Authors: David Pandolfe
As a teenager, I wasn’t sure I was on board for that one.
At the same time, I’d died when I was only fourteen. So, wouldn’t I remain
basically a kid? I wasn’t sure.
“Why don’t we ever see them?”
Martha’s eyes met mine. “Well, they don’t see you either.
Still, they know you’re nearby.”
“Why am I with the kids I’ve met here?”
Martha looked up at the clouds. “I’m sorry, there’s only
so much I’m allowed to tell you.” Suddenly, she laughed. “Believe me, it’s a
long chain of command and I’m nowhere near the top. But there are reasons why
people are placed together. Just like in life, people share similar interests
and abilities. So, they gravitate toward each other.”
A drop of rain hit my nose and I brushed it off. “Did you
choose to be with us?”
Martha nodded. “I did. I’ve been at this for a while and
it was decided I’d be right for your group. I’m sure we’ll talk about that more
someday. But, yes, I chose to help you prepare.”
“For the next life?”
Martha thought for a moment. “Usually, that’s the case.
Although sometimes we choose to remain here for a while. In Service. It’s
entirely up to you. There are all kinds of choices to be made, when you’re
ready. Some people choose an entirely new experience. Others choose to meet up
with those they knew and loved before. That can last quite a long time. An
eternity, so to speak.”
“But not forever,” I said.
“Nothing lasts forever—except consciousness, of course.
That spark, that gift. The soul, if you will.”
I thought about what she’d just said. “So, you’re saying
we never really die,” I said. “We just keep changing.”
Martha laughed again. “Exactly! Energy is energy. Life is
life. It just shifts around and takes different forms. You’re right, it never
dies. It can’t. But you know that somehow, don’t you? You really are an old
soul.”
An old soul. Even though I didn’t know exactly what she
meant, I couldn’t help feel kind of proud, like I’d at least momentarily gained
the respect of an experienced teacher.
“On the other hand, sometimes we fall into traps,” Martha
said. “Bad places we can’t get out of again.”
“Are we talking about hell again?”
Another drop of rain hit me, this time tapping the side
of my face. Birds flew toward the trees, returning to their nests. The leaves
showed their shiny, silver sides in the breeze.
“Not exactly, but something not too far off.” Martha
raised her face to the sky. “This is nice. I haven’t thought to ask for rain
lately. Maybe later it could really storm and I’ll light a fire and read. I’m
sorry—back to what we were discussing. Remember when we talked about people
getting trapped because of sadness, or longing, or attachment? It weakens them
and they can’t move on again. Once it gets bad enough, no one can help these
souls because they refuse to be helped. This too can last for something like an
eternity.”
The moment of Curtis’s intervention flashed back at me.
How all I’d cared about was getting back home again. My walk into town when I’d
felt so lost and weak. What Naomi and Simon had said about me “ghosting out.”
“That was the fever I felt, wasn’t it? Is that what you
meant when you said I was in more danger than when I drowned?”
What Martha had said confused me before, but now it made
sense. A chill rippled up my spine that had nothing to do with the weather.
“By comparison,” Martha said, “dying is nothing compared
to remaining dead.”
“Did you send Curtis?”
“I can’t send anyone. I don’t have that power. I can only
ask.”
“But why did he come?”
“Curtis made that choice for reasons of his own. I’m
afraid I can’t share his reasons, at least not yet. Okay?”
I nodded. “Sure. Of course.”
Martha pointed straight ahead. “Well, we’re almost back
again. Good thing, since I think the rain is picking up a bit.”
I had another question that I needed to ask. “Did you
Banish me?”
Martha closed her eyes, nodded, then looked at me again.
“I did. That power, I have, at least for the time being. It’s not a
responsibility I exercise lightly. It requires a great deal of deliberation.”
In that moment, I felt the weight of her decision. Both
my sadness and her own, as well as what it meant—that more than likely I would
never see my parents or brother again.
“Is it forever?”
Martha couldn’t quite look me in the eye. “Well, as we
discussed, no one situation really lasts forever.”
But one could last long enough, I knew. An eternity, more
or less. She didn’t need to say any more.
