The next morning, Melinda forces open the door to the upstairs guest room. She coughs as she enters, waving the air in front of her in an effort to keep the dust out of her nose. She walks to the linen closet, selects some sheets, and goes about changing the bedding.
     The room was formerly her parents' bedroom. All traces of them were removed from the room by her grandmother, save for a few dusty books left in the shelves by the window. Melinda turns to them and runs one hand over the old linen book covers. Reading had been a great passion of her parents. She remembers how they would sit by the fire reading after dinner while she played on the floor with her dolls. They had been the picture of happiness, or so she had thought. She still had no idea what went wrong.. not even a clue. She shakes her head as if to empty her mind of her memories. Today is going to be a busy day for her. She needs to clean this room and then attend to other household chores to make Wayne's stay as pleasant as possible.
     "Wayne is staying here," she says aloud to herself, a bit incredulously. Her heart jumps at the thought. She still cannot believe his kindness and dedication to her grandmother. Perhaps this would be the key to discovering her grandmother's illness and maybe even to finding a cure...
     Relief sweeps over her at the thought. Humming a little, she continues changing the sheets and plans the rest of her tasks in her head.