She spun around and brushed a loose
strand of hair out of her face. Her eyes and face were bright in
the moonlight. He did not think that he had ever seen her this
joyful.
“
This is quite the
honeymoon,” he said.
She looked at him and nodded. “There’s
more.” She tapped the fluffy transport on its sides, and it began
chugging along.
As they zipped through the cool air,
Luke was in a daze. This was the flying dream that he loved to
have. And he was having it with his dead wife.
Wife. The word felt good to
say.
“
Wife,” he said
softly.
“
What?” said Alyssa, as the
wind began to grow loud.
“
Just saying the word
‘wife.’” he said. “I can finally call you that.” She gave his arm a
gentle squeeze, and a quick flash of sorrow reflected off her
face.
What was that? wondered Luke. He had
spent a great deal of their relationship interpreting the
expressions on her face, so he considered himself a seasoned
veteran. But, this time, he could not interpret it.
But, when the cloud began to dip down
and zigzag, the thought was flung out of his mine, replaced by the
rollercoaster thrill of the ride.
They passed mountains that looked like
floating cities, surrounded by mist. They dipped down so low that
they were nearly in the water. He could almost feel the cool splash
from the waves and see fish swimming under. He reached one hand and
felt the cool sensation of the water.
Then they moved onto land and zipped
past green pastures.
They were moving so fast that Luke had
to close his eyes and hold onto Alyssa. She did not laugh at him,
but allowed him to grip her tight. Clutching onto her body, the
ride no longer felt so scary.
They finally landed in a tiny field. It
was quiet and still all around them.
Luke got out of the transport and
helped Alyssa out.
They looked around and saw they were in
someone’s backyard. Luke looked down and saw that the grass reached
up to his knees.
“
That was really fun,” Luke
said. “Let’s do it again.”
“
Mkay.”
To Luke, hearing her say that word was
like losing himself in a melodic tune.
They prepared to go back in the
transport, but Luke froze. He recognized the area. Curiously, he
stared at the backside of the tiny little brown house in front of
them, its paint peeling off. He could see it clearly even in the
dark.
Alyssa tapped him on the shoulder.
“Honey? What’s the matter?”
“
This is where I grew up,”
he replied, without looking at her.
They heard noise coming from the house.
It was someone shouting. Luke approached the back porch, which was
illuminated by a single light.
He peeked into the window and saw an
obese man with sideburns pointing his fingers at a little boy. The
man was yelling, “Concentrate! Do the same math question again, and
don’t talk until you’ve got the right answer.”
The little boy whimpered, and began to
cry.
The old man gave the boy a look of pure
contempt and disgust. “What? You got feelings now? What are you, a
girl?”
Alyssa put a hand on his shoulders.
“You dream of this often?”
He nodded. “Every now and then.” Then,
he turned around. He did not need to see any more of
this.
“
Let’s go,” he said,
clutching onto her hand. “We don’t need to see this.”
“
Wait,” Alyssa said,
refusing to move. “I wanna see more.”
She peeked into the window, but the
image was gone already.
It was replaced by a big field, which
they now realized they were in. The wind was beginning to blow very
hard.
“
You hear that?” she said.
Her face and hair were being pummeled.
Luke stopped talking and listened. It
was just the wind. Very normal.
“
I think they’re coming for
me,” she said.
Luke surveyed the field too, and
noticed that the grass was growing taller. They were almost up to
his chest. A mist began to circulate through the area, until
visibility was less than a couple feet.
“
What’s happening?” he asked
Alyssa.
But Alyssa could not hear him because
the wind was growing fiercer. The ground shook, and Luke saw the
grass sprout taller still.
Except it wasn’t the grass anymore. The
strands turn into giant cornstalks that towered high above
them.
The Wind roared and scared away the
mist.
Now, it was clear where they were. Back
at the cornfield.
Then, the Wind stopped.
They perked up, like two rabbits
suspecting a hunter’s trap. The sudden silence was
eerie.
Luke strained to hear something, but
all he heard were cicadas squealing like they were pigs being
hauled to the slaughterhouse.
“
Get down,” he
said.
They huddled down in the tall grass,
praying that it would conceal them.
“
They’re going to drag me
off to some place called Home,” Alyssa said.
“
Is that Heaven?”
“
I don’t know. But I do know
it means I can never see you again, not even in your
dreams.”
Luke held her closer. “I’m not going to
let that happen. They’re going to have to get through me to get to
you. I‘m not going to let you go again.”
He stared her in the face. In that
moment, he knew that she had forgiven him.
He squeezed her again, pulling her so
close to him that she might have suffocated. “Never again,” he
murmured. “I’m not going to let them get you.”
She leaned her head against his head,
then nuzzled his neck with her mouth.
After a little while, all was quiet.
Luke decided lifting his head up to peek through the grass when he
heard a thump on the ground.
Thump!
There it was again.
In the corner of his eye, he saw a
patch of grass stomped down. He held his breath as Alyssa buried
her face in his chest.
Luke saw another patch of grass stomped
down, this time directly in front of him. The two of them knelt
there, frozen, not daring even to think.
There was silence again, and no
movement.
“
We need to get out of
here,” Alyssa whispered.
He looked at his wife and noticed that
her face was fogging up, as though he were wearing glasses. No,
that wasn’t it. Mist had invaded the space between them, pushing
them apart. The ground was splitting open as though they were in an
earthquake fault zone. Alyssa grew farther and farther apart from
him.
