Dr. Atkins hands Wyatt a towel. After wiping his face, Wyatt drapes it across his neck as his hair - wet, tousled and a mess - is left to dry in open air. He glances at the academic awards and accolades hanging on Dr. Atkin's wall. Paul's background check is right on, this man's reputation is beyond exceptional.

Bringing the vintage english tea cup to his lips, Wyatt welcomes its hot respite as he watches Dr. Atkins shift the pile of burning wood to edge on the crackling flames nestled within the fireplace.

"Hard to find a real wood burning fireplace in New York these days," said Wyatt.

"Indeed they are rare, very sought-after, yet seldom used." The tall courtly man replies in his strong British accent. He sighs. "I wish you had brought her with you. It would have been a real pleasure to meet her."

Wyatt sets the tea cup down, careful not to chip what seems a little too delicate for the calluses on his fingers. "With the allegations going on, the last thing I want to do is bring her here. I want to ensure there isn't any suspicion at all of her involvement with the invisible man. To have her here might open doors for questioning which, as I'd like to repeat, I trust you to keep our conversation confidential."

Dr. Atkins nodded and sets his fire poker down. "Of course, I'm rather honored you came to see me. As a scientist, I have much to uphold. This is my life work, hence disaccreditation is my greatest fear. I don't make claims to anything unless I can prove it, even then, I'm weary to share it with the world. You have my word and obviously my signature." He nods at the confidentiality agreement they just signed.

Dr. Atkins slowly sinks into the armchair across from Wyatt, careful as though not to dislodge a hip bone. "I don't typically research adult cases. I've never had much success with them. Too often their past life memories have been tainted by occurrences in this lifetime. There is simply too much room for errors. Imaged memories are best tested for children when the mind is still young, untainted and unblemished by the world around them. There is less room for error." Dr. Atkins goes silent, and considers whether to cut short their meeting before he gets too far involved in this.

His inquisitive nature takes over. "This Josslyn you speak of, she claims this invisible man has been with her for seven lifetimes?"

"Yes."

"Yet, he's never reincarnated with her?"

Wyatt shakes his head, "she claims never, not even when she were..." animals. He struggles to speak. The words are simply too inconceivable.

Dr. Atkins smiles knowingly. He rises and removes his tweed jacket as he props up against the ledge of his bay window. "I know you're doubtful but so is the rest of the world. My studies compel disbelief, Mr. Johnson."

"Wyatt, please."

Dr. Atkins nods. "They call me the Galileo of the twenty-first century. I've spent forty-five years studying psychic phenomena and reincarnation. I've Log nearly 80,000 miles, researched and collected over 3,500 cases of death and rebirth - each with at least 30 witnesses and hundreds of interviews. I don't make any assumptions, I look for scientific evidence to solidify, support and prove stories."

Walking toward Wyatt, he returns to the armchair.

"I'm a renowned research scientist, a genealogist, a retired Psychiatry Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Director and Founder of the Human Personalities Studies at the University of Edinburgh. After publishing 400 scholarly papers and 18 published books, you'd think I'd have already convinced the world to accept the theory of reincarnation - but no, it is simply too inconceivable to believe that heaven and hell may not be the end all; that life continues after death."

"So...you're saying you've somehow discovered what happens to us when we die?" Wyatt asks.

Dr. Atkins shakes his head. "I cannot explain what happens when we die. It is the oldest aging question, one that may prove to always remain elusive and immeasurable. I can only try to theorize based on scientific data, what happens after death."

"Scientific data?" Wyatt huffs. "To think we spend billions collecting scientific data for life forms in outer space, we just never thought to look in our own damn backyard."

Dr. Atkins smiles in agreement, "This Josslyn you speak of, have she mentioned anything at all about how she died in her previous life?"

"Only once...she told me she died somewhere in the - "

Dr. Atkins raises a hand to silence Wyatt. "Don't give me any specific details. It'll taint my research. I just need the most basic information. Let me rephrase, how did she tell you where she died?"

"Right after her nightmare."

Dr. Atkins nods with satisfaction. "Well, see, this certainly agrees with my studies. Many times, cases are brought forth by parents who claim their children purport previous lives, the memories are often stirred by violent deaths that haunts much of their nightmares."

Dr. Atkins reassess his interest in the case. "Do you think I can meet her husband, this invisible man?"

"I highly doubt it. But as of now, my concern is with Josslyn."

A knowing gleam crosses Dr. Atkins face and Wyatt quickly avoids it.

"If you can set up a meeting with Josslyn, I'd be willing to meet her in private," said Dr. Atkins. "No one has to know about it. Given her permission to do do so, I'll treat this as my own scientific study - not to be shared with the world without her consent. I hope to be able to help her understand her situation better; to help her see that she isn't alone in this world. There are many like her - with the exception of an invisible man."

Wyatt nods, but couldn't help feeling like he had betrayed Josslyn's trust. Once again, his good intentions have crossed lines. Further more, he's here to get answers for himself. Who wouldn't? He can't pretend everything that happened last week was a dream, just toss it out of his conscience. He needs answers but most importantly, "I just need to know how I can help her, where to go from here. At this point, I don't think even the most competent next door psychiatrist will do her much good. I'll be damned if I let some shrink prescribe Josslyn antipsychotic medication when she clearly isn't sick. She's all truth...just...rolled up within a mess of lies. I want her to get treatment but she needs the right kind of treatment. For her not to know what Edwin is after seven lifetimes is alarming to me. What is he?"

