HAPILY EVER AFTER-LIFE

Chapter One

 

The party was a bust.  Almost every girl there had a boyfriend and, even those who didn’t really didn’t want much to do with him.  ‘Probably because I’m five foot six,’ Sean thought.  Just then, there was a far-off rumble of thunder and he looked up into the brooding black sky.  ‘Great,’ he thought, ‘A thunderstorm! That’s all I need!’

 

Sean looked around and wondered what would be the quickest way home.  ‘The shortest distance between two points is a straight line,’ a voice in his head told him.  So, he stepped off the porch and hurried down the street toward home.  The wind began picking up and he pulled his jacket closer to his chest as he went.  Three blocks on, he came to the gates of a cemetery. 

 

Sean hesitated going in.  There’s nothing creepier than a cemetery in a thunderstorm, he thought.  Then a bolt of lightning split the sky and he swung the gate open.  He didn’t slow down to close it, he just gave it a push as he hurried along. 

 

Looking around, he felt a shiver going up his spine as he saw the foreboding shapes of the monuments and tombstones on both sides of the roadway.  Another bolt of lightning and Sean almost jumped out of his skin.  Then the rain came.

 

Within seconds, Sean was soaked to the bone.  He put his head down and tried to continue along the lane and into the now hurricane force winds.  Suddenly he heard a loud crack and looked up just in time to see a huge branch from an ancient oak tree come crashing down nearly on top of him.  As quick as he could he veered to his left and headed for a small mausoleum that stood on top of a hill.  Just as another bolt of lightning flashed, he turned the handle and hurried inside where he would be out of the wind and rain.

 

Thunder shook the ground as he slammed the elaborate filigreed door closed.  Sean was looking out the small window when he heard a voice say, “Who are you and why are you bothering me this late at night?”

 

Sean’s blood froze in his veins and he stood stock-still.  He couldn’t even breath, he was so scared.  The voice said, “Excuse me, but I asked you a question.  Who are you and why are you here?”

 

As if in slow motion, Sean turned around and saw a girl, not much older than he was if her looks were any indication.  She wore an ancient looking green minidress and she was standing next to a marble sarcophagus, her hand resting lightly on the cover.  He barely noticed a slight shimmer and glow surrounding her.  Sean swallowed and took a breath.  The girl gave him a curious look and said, “Well? I know you can hear me, I can tell by the look on your face.  Your being very rude you know, barging in here, disturbing my peace and quiet and then refusing to answer when I ask you questions.”

 

“Your peace?  As in ‘rest in peace?’  Do you… are you…dead?”

 

She sighed and said, “Well I better be, they put my body in here years ago.”  She patted the sarcophagus and said, “This has been my home since 1967.”

 

Sean was quickly getting over his initial fright and began to get curious.  “If you don’t mind, can I ask how did you die?”

 

She crossed her arms and said, “I’ll tell you but, only after you tell me who you are and why you’re here.”

 

“My name is Sean Phillips and my family just moved here about a month ago.  I’m here,” he said as he motioned toward the door and the storm just outside, “Because of the storm.”

 

She smiled and said, “Oh yes, the storm.  Isn’t it magnificent?  I just love thunderstorms, they’re so thrilling, don’t you think?”  Without waiting for an answer, she continued, “I don’t understand, when you said your family moved here a month ago, do you mean here, at Rose Hill Cemetery?  You all died together?  What happened, a house fire, car accident, or something else?”

 

“Oh no, I’m not dead,” Sean answered, “And neither is my family.”

 

“Well then, I’m confused.  If you’re not dead then, what are you doing here and how are we talking?  I’ve never talked to a living person before.  She smiled sheepishly and added, “Well, not since I died anyway.”

 

Sean looked shocked, “Oh man,” he gasped, “Maybe that tree limb really did hit me and I’m dead.  Could that be possible?”

 

“I guess but, as far as I know, if you were dead, you’d know it.  Nobody I ever heard of died without knowing it.  Where did that tree limb fall? Can you see it from here?”

 

Sean moved back over to the door and opened it.  He looked back toward the roadway and saw the limb laying there.  “If you can see it, do you see your body under it?” the girl asked.

 

“No, there’s no body,” Sean replied.

 

“Well then, unless you died some other way, I guess that would mean you’re still alive.  That’s peculiar, maybe you should look around and see if you can find your body laying out there.  It couldn’t be too far away or you wouldn’t be in here with me.”

 

Before Sean could answer the apparition moved next to him.  She reached her hand out and tried to touch him…her hand went through his shoulder, making him shiver.  She got a disappointed look on her face and said, “Never mind, you’re still alive, I guess.  If you were a spirit, I could have touched you.  Wow, this is weird,” she added.

