        The doctor took a clipboard off the foot of the bed and began reading. Mitch instinctively moved sideways for a better view, and the entire scene inside the window rotated along with him. Almost as if Mitch was able to turn and get a three-dimensional view of the room through the portal. Mitch had a clear view of the doctor’s face now. He gasped.
        “Conner?”
        Mitch hadn’t seen the guy in five years, but he was sure that was Conner Hayden. Why was he dressed like a doctor? Mitch reeled. He watched Conner replace the clipboard and lean down again. Mitch could hear his voice better now. More distinct.
        “I’m not going to let you die.”
        Mitch pounded the wall with his fist. “Conner!”
        Suddenly the image went black.
        Mitch backed away and pulled off his glasses. The hole in the wall now revealed only some wiring and part of a wooden stud behind it. The light and the watery surface were gone. It looked like just an ordinary hole in an ordinary wall. His brows curled down, and he turned to Nathan. “Where did it go?”
        “These windows only last a few minutes.” Nathan removed his glasses and shook his head. “Think what you want to think, but I’m telling you it’s the truth.”
        Mitch inspected the hole. There was no sign of water or any