Luke stood up, reached out one hand,
and was about to jump over to her when he looked down and regretted
it. The crack was filled with blood red molten lava, crackling and
splashing everywhere.
“
Alyssa!” he
yelled.
She reached out one hand, but she was
too far away to reach Luke. Instead, she screamed, “They’re coming
for us! Run!”
Before he could even try to jump across
the divide, Luke saw a figure materialize in front of Alyssa. He
couldn’t see much in the fog, but he thought he could make out a
navy blue raindrop shape.
Alyssa’s cry pierced the
air.
Luke knew he just had to get to her, so
he took a risk on the fiery divide. As he was jumping across, he
saw the raindrop shape grab Alyssa and take off into the
air.
In a split second, his beloved was
gone.
* * * * *
Chapter 13
Luke woke up with a headache. Groggy,
his eyes felt like shutting down, but he forced them
open.
What time was it? He looked at the
digital clock. 12 noon.
He reached over and tried to pull
Alyssa closer to him, expecting to feel her breath on his neck, but
all he touched was empty air.
Oh. Right. He remembered that he was
not going to wake up to her anymore.
Then, he remembered his
dream.
Alyssa had been captured by some
weather figure. He may not see her again, not even in his
dreams.
He fumbled around his bed for his
sleeping pills. He had to get to sleep again. He had to see
her.
His fingers curled around the bottle
and he poured some pills into his hand. He couldn’t find any water
close by, so he jammed the pills into his mouth and crunched them.
Luke grimaced at the bitter taste, but it was a small price to pay
to see Alyssa right away.
He swallowed, and the pills left a
strong medicinal aftertaste.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on
sleep.
It would not come.
His mind flitted from thought to
thought.
Alyssa. Clouds. Beach. Wind.
Cornfield.
After a little while, he did not slip
into sleep, but managed to go to an in-between place. Still holding
onto consciousness, he found himself in some misty dark field. It
looked like a field that could be glorious in the sunlight, but
there in the murky blackness, it was downright creepy.
“
Alyssa?” he whispered
tentatively.
The Wind must have heard him. It
bellowed and made him squeeze his eyes shut. It blew so hard that
he was forced to take a step back.
Holding up one hand in a futile attempt
to offset the Wind, he opened his eyes, and saw nothing but
fog.
“
Alyssa?” he said
again.
Then, the Wind subsided and he saw
something emerge from the fog.
A figure in the shape of a
raindrop.
It had no eyes, ears, mouths, arms nor
legs. It did not resemble a human in the slightest.
Luke was frozen in place.
The figure did not move, but it spoke
to him.
“
Don’t come back for Alyssa.
She’s ours.” It had a gravelly voice, yet it was high-pitched. Luke
thought it was female.
“
Who are you?” Luke asked,
recovering his bravado.
“
Don’t will yourself to
dream of Alyssa anymore. Spirits are supposed to be caught and
taken Home. They’re not supposed to be visiting people in the
living world.” The figure hovered above the ground, mist swirling
around it.
“
Who are you?” Luke
repeated.
“
A reaper,” was all the
Raindrop said.
“
Is she with you?” Luke
asked.
It did not answer his question.
Instead, it said, “This is your only warning.”
It disappeared, taking the darkness,
fog, and field along with it.
Luke was left in a room of pure white
light, which began to go gray.
“
Luke!” a male voice
whispered. “Wake up!”
Luke felt his shoulder being shaken. He
opened his eyes, but then closed them again. Although the day was
gray, the weak light still hurt his eyes.
“
Wake up,” the familiar
voice said again.
Luke heard the rattling of the sleeping
pill bottle. It did not sound like there were many pills left in
there.
Then, the voice spoke again. “Oh my
God. You took the entire bottle of sleeping pills?” The arm shook
him more violently this time.
Luke opened his eyes. The first thing
he saw was the digital clock. 1 pm. It had been only one
hour.
He turned around and saw Mike standing
there, looking concerned.
“
Mike?” Luke said. “How’d
you get in?”
“
The door was unlocked. Man,
I’m worried about you. Did you take this entire bottle of sleeping
pills?” Mike indicated the bottle.
Luke struggled to keep his eyes open.
“I took most of it.”
Mike sighed and sat down on the bed
beside him. “I can‘t imagine how you must feel about losing Alyssa,
but you could have overdosed on these pills. Trust me, I’ve taken
them before. They’re drugs, and addictive like hell, like cocaine.
You can get dependent.”
Luke ignored him. “What are you doing
here? Don’t you have work?”
“
I was in the office and saw
you weren’t there, which was weird. You never miss work. I got
worried and found you here.” He held up the bottle and shook it.
“With these.”
“
I was fired,” Luke said. He
felt the urge to pull the cool blankets up over his head and go
back to sleep, go back to Alyssa, but he couldn’t do that to Mike.
Mike was his only friend, now that Alyssa was gone.
“
Fired?” Mike looked
shocked.
“
I made another
mistake.”
“
Oh, man. That
sucks.”
“
No it doesn’t,” Luke said
as he thought of Alyssa in his dreams. “I saw Alyssa’s body in the
morgue at the hospital. She’s really gone.”
“
I’m sorry,” Mike
said.
“
Don’t be. I’ve been having
the most wonderful dreams about Alyssa. In my dreams, I married
her, then took her flying through the clouds for our honeymoon. But
then, I couldn’t get to her for some reason.” He knew exactly why,
but he did not want to tell Mike about the Raindrop and the
Wind.