“I don't want to be dead. I don't want to fix anything.”
I just wanted to crawl back into my body and go on with my life. I wanted to get married next week, instead of being put in the ground. I wanted Charlie to wrap his arms around me as I told him how sorry I was. He needed to know I hadn't meant any of it. He'd been acting strange lately and I'd lost patience with him. I wanted to go to court on Monday and dazzle the jury with the defense I'd been working on for the last month.
I didn't want to move on. I wasn't finished!
“Before you choose, it also means possibly finding your murderer.”
“Murderer?”
“The train was tampered with.”
I'd loved my life, my family, Charles, everything. I was twenty-seven years old with a brilliant career ahead of me and someone had just stolen what would've been the best times of my life. I'd never be a judge or have kids. I didn't have any siblings. Who would take care of my parents as they aged?
Anger churned and welled up inside of me, growing into something I'd never experienced before. Pure rage.
Then rage answered the question. For the first time in my life, I let anger control me. And if I were to be honest, desperation as well. It wasn't my time, not yet, not now, and if I had to claw my way back in, I would.
“Yes, I will.”
“Would you like some more details?” Harold asked, pushing up the glasses that had started to slide down his long thin nose.
“You said I’d have a body? I won't be a ghost, right?”
“Correct.”
“Just tell me where I sign.”
He held out his clipboard with an x marking the spot. “We need to leave now. Your current form is already in the process of becoming corporeal and this isn't a good place for the transition.”
I watched as the lights of the police cars and fire engines started to glow in the distance, and I was sure that seeing my body bagged was something that would haunt me.
“I've got some details to handle first.” I didn't know what I was going to do. How was I going to explain this to Charlie? I felt at my pockets for my car keys and then I remembered they were on my other body.
“No.” Harold's thin hand manacled my wrist, as I made a move toward it. “We need to leave now.”
“I need to get my things.” I tried to yank my wrist free and realized he was deceptively strong.
“They aren't your things. They belong to the mortal crust lying there.” His eyes shifted to where the crumpled lifeless form lay and then back to me.
I nodded. It didn't matter as I remembered my car was miles from here. I had a spare set at home anyway and I didn't want to touch that body again if I didn't have to.
I walked along behind him as the numbness set in. I felt as if I were mentally drowning and nothing made sense. I followed, not from any real desire to but because it was the easiest path while I tried to get a handle on everything. I was fairly certain if I were still alive, this would have been diagnosed as clinical shock.
We walked through the wooded area until we reached a road where a stretch Mercedes waited. A man got out of the driver's seat to hold the door open for me and, like a zombie, I moved my leaden legs forward and crawled inside.
I leaned back against the leather and thought, what am I doing?
“You're going to feel strangely for a few days while your soul gets acclimated to losing its mortal wrapping.”
My hands, that didn't look like mine, started to shake. “I'm really dead.”
“You aren't dead.”
“The body lying in the field would prove you wrong.”
“Your former body is dead, not you. Well, not exactly. It's sort of a gray area.” He let out an audible sigh as he shook his head. “This is going to take some work.”
“Where are we going?” I needed to get to Charlie. I needed my parents. I had to tell them I was okay before the police scared them. The idea of them having to ID my body...No, I'd get to them first.
“You can't speak to them.”
“How do you know what I want to do?” I swung back to the little man I was disliking more every moment.
Harold looked at me, stone faced. “The reports on you said you had a fairly high intellect. Must I really explain this to you?” He looked at me for more than a few seconds and then rolled his eyes. “What else could you possibly need to do? I always forget how troublesome the transition is. Even if you could talk to them, they wouldn't understand.”
“I'll make them understand.” My voice didn't leave room for debate. There was nothing he could say that was going to stop me. Annoying little man.
“Can't say I didn't try.” He went back to looking through his folder. I ignored his curious response to look at the landscape. I needed to get my bearings.
“Where are we going?”
“I thought it best to take you to your new residence first.”
“I don't need a new home. I have one with Charlie.”
“The body that died had one. You can't use it anymore.” He spoke slowly, with great emphasis on each word.
“Where is this new place?”
“Texas.”
“No. I'm not leaving South Carolina.” Or not for long. Even if he forced the issue, I'd walk back if I had to.
Again I heard him sigh and then he mumble something about transfers before he finally said, “Fine.” He leaned forward slightly and yelled to the driver who he called Hank. “Looks like it's to be Murrell's Inlet.”
The driver nodded his head.
“You're fortunate I believe in having options. Going to have to file more paperwork now.” He shuffled through the small stack on his lap.
I didn't care. I'd be right where I needed to be. Beyond that, nothing mattered. I'd figure out the rest after I got to Charlie and my parents.
Harold settled back and then reached into a briefcase I hadn't noticed before.
“Here.” He shoved a cell phone with a charger into my hand along with a key. “This is to your new apartment and a work phone. I'm already programmed in, as well as some of the other contacts you'll need.”
I took the key, not bothering to tell him I didn’t need a place to stay again. It didn’t matter what he said. I was going home.
Before I even started strategizing about how I was going to get away from Harold, we were pulling into a driveway and I was getting kicked out of the car.
“Go in and lock the door. I'll send somebody by in an hour, if you’re still there.” The door slammed in my face and the tires squealed, leaving dark tracks.
I had been officially dead for almost an hour and, in all the times I'd contemplated what happened in the afterlife, there'd never been a bossy little redhead who abandoned me in the middle of a beachfront condo parking lot.
Chapter Two
The second the car was out of sight, I dialed Charlie’s number. It hadn't even been a choice. He was the most likely to believe the story. If I could convince him, then he could help me explain it to my parents before they had to go and identify my body. The very idea of my mother and father standing over my body, as it lay there on a steel table...
I wouldn't think about it because I wasn't going to let it happen.
I used the work phone Harold had conveniently provided to call Charlie. He didn't pick up until the third ring.
“Hello?”
“Charlie, it's me. You aren't going to believe what just happened.”
No greeting, no frantic “what's wrong,” just dead air.
“Charlie?”
Silence.
I looked down at the phone to see “Call Failed” on the screen. No service? Shit! I walked around the parking lot with my arm outstretched until I saw some bars show up again and redialed.
It rang once and stopped.
“Hello?” I looked down at the screen. The call had failed. Again.
“No, no, no!” I hit the send button again. This time I didn't get a single solitary ring.