"Gee. Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, with genuine concern.

"Ah, well," he said, the gleam returning to his eyes. "Actually, it is sometimes much easier for a younger spirit to guide a departed one, than say, an older, tired spirit like my own."

"Really?" Angela was still very curious about this whole concept of spirits moving from one plane to another. She didn't understand much of what the old man was saying, but she knew that she wanted to help him.

"Indeed," Enderlander said, softly, his thin smile slowly returning.

Angela took a couple of steps closer to the old man. "What can I do?"

He began to gently shake the small cube, once again. A soft, muffled rattle could be heard within the box.

She moved a bit closer, her eyes on the box. "You were shaking that when I came in," she said, quietly. "What's it for?"

Enderlander moved the box a bit higher, so the light reflected off of it in broken waves as he shook it. "With this," he replied softly, so softly, in fact, that Angela had to lean in toward him to hear what he was saying, "we attract the attention of the departed spirit, so to guide it on the proper path."

"But, it didn't attract your mother's spirit?"

"Ah, well, the...items within the box have not been needed for many years and their potency has obviously diminished. Without the aid from...of what is in the box, my own spirit is too weak to be a proper guide, it seems." He was moving the box in a circular motion as he spoke, still gently shaking it. The old man began to murmur to himself once more, the sound rhythmic and repetitive, almost like a chant of some kind.

Angela's eyes were still on the box, slowly circling in the dim light. Her head began to follow the pattern of small circles. "Um...so...what's in the box?" she asked, quietly, a slight frown marring her pretty face.

Enderlander brought the box closer to Angela. He had stopped shaking the dark cube, but something inside still rattled softly, as if trying to attract attention to itself. Whispering now, the old man said, "In this box are the real guides to the next world. It is they who lead the spirits of the dead from this plane, to where they will spend eternity."