Ra Salcedo returns to his hometown, Old Yantic, without having resolved key identity issues. He has not met a single familiar face---the cherished spaces from childhood have all closed. Has he made a mistake, taking a job with the local police? He's burdened with doubts... until he's sent to investigate Renata Machado. She's a young woman who has been targeted by a group of bigoted neighbors, using traditional bullying tactics to drive her out. Until an AI geek moves in next door and introduces a way of communicating appealing to the imagination. This new, invisible presence is like magic---soft, inviting, inventive, gentle. Renata falls in love with the entity she calls Pauli, who visits her like a lover. But, like Viktor Frankenstein ees from the creature he created, because of its ugliness, so does Pauli's creator ee---but because he's afraid of love. This leaves a Quantum space open to unethical learners of teleportation. What follows is a journey into Terror, where Renata discovers her strength and intelligence to confront darkness. While trying to get help from the authorities, unsuccessfully, she enters a road of self-actualization, of knowledge. The people she's ghting seem to consider everyone who walks in integrity an enemy. Renata's statement, "I'm not ready for magic without ethics... Nobody should be," calls for society's awareness to the dangers of unchecked scienti c research. The story is narrated in three voices--- rst person, with Renata and Ra as witnesses; and the third person impersonal narrator, who provides the reader with a needed distance to sort out the facts presented. It helps that Ra Salcedo manages to solve the riddle of a mysterious murder thanks to actively listening to Renata's story. Which brings us to the beginning: Renata's plea to opening our eyes to things that are not supposed to be happening.... Famous people warned us. Einstein talked of "spooky things in the distance." And Schroedinger... But rst we need to read the story to see what all this means.
