“Then Alexa pulled out the doorknob, and we got out of there,” finished Zack. “Grandma, or whatever that thing is, was losing it big-time.”

“Her fingers were crawling toward us!” added Alexa, shuddering. “On their own!”

Their grandfather shook his head, smiling very sadly. “Yes, the memory of Agatha devolved into a nightmare. My one regret. She deserves better.” Alexa nearly burst from the excitement of her secret. But not yet. She’d wait until Zack gave the signal.

Grampy sighed, then shook the melancholy away. “But enough! It’s good to see you. All of you!”

The children were sitting in the front row of a pew in a small church. Their grandfather sat on the steps to the altar in front of them, his two daughters on either side, with Dimitri sitting next to Aunt Gladys. Alexa grinned when she saw their fingers were intertwined.

“It’s good to see you, Dad,” said Mommy. “It really is.”

He smiled at her, then looked over at Aunt Gladys, taking her in as well. Finally, he leaned forward to address the children. “I’m still fuzzy on how it worked, though. You made Dimitri walk back and forth through the door you purchased for Gladys?”

“It was brand-new, and she only went through it a couple of times,” explained Zack. “Sydney marched Dimitri through it something like ten times—”

“Twenty-seven,” interjected Dimitri.

“Right, whatever—”

“Is lot of times.”

“Yes, okay—” continued Zack.

“Is very boring,” added Dimitri.

“But it worked!” said Sydney, glowing with pride. “Going through it that many times made the door yours, so when we hooked it up, we entered your memory of that awful scene and not Grandma’s. We went in, we shoved you out the second time, and suddenly you remembered coming out both times.”

“Yes. Is freaky weird.”

“Which meant no part of you remained behind, which made Memory Dimitri vanish! My idea! I rock!”

Everyone laughed. Alexa thought her sister was being a bit of a show-off, but figured that was okay. Just this once. Besides, Alexa still had her super-awesome secret.

“Dad,” said Mommy, “this whole experience…it was…”

“Terrifying,” finished Grampy. “I know.”

“Too dangerous,” admitted Mommy. “Things are wrong in the MemoryVerse.”

“MemorySphere,” corrected Grampy.

“See, that makes no sense.” Alexa hid a smile as her mother and grandfather fell into the pointless argument. “It’s not a sphere.”

“It’s not a verse,” countered her grandfather.

“Hello? Short for universe?”

Grampy shrugged. “I discovered it. I get to name it.”

“The point, Dad,” interrupted Aunt Gladys. “There’s a point. Memory hopping can’t continue.”

“Memory hopping?” asked Grampy.

“My own term,” said Aunt Gladys.

“Not bad.”

“You like that?” asked Mommy. “Over MemoryVerse?”

“We’re shutting it all down,” said Zack. Alexa was glad he interrupted because she’d been growing tired of the bickering. “Destroying the equipment. Getting rid of the doors. Everything.”

“Yes,” said their grandfather. “I understand.”

“Do you?” asked Mommy. “No more doors. No more visits. The MemoryVerse might cease to exist.”

“MemorySphere,” corrected Grampy again, and Alexa thought she saw the hint of a smile on his face. “And it’ll exist. It’s its own reality. It can’t be unmade.”

“Will you come out with us?” asked Janice, even though they all knew the answer.

“No. Outside I would go hopelessly insane,” he said.

“Are you sure?” asked Sydney. “We were able to fix Mom and Aunt Gladys. Why can’t we fix you?”

Grampy sighed and sadly shook his head. “Their memories were altered by Memory Dimitri. Once you got rid of him, he never existed to alter their memories in the first place.”

“But you altered your memories yourself,” said Zack.

Grampy only nodded.

“Then…this is goodbye,” said Mommy. She stood and opened her arms. Grampy rose to his feet as well and embraced his daughter.

“I want a hug, too!” squeaked Alexa, jumping up and barreling into her mother and grandfather. One by one, everyone else joined in, until the entire family was in one big group hug, even Dimitri.

“Is sad,” he mumbled. “I cry now.”

Everyone was crying, to the point where Alexa stopped crying because she didn’t like being a follower. She looked up at Zack, eager to spill her secret, but he was busy hugging their grandfather.

“There is one more thing,” said the children’s mother once everyone had hugged it out. “We opened one last door.”

Alexa felt the secret bubbling up from her tummy.

“Oh?” said their grandfather. “That explains it. I noticed another memory open. Just before this one. I assumed it was a mistake. I’ll explore it later.”

“It wasn’t a mistake,” said Zack.

Now Alexa felt they were dangerously close to spilling the beans, so she threw caution to the wind and jumped in. “We found Grammy!” she cried.

Her grandfather looked at her blankly. “You…what?”

“The old garden shed,” explained their aunt. “She went in there. All the time. Not me. Not a gardener. And not you, either. Right?”

A sudden energy infused their grandfather as he shook his head. “Your mother was the green thumb, not me.”

“That’s what we figured,” said Zack. “We hooked the door to the shed up to the machine, opened it for the briefest of seconds, and closed it again. So as not to spoil it.”

“Then we broke the door,” added their mother. “It can’t be used again.”

“Mommy’s waiting for you,” said Aunt Gladys. “If you go in there and stay, it won’t spoil.”

Grampy was speechless. A tear rolled down his cheek, followed by others. Alexa gave him a second hug.

“You’re welcome, Grampy,” she said. “I love you.”