We walked in silence the rest of the way, the
neighborhood and our house in view again now. It was still overcast and rainy
but I heard the kids playing and cars rolling past on streets I couldn’t see. I
wondered if for those others it remained sunny and bright. My guess was that it
did.
Just before she opened the front door, Martha turned to
me. “There is one thing you should know. The power you have can do damage to
the people you love. You realize that.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
When I expected Martha to scold me for being an idiot,
the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. “Bear in mind, it can do the
same kind of damage to people you don’t know or love. Not that I said anything.
That’s totally off the record.”
A Cockroach
Driving Dangerously
Martha had convinced me to get some rest and let Jamie and
Nikki continue looking after Bethany. She’d told me I’d know when I was strong
enough to go back and she was right. After our walk together, I slept soundly
and I took it as a good sign that I didn’t have any bad dreams. By the next
day, simply concentrating on Bethany landed me right outside the cabin.
Will and Karen stood on opposite ends of the front porch
staring straight ahead, neither speaking while Jamie and Nikki watched them. It
seemed like I’d landed in some weird moment frozen in time where no one was
talking or moving.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“They’re arguing,” Jamie said.
“Again,” Nikki said.
At that moment, Karen turned to face Will. “It isn’t
right!” she said. “I never would have signed on for that! And you knew it,
didn’t you?”
Will smirked. “Well, when you think about it, what about
this is
right
? I thought we both agreed that some definitions of right
and wrong need to be redefined. For example, is it
right
that one
percent of the population is three-hundred times richer than the rest? Is it
right
that people in this stupid country are slaves to their jobs just for health
insurance? Corporations are criminals but all their crimes are legal. What’s
right
about that? How is this crime any different?”
Karen rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Don’t play that card
right now. You know what I mean.”
“I know exactly what you mean. I also know how you’d like
it to be. Easy. That’s how you always want it to be. But I’m almost ready,
okay?”
Karen exhaled and crossed her arms over her chest. “So,
what’s the deal now? You have some sort of algorithm or code or something that
determines how long it takes before her parents finally think she’s dead?”
Those words hit me like a punch in the stomach. Why would
they want my parents to think Bethany was dead?
“Wish I did,” Will said. “Now, that would make things
easy. But I did a study.”
“You did a study.”
“Yes, I examined cases. Typically, those who waited until
the trail went cold got their money and didn’t get caught. Those who moved too
quickly didn’t fare all that well. Since 2002, there were ten cases where—”
“Wouldn’t it just get riskier?” Karen said, her voice
rising in pitch. “That’s what I’m thinking. We need to get this done!”
“No, you’re wrong. Here’s the deal. After two weeks, the
cops start to pack it in. They don’t say it, of course, but they assume it’s a
lost cause and turn their attention elsewhere. They’re spread thin—everyone
knows that. They keep telling the family they’re working on it but they’ve
written the victim off as dead.”
“Then what happens?”
“Usually, nothing. Because the cops are right, the
victim’s dead. Meanwhile, the family is having a total meltdown. They’ve lost a
kid, the police have bailed. Worst case scenario nightmare.”
“But she’s not dead,” Karen said.
“Exactly. So, we wait until our girl is written off. Then
we make our move. At that point, it’s too late for the cops to get their shit
together again to set a trap. Her parents feel abandoned by the police, the
same people they were looking to for all the answers. What do you think they
do?”
“Let me guess, they pay,” Karen said.
“Bingo. They pay. So, we have about a week to go. It’s
not like it’s going to kill anyone.” Amazingly, Will found that to be funny and
laughed.
Karen stared at him and he turned to face her.
“Okay, sorry.”
“You should be. This isn’t like when you’re writing one
of your little viruses or hacking someone’s system for kicks. This is something
way bigger than that, don’t you get it? This is kidnapping.”
“Actually, I don’t think it’s all that different,” Will
said. “I like to think of it as hacking into someone’s life.”
Karen’s eyes went hard. Suddenly, she went inside the cabin,
then came out again carrying a sketch pad and pencil pouch. “I’m going for a
walk.”
She walked down the front porch steps and set off towards
the woods.
“You didn’t forget your weed, did you?” Will called after
her.
Karen flipped him off and kept walking.