"My guess is a spirit of some sort - a being that never passed on."

"Why hasn't he passed on?"

"I think the better question is whether he truly wants to pass on."

Dr. Atkins sits silently for a moment, lost in thought. "Death is a fearful thing. It separates us from those we love the most, but imagine if you can live forever with your loved ones - never to part from them. You've just created your own eternity. Death is no longer an issue because separation is eliminated from the problem.

By reincarnating, you lose the people you love, you become shifted to different parts of the world, and quite possibly different time spans; forced to live different lives, never to find each other again. Perhaps he is unwilling to let her go in fear that he may never find her. But in never letting go, he may never find resolution, and most unfortunately, she may never find hers as well."

He leans back into his chair, his aged blue eyes locking with Wyatt's.

"We're not suppose to live this lifetime burdened by all our other past lifetimes, Wyatt. To reincarnate means we get the chance to start fresh, a chance to begin anew; to fall in love again, to see life through new eyes and new perspective, to right new wrongs. The slate is wiped clean of our past errors, burdens and obligations. To remain trapped, we'd be lost in our own identity, unable to define our own purpose to live because we live for more than one soul, we live for more than one person - never truly our own. We'd spend our days longing for past loved ones, never allowing ourselves the chance to accept new ones into our lives.

I've seen children holding so strongly onto their past life, they are unwilling to move on, unwilling to call their birth mothers as their own mother. They instead search tenaciously for the mother of their past lifetime.

Many times, these children never receive closure until they reconcile with these individuals. Many times they have to visit their old house or weep by their old graves. There is a process of letting go; of allowing oneself to forget the past."

Dr. Atkins crosses his legs, "many of these children's memories fade by the age of 10 and many times, they're happy to let go; to begin again and live this lifetime with their rightful family. That is how it should be. But Josslyn never forgot because Edwin never allowed her the chance to forget and Edwin will never pass on until he learns to let her go.

I can only speculate but love, Wyatt, love is why he remains.

If Josslyn is proof of reincarnation then Edwin is proof that love does indeed, survive long after death.

But there is a fundamental flaw in their relationship. We weren't meant to live with an invisible spouse. It messes with our psyche, our inherent need for physical interaction.

I don't know why Edwin is invisible and we may never truly discover why he remains to wander this world without passing to the other side but to spend an entire lifetime with an invisible man is not only something Josslyn must accept, it is something the world around her must accept as well. And should her truth be denied, she will spend the rest of her life constructing lies." Dr. Atkins cocks his head, "Wyatt, are you alright?"

Wyatt's face has gone white as printing paper. He struggles to speak, "this is...all this is just, I mean, have we just solved what happens after death? If Josslyn is proof of reincarnation, how will the world accept this?"

"The world won't. Josslyn and Edwin's story will never be accepted because it stretches too thin reasoning, truth, and empirical data. Only will the world believe it, when they see it with their own eyes - even then, many will remain skeptics."

Wyatt runs a hand over his hair. "So, how-where do we go from here?"

"Well, I'd like to meet her. When do you plan on seeing Josslyn again?" Dr. Atkins eyes Wyatt closely.

Wyatt sinks his head low. "I just want to get her the best help, I don't - I don't think it's my rightful place to ever see her again. In fact, I wasn't planning on it unless I absolutely had to."

Dr. Atkins stands and sinks both hands into his khaki slacks, the man seems to have a good dose of ADD. He gives Wyatt a comforting smile. "I've documented cases in all over the world, I've searched high and low, Wyatt. You won't find another Josslyn in this lifetime. Both Edwin and her are as rare as they will ever come and somehow you - out of all the people in the world - you get a piece of their lives. As disheartening as you feel, you are also rather honored."

Wyatt takes notice of these words but his skepticism lingers. "I'll see if I can get her to speak with you, but how are you ever going to prove anything?"

Dr. Atkins leans against the arm of his chair, his eyes cast to the ceiling as though trying to recall a memory. "I had a case; a boy in Botswana once claimed to be a white rhino, an incredibly rare animal in that part of the land. One day, he - as the rhino - was cornered and brutally murdered by a hunter. He reincarnated into a boy who then unknowingly ran into the same hunter who had killed him in his past lifetime.

At first, he was furious, biting, clawing, violently fighting this man. Soon after, he cried, thanking the man for killing him, allowing him to begin again because life as a rhino was hard - much harder than that of a human.

The hunter himself recalls that he had indeed killed a white rhino seven years back. These two people who live in different parts of the continent - never having known each other - described in precise similar detail how the rhino looked like, the exact location where the animal was killed and that the fatal bullet wound had lodged right below the small left ear.

My studies are scrupulously objective, Wyatt. I use objective and methodological approaches to identify evidences that links people from all different parts of the world. Many times, these people share identical, detailed, and often bone chilling stories ending in gruesome deaths.

So to answer your question, Wyatt, Josslyn simply has to tell me exactly what I need to hear."