Almost on cue, Jack re-entered the room.
"And now?" Doreen asked.
"We wait." Jack replied.
They didn't have long to wait.
Almost instantly, all the oil lamps were extinguished as if blown out by a strong wind - or individually snuffed. With the door shut, and it being a new moon, the room was pitch black. Except for two glowing spots. One was hanging on the front of Doreen's blouse by its thong. The other was in the bottom of the hole Jack had been digging in the center of the lighthouse floor.
These two glows seemed to pulse greenly, as if synchronized.
As their eyes adjusted to the dark, Doreen could see Jack gesturing her toward the hole.
As she moved forward, the two glows intensified and started showing huge shadows behind Doreen and Jack, as well as upward through the iron steps of the stairwell. The closer she moved, the brighter the light. When she and Jack were over the hole, it was so intense that Doreen covered her own amulet with one hand in order to be able to see at all.
Suddenly, she got an idea. She looked at Jack and he nodded. Slowly, she knelt in front of the hole and placed her free hand in to the bottom. Scraping off the dirt, the light suddenly grew brighter. With closed eyes she put her hand around the object, which was slightly warm to the touch, and pulled it from the hole it was in.
As the light was so intense by this time, she handed it quickly to Jack, who took it. At that point, the twin glows faded and the oil lamps mysteriously re-lit, as if they had never gone out.
Jack looked at what was in his hands. It was nearly a duplicate of Doreen's, but without the leather thong. Same design and construction, yet hand-crafted much like hers, so unique in it's own right.
"Well, thanks. Good job." Jack said after a moment. "Now it's over."
"Or now it's begun," Doreen said.
Jack waited for an explanation, but had some idea.
Doreen dusted off her slacks and hands as she stood up. "I was headed somewhere before I had to come up here to help you. And I still am. Got a spare month?"
"Well, I don't think there's anything keeping me here now. And I kinda think I'll wind up going there, regardless. So, yea, let's go."
Jack nearly spun on his heel, and with his typical efficient motion, swept up the cards and replaced them in their box, scooped up the rum bottle and capped it, then swung the door open to his quarters and entered.
Doreen could hear humming from the kitchen as Jack quickly washed and rinsed the dishes they had used for dinner and dessert. They each went into the drying rack by the sink with a quiet clatter. She could hear him blow out the pilot light on the stove, then go deeper into his small living area, only to emerge in a few minutes with a stuffed nylon duffel bag.
"OK, we're ready, just a few details out in the main room. I'll meet you at your car." With that he led her to the main part of the lighthouse and through the door to the outside. Dropping the bag just outside the door, he turned to the stairs, taking the curving steps a couple at a time.
She walked down the path and soon saw the light at the top wink out and heard his muffled steps nearly running back down in the dark. She had opened the door to her car and could see him coming down the path, her interior car lights reflecting off him, the rest of the lighthouse structure now dark.
As she slid in to drive, he got in on the passenger side.
"We can pick up your things at the Hotel and I'll let them know to keep an eye on the place till I get back. For all they think I'm strange, they like my stories."
As the car turned around and headed down the twisting road, five ghostly figures watched silently from the lighthouse gallery, smiles on all their faces.