I felt sick with anger. My heart was pounding, my vision
blurred.
“Are you okay?” Jamie asked.
I shook my head.
“Right, stupid question.”
Nikki put my feelings into words. “How can he be so
cruel? What does he think this is, some sort of game?”
The fact was, Will did seem to think of it that way. It
didn’t matter that he was torturing my family with fear. In fact, making them
as afraid as possible was his entire plan so he could score high in the end.
That was obviously the only thing he cared about.
We stood there a few moments without speaking, then Jamie
said, “So, where did you go? Did you have any luck?”
I understood. He was hoping for some sort of good news.
Unfortunately, I had none to offer. “Home, and not exactly,” I said. “Actually,
you could say it was a total fail.”
Jamie and Nikki glanced at each other and I could tell
what they were thinking. The same thing they’d told me from the start, that
there wasn’t anything we could do to help my sister. But at least they didn’t
say it.
“I need to check on Bethany,” I said.
I soon saw that nothing had changed. Bethany sat on the
bed, this time staring at a magazine. There were a few more on the bedside
table—People, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, stuff like that. I could only guess that
Karen must have picked them up to give Bethany something to do. I looked into
Bethany’s eyes but they appeared dull and unfocused. She was looking at an
advertisement and I kept waiting for her to turn the page. Every so often she’d
cough and take a deep breath. How long could this go on? Had it never occurred
to Will and Karen that Bethany might overdose on the drugs they kept giving
her?
I turned to Nikki, who shook her head. “I’m sorry, Henry.
She’s totally out of it. They’ve kept her like this the entire time.”
“Him or her?” I asked, not sure it really mattered.
“Both of them,” Jamie said. “Mostly, it’s his deal. Three
times a day the freak crushes up pills and mixes them with water. Sometimes
it’s just one but other times it’s more. I don’t know what the deal is with that.
But he does it every morning, then in the afternoon and again at night. But
usually he has Karen give it to Bethany.”
“And Karen does what he says.” I needed to be sure about
that part.
“Yeah, she does,” Jamie said.
“Then I guess she really isn’t all that different from
him, is she?”
For a moment when they’d been arguing outside, my hopes
had risen. But my guess was that she’d come back soon and sign on again. Karen
might see herself as being nicer, but she’d still abducted my sister. I didn’t
want to forget that part.
We left the room where they kept Bethany prisoner to find
Will siting in the living room, perched on the couch with his laptop on the
coffee table. I looked at the screen but all I could see was code that meant
nothing to me.
“I’ve been reading him and I’ve definitely been getting
things,” Nikki said. “Stuff about his past, mostly. He thinks about it a lot,
which is understandable. He had a crappy life. His parents were abusive and he
was taken away from them when he was really young. After that, he went into
foster care. The thing is, he’s smart but he never learned how to trust anyone.
As for what’s going on now, nothing’s connecting. I don’t see what any of it
has to do with you or your family. Just to be sure, what did you say your father
does for a living?”
“He teaches college,” I said. “Sociology.”
Nikki thought for a moment. “So, he’s not involved in
business or anything like that? Does he wear suits and ties?”
“No, he just teaches. No suits and ties.” In fact, my
father hated ties. If he owned any, I’d never seen them.
“That’s what I thought,” Nikki said. “But I keep seeing
this guy in Will’s head. This whole deal is about his boss, some guy he worked
for in the past. He kept helping Will, like he thought of him as a son or
something. He helped him pay for college, stuff like that. Then he hired Will
to work for him. Look, I don’t really get the whole computer thing but it had
something to do with that. Do you guys really have to be scared all the time
about people getting into your computers?”
When she said it like that, it made sense. Why would
Nikki get that people these days had to worry about people hacking into their
computers?
“It kind of depends,” I said. “But I guess businesses do.
Is that what the sick freak does for a living?”
“Yeah, something like that. He sets up—” Nikki turned to
Jamie. “What is it again?”
“Shit, I forget,” Jamie said. “System security or
something like that. Whatever it’s called doesn’t really matter. Will worked
for some company and he was the dude who was supposed to protect them from
people looking at their information.” He looked at Nikki. “That part totally
messes me up. Why wouldn’t you just write it down and lock it in a drawer or
something?”
