Jim Bernier was hurting. He was in the process of recovering from a skiing accident in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was midwinter on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and the damp wet cold of the sea was taking its toll on his spirit. He hadn’t been out of his home in a couple of weeks, held captive there by the after-effects of a concussion he suffered when he slid out of control into a tree on the side of a ski trail. His stepdaughter had coaxed him into trying a descent that he was not capable of navigating, as he found out the hard way.

Not only was he suffering, but his teenage stepson Haden had had some very traumatic experiences lately. It all began when Haden and a friend began playing with an Ouija board in the fall. The first spirit that came through was his late grandfather, whom he and his sister called Jiddo. Jiddo had been the king of a Middle Eastern oil rich country until he abdicated so that the people could form a democracy. His immediate heir to the throne, Haden’s father, was pure evil. In his impatience, he had plotted to kill his own father to gain the leadership of the country before it could be converted to a free republic.

Jim had plenty of time to think and review his life while he was convalescing. His mind drifted back to his childhood in the Midwest and the beginning of his nightmares where repeating dreams found him battling in a life and death struggle with a man who had evil eyes. The skirmishes were placed in different historical times, and they were fighting over a beautiful woman. In some of the dreams he was the victor, while in others the evil eyes prevailed.

He thought of his college days where he had met his now best friend David. That led him to his sales job with a hardware company and to his ill-fated trip to New York where he encountered the evil eyes leering at him through the body of Prince Samir. He felt cold shivers of fear as he literally ran for his life trying to stay a step ahead of the hit squad Samir had set on his trail. Then a beautiful woman stepped out of the limousine and looked deep into his eyes. He knew at that moment, even though she was Samir’s wife, that she was the one that he had fought for since the beginning of his soul.

Jim had promised himself and Amy when they returned from their winter vacation in New Hampshire that they would enlist David to help his stepchildren Haden and Jade begin to learn the true nature of themselves. After his accident he began to realize that perhaps both he and Amy could also benefit from David’s tutelage. David had been a practicing minster in a church that included the metaphysical when Jim sought him out to help him solve the riddle of his past. That past was deeply rooted in his soul, and David’s skill in being able to guide Jim back into other lives provided the key to saving himself and Amy during the life and death battle at the Beach House. He had learned not only to respect David’s abilities but also to rely on them.

It was frustrating to Jim that he was not able to immediately start what he and Amy had been planning since Haden was released from Samir’s control over him. It was time to fill in the blanks that were missing from their son’s memories of the events leading up to and including RoseAnn’s clearing and banishing of the dark energy caused by the boy’s father. “It is far better for him to gently discover what he has endured rather than to be thrust back into the trauma of it, if and when a flash of memory comes into his consciousness,” Jim thought, remembering stories of returning war veterans who could be reminded of combat by a loud sound such as a car backfire. “If we can avoid that kind of experience for Haden, I would call it a miracle in itself.”

There was something else going on with Haden besides his lack of memory; he was also noticeably changed by the experience. There were parts of him that just weren’t the same old Haden anymore. He had a softer side. His parents didn’t know if this was a permanent change or temporary, but his mother especially was pleased with her new young man. “I wonder,” Jim thought, “if he remembers the events, will he change back to his old self or will he continue as he is now? I just know David will be able to guide him.”

Another clue that a transformation was taking place in Haden was his tendency towards empathy. He seemed to be experiencing, physically, everything his stepfather was going through as he recovered from his skiing accident. Jim wondered what that was all about.

Then there was Jade. She certainly was also going through some sort of a change. She seemed to be communicating with her deceased grandfather, Jiddo. It was he who had willed the Beach House to his daughter-in-law Amy. “The information that Jade is coming up with is amazing. I can’t believe she knew about the different places we looked at when we were up in the White Mountains and yet somehow she was right on in her description of the Lake House. I sure hope David can help us to understand what is going on with her. I don’t want her to become afraid of her psychic abilities. I believe that if she can learn to work with them, she will have tools that can help her throughout her entire life,” thought Jim.