That night we all sat around the table, miserable in our attempt to be normal. We'd put Dad in his bed, and he lay there now, covered and silent. His breathing continued to be normal, but he would not respond in any way to our efforts to wake him. We'd finally given up.

Miyoko had done a great job of catching up everyone on our adventures in the ocean and in the air. It seemed impossible that they could have slept through the whole thing, but no one remembered much at all. Only Rusty recalled anything relating to the attack—the haunted vision of Dad's face in the window.

“What do we do?” asked Rayna. “Perhaps we should head for land, get a doctor for your father.”

“Yes,” Tanaka said. “Yes. We go now, get doctor for your papa.” He stood up from his chair and walked over to me. “Jimmy-san. You, me, we become best friends, neh?”

I nodded, but couldn't say anything. He continued.

“What is dear to you is dear to me. If I, if Tanaka-san,” he put his hand on his chest, “could replace himself with your papa, I would do it. I swear to the okisaru I would do it.”

“Thank you, Tanaka. I mean it. Thanks.”

Tanaka's face changed a bit, his eyes looking beyond me, a look of confused contemplation washing over him. He stared, unmoving.

“Tanaka?” I said, worried the old man had finally gone over the edge.

He blinked, shook his head, and ran his fingers through his greasy hair. He pulled at his eyebrows, scratched his nose. His eyes focused once again on mine, but he said nothing.

“Tanaka?” I asked again. “What's wrong with you?”

“Uh … uh. Wrong? No … no, nothing is wrong, my friend.” He slowly shook his head back and forth as he stumbled back to his chair and plopped down into it.

Miyoko got up and ran to him, kneeling down and putting her hand on his knee.

“Father, what is wrong?”

Tanaka still had a dazed look, his forehead wrinkled and eyes squinted as he continued to ponder whatever thoughts had overtaken him as he spoke to me.

“I … don't know what to say. When I mentioned the okisaru, something … “

He patted Miyoko on the shoulder, then stood and headed for the door.

“I am sorry, my friends. I must rest.”

He left the room without another word. Miyoko followed him.

“What in the heck just happened?” Rusty asked.

I then told the story of the okisaru to those who had not been there—about the giant monkey we'd met while searching for Hood weeks ago.

“And that's all I can really tell you,” I said after relating the details. “I don't understand it any better than you do. A huge monkey reached over, touched Tanaka in the forehead, then vanished into the trees. That's it.”

“And you say these okisaru are some kind of ancient legend?” Joseph asked.

“Yeah, I guess. Tanaka said something about them being wise and powerful or something. But after it touched him on the forehead, Tanaka didn't say a word. Not a word.”

Everyone was silent for a while, trying to picture a ten-foot-tall monkey.

“This is too much for me; I'm going to sit with your dad,” Mom said. I could tell she was on the edge of losing her composure, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Okay, Mom,” I said.

“You guys figure out what we're going to do,” she said as she walked to the open door. “I … think it would be best to find a doctor. But I also know that Jimmy has important things to accomplish.”

She walked back to me and put her hand on my head, lightly tousling my hair.

“Jimmy, ultimately this is your decision. I promise I'll support whatever it is you decide.”

“Mom, don't talk like that. You're scaring me.”

“I'm serious, Jimmy.” She knelt down beside me, looking into my eyes. “Listen to me. We all know the heavy burden that is on your shoulders. Dad would not want you to put that to the side for him.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “Deep inside of me I know that we must continue on and find the Third Gift.”

She stood, and tried to smile. “I'll be with Dad.” She hurried out of the room before the tears really started to flow.

It was now me, Rayna, Hood, and Joseph.

“What do we do?” I asked them.

“Your mom is right, Jimmy,” Joseph said. “It's your choice. Although I must admit it's a little strange to take orders from a guy for whom I used to change stinky diapers.”

I winced. “Please, Joseph, don't conjure up that image in my head. All I need is a picture of you handling a wet-wipe.”

“I think we should do what we decided before your father became ill,” Rayna said.

Joseph and I looked at her.

“You mean the IDL?” Joseph asked. “Head for the International Date Line, follow it across half the world until we find some tower that may not even exist, leaving Jimmy's father in bed, perhaps dying of some otherworldly disease? Do all of this on some bizarre notion I got while reading a note we found in a bottle in the middle of the ocean that is forty years old? This is what you think we should do?”

Rayna nodded, calm and collected.

“I agree,” Joseph said with a smile.

They looked at me.

I knew that what I said next was of such importance that, no matter how cliché or ridiculous it sounded, could forever change the course of our lives and the entire world. I had no misgivings or naïve hopes about my dad and what we could do for him. The odds of a normal doctor helping him were slim, even if we could possibly spare the time to find one.

That was the problem. There was just no time. In the span of one month, we'd seen the Shadow Ka go from mostly human to mostly not human. Things were in fast forward, happening way quicker than I ever would've thought back when I blocked the Black Curtain.

For all we knew, the Curtain was no longer blocked at all. And Mom was right about what Dad would want us to do. We had no choice, really, so making one was much easier than it seemed.

I stood up.

“Let's do this thing,” I said, slapping Joseph on the side of his bald, shiny head. “We're heading for the IDL.”