“I know, right?” Nikki said. “But whatever. That guy I
keep seeing is the same guy Will expects to pay the ransom. He’s totally sure
he will too.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense!” I said. Was it possible
that Will and Karen had somehow kidnapped the wrong person? “What about her,
did you get anything?”
“She’s pretty much what she seems like,” Nikki said.
“Kind of a stoner. She likes to draw and paint. She was working as a waitress
when she met Will. He seemed smart and cool, all that. At first, she thought he
was just kidding about this whole plan. But then she realized it was for real.
At the same time, what he said before was true. She figured it for easy, like a
day or two to score some big money and then they’d leave the country. He sold
her on the idea of them moving to Iceland. I guess he thinks it’s some sort of
cutting edgy, funky place where they’d fit in. Weird, huh?”
“It’s also probably the last place anyone would think of
looking for them,” I said. “Does she know the guy who’s supposed to come up
with a million dollars?”
Nikki shook her head. “She’s never met him. She doesn’t
even know his name.”
Which made me realize the most obvious question to ask.
“What’s the guy’s name? Who is he?”
“Richard. That’s all I’ve got. This Richard guy
completely trusted Will. But Will totally betrayed—” Nikki cocked her head.
“What’s going on?”
“My father’s brother—his name’s Richard! That’s who it
is. It has to be!”
In that moment, I also realized Will was right. My uncle
might not have a million dollars in his bank account but he could probably come
up with the money. And he would for his brother. Somehow, Will had managed to
tap into all of it. He’d learned how close my uncle was with my father. He knew
how much my uncle cared, that he’d do almost anything. And when the ransom
demand came through, who in the world could my father turn to? No one could
have ever seen this coming.
Jamie and Nikki watched me.
“You just put it together, didn’t you?” Jamie said.
“I think so.” It wasn’t like I felt good about it.
Instead, I felt as trapped as my sister.
A few feet away, Will kept typing code completely unaware
that we stood right next to him. Something about the way he bent over the
keyboard, his skinny tattooed arms reaching out, his thin fingers tapping away,
reminded me of an insect. He looked like a cockroach to me, something that came
out to feed at night and scurried away again when the light came.
“There’s one last thing,” Nikki said. “I’m sorry.”
I looked away from the cockroach to see Nikki’s eyes.
Suddenly, I realized how tired she looked. I was afraid to ask but it wasn’t
like I had a choice. “What is it?”
“Henry, I think I need to go back.”
Nikki’s eyes met mine once more, then she vanished.
I turned to Jamie. “What just happened?”
Jamie looked at the floor. “She just can’t take anymore
right now. This whole thing’s been really hard on her. Not like reading her
family, you know? Just totally dark.”
“Is she coming back? I really need her help.”
It took a moment before Jamie spoke. “Look, Nikki really
likes you. You know that, right?”
To be honest, with Nikki I never felt quite sure.
“Seriously?”
“Sure, of course. Nikki’s a loner. That she bothered at
all says a lot. She really cares about what happens to your sister too.”
“Then how can she just leave like that?”
Jamie’s eyes seemed infinitely sad. “Because there’s
nothing we can do.”
“Come on, we can think of a way to help Bethany. I just need
you and Nikki to help me.”
Jamie looked back down at the floor. Moments passed, the
only sound coming from Will’s fingers tapping at the keyboard and the cicadas
outside the cabin. Then I realized.
“You too?”
Jamie waited before speaking. When he did, he spoke
softly. “Henry, in this realm we’re ghosts. Spirits, nothing more. If there’s
anything we can do to make a difference, we’ll try. I promise. We did our best
to look after Bethany. I’m really sorry.”
Jamie looked at me one last time, then he was gone too.
~~~
I stayed with Bethany for the rest of the day and into the
night, sitting on the floor beside her bed in that dark room where time was as
lost to her as it was to us. Even more so, since on our side we still had
sunrise and sunset. Maybe those events didn’t coincide with anything happening
in the world of the living, but we experienced them all the same. In the place
where they kept my sister, there was nothing to mark the time and the only
light came from the bedside lamp.