 

The storm was still raging outside the door.  The wind was howling and the rain was coming down in sheets.  “Well, it doesn’t look like the storm is going to let up any time soon,” Sean commented.  For the first time, he looked at the apparition up close.  She was taller than he was; really almost everyone was so that was nothing new.  She had a nice figure too, for a dead girl.  It was hard to tell what color her long hair was, it looked dark, almost black but, then again it was pretty dark in there so…  Blue eyes and smooth complexion finished the picture of the ghost girl.    Sean cleared his throat and said, “Well, it looks like I’m gonna be here for a while so would you mind telling me about yourself?”

 

She turned and walked back to her sepulcher and then turned to face him.  “My name is Cathy Gardner and I was seventeen when I died.  I was born here in this little nowhere town and I died here too.”

 

“Can I ask how you died,” Sean asked hesitantly.

 

“I was at a party with some friends.  We were just hanging out, smoking a little grass and digging on some music…Steppenwolf, I think it was.  We were pretty high already when this dude I had never seen before pulled out some black tar heroin and began cooking it.  I’d never done anything like that before so I didn’t know what to expect.  Anyway, when the dude offered me some I said, ‘Sure, I’ll try it.’

 

“He grinned and melted some in a spoon over a candle.  I watched as he sucked it up into a syringe and came over to sit by me.  He took a cord and wrapped it around my arm, just above the elbow.  As he was tightening it, he said, “I’m gonna inject it into your arm here and then I’m gonna take off the tourniquet and watch as it blows your pretty little head off.”

 

I watched the needle enter my artery and him injecting me.  Then he pulled off the cord.  As soon as he did that, I knew something wasn’t right.  I began struggling to breathe and before I knew what was happening, I was dead. 

 

“I suddenly found myself floating above the scene as my friends realized what had happened.  Man did they freak out!  I watched as the dude and my best friend’s brother picked up my body and threw it into a car.  Then I watched them dump me next to an ambulance outside the hospital emergency room.  The attendants who found me tried to revive me but, I was too dead.  My parents bought me my little house, put my casket in it, and never returned.”

 

“That’s really sad.  Nobody came to visit you after you were placed here?”

 

“Well, my best friend came by once or twice but, after a while she stopped coming.  I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in about forty or fifty years.  I guess everybody either died or moved away.”

 

Sean thought about what she’d said when she added, “Still, it’s not so bad.  There’re lots of others around to talk to so I’m usually not lonely… and there’s always the thunderstorms.  You know, last winter we even had a thundersnow.  It was amazing.”

 

Sean was surprised, “Others? There are other people you talk to here?”

 

Cathy smiled and said, “There’re a few of us that are close enough to talk to each other.”

 

“You mean everybody’s still here?  What happened to Heaven and Hell?”

 

“You know, that’s a really good question.  Not everybody sticks around, most go on, as they say.  Still, I guess there’s a bunch of us who are still here.  One of the others tried to explain it to me but, I just kinda shut down, you know what I mean?  Anyway, maybe one of the others can tell you how it works.  I just know I’d like to go someplace, anyplace that isn’t this little stone house on top of this little hill in the middle of a bunch of dead people.  Anything would be better than this.”  Then as an afterthought, she added, “Only don’t tell the others I said that, it would probably hurt their feelings and I’d hate to do that.”

 

Sean changed the subject.  “So, what can you tell me about the others?  Do you really think I could talk to them?”

 

Cathy thought about that for a second or two and said, “Well, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to, you can talk to me and I don’t think they’re any different.”

 

“Wow, that’d be cool,” Sean replied.

 

“We could go out and see if anyone was around, if you want,” Cathy said as she began moving toward the door.

 

Sean watched as she walked through the closed door as if it wasn’t there.  He followed and, opened the door only to discover the storm had ended.  Then he heard the town clock chime midnight.  “Cathy,” he called and she turned around.  “Do you think we could do this tomorrow afternoon?  My parents are probably worried about me, the storm and all and I told them I’d be home around midnight.  I still have about five or six blocks to go to get there so, I’m gonna be late as it is.”

 

She gave him a piercing look, like she was looking into his soul.  She seemed to deflate as she sighed and said, “I suppose.  Only, you will come back and see me, won’t you?  It’s been really nice to have someone to talk to.  Someone different, I mean.”

 

Sean nodded his head, “Oh sure, I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon.  I’ve got stuff I’ve gotta do in the morning but, I can probably come back around two.  Is that good?”

 

Cathy smiled and said, “That will be fine.  I’ll be here whenever you want to come back. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

 

“See you then,” Sean said as he darted off toward home.