Free Beyond Reach by Melody Carlson Page B

getting better and better! I'm sort of hoping the pretty blooms are from Conrad, but they end up being from Ebony and some others down at city hall, which is actually quite nice.
    I go inside and put my things away, and just as I'm going back downstairs, I suddenly experience another flash. It feels similar to the one by the fire this morning. But it comes so quickly that I actually stop midstep, pausing right there on the stairs to see whether it's for real or not. It is.
    This vision is brief—maybe just a couple seconds or less—but it appears to involve the same guy—at least the dark brown hair looks the same. Only this time he's in a room, just a nondescript room, but I can tell it's inside a building or a house. And he's wearing what appears to be a gas mask, although I'm not totally sure that's what it is. It reminds me of something from an old war movie, and it actually looks kind of scary. Surrounding the edges of this mask is what looks like silver duct tape, as if the guy is trying to seal the mask even tighter to his face. Then I notice a tube protruding from the side of the gas mask, being held in place by more duct tape. This tube connects to a brightorange metal canister. That's it. And the vision leaves as quickly as it came, about as fast as the snap of my fingers.
    Still, once it's gone, I feel slightly stunned and grab the handrail to steady myself. Then I actually sit on the stairs to think about what I just saw, to figure out what it might mean. But once again, it makes no sense. And once again, I'm assuming that this guy is Peter, although this also makes no sense.
    At first I think he's using the gas mask to protect himself from the air around him. Maybe that “orange tank contained oxygen. But then I remember from chemistry class that oxygen tanks are usually green. For some reason it seems important to figure out what was in that tank, so I head for my computer and Google selections of words like “orange gas tanks,” but only find weird things like “put an orange in your gas tank to improve your gas mileage.” Yeah, right.
    Finally, I give up and just lean back in my chair and let out a long sigh. I notice the colorful balloons happily floating above my head and suddenly remember the times I've helped my mom during the Summer Festival for the park district. Zach and I usually competed over the fun job of filling the balloons with helium—and the big tank we used to fill them was orange.
    Was the guy in my vision trying to breathe helium? And if so, why? Did he want to float away? Or was he trying to kill himself?
    I return to my computer and Google “helium poisoning” and discover that there have been a couple of suicidesdone this way recently. I also learn that the website Olivia and I visited earlier today contains the instructions for how to commit suicide this way. But what does this mean?
    It's already after five o'clock, and I have no idea whether Ebony is still at city hall, but I decide to give her a call anyway. I get her voice mail and leave a detailed message about my latest vision and what I discovered about helium poisoning online. Of course, I don't know what this means,” I admit, “what the significance is… But I thought I should tell you about it.” After I hang up, I decide it's time to write down the two visions I've had today. So I put them in my notebook, much in the way I did when I was helping Ebony with Kayla's case. Maybe it has nothing to do with anything, which I doubt, but just in case, I want to be ready
    Then I decide to go back to the suicide website to see if anyone has read or responded to the messages written by “Grace” and “Hope” today. And man oh man, are there responses! And to say that they are not very nice responses is a
huge
understatement. It seems we've hit a real sore spot with a bunch of mixed-up death-wishing people. As much as we attempted to come across as loving, kind, and gracious, we have been pathetically misunderstood by