“Please, please,” I begged. “I can’t go on without her. You have to help me.” I was desperate.
“Now listen carefully. Today is the summer solstice. It’s the longest day of the year, which also means that it’s the shortest night of the year.”
“I really need some water,” I said.
“You can’t drink anything in this realm. You are just spirit.” I was confused and asked her to repeat what she had just said.
“You are not in the physical world anymore. Wait here, I will show you.”
She exited the room and returned a few minutes later with a tall glass of water. I could not see very well in the dim candle light, but she told me to try and drink it. It smelled funny, like lemon and flowers. I held it against my mouth, and it spilled all over. I was not wet. The contents of the glass went right through me.
“Now listen very carefully.”
Delfina said that Delancey’s spirit would still be around because she had died just recently. “Once you get to the netherworld, it’s up to you to beg and plead with the powers that be to let you have her back. It won’t be easy, and you don’t have a lot of time. You can only enter the netherworld from sundown to sunrise. While it is still night, you have to get permission to get her back.”
“How do I get started?”
“Where is Delancey’s body?” Delfina asked.
“She’s probably at the morgue at New York Hospital,” I said.
“Then that’s where she might be. That’s where you should head to first. If her soul is not there, then you have to find out where it is.”
I was very confused and mentally weak. Everything was becoming dim. “I don’t understand.”
Delfina sighed. “It’s a hospital; there is always someone in a hospital that leads souls to the netherworld. You have to trust me on this. The only way for you get her back is to enter the other world. Have you heard of ascension? It’s when your spirit leaves your body…you enter the astral plane. You are now in the astral plane, but you need to go deeper, much deeper to find her. It’s all up to you. You have already left your body, and you are in the first astral plane. Now go find Delancey.”
I had to start at the hospital. She might still be near her body. The astral plane was different. Delfina explained that Delancey may be in a holding area – a waiting area. The nether world looks like this world, but the rules are different.
“Find her, get permission to bring her back; and you must come back by sunrise, otherwise you will not come back at all. The longer you are gone, the worse it will be.”
She repeated several incantations, lit several candles, and burned fragranced embers into a small fire. The light flickered back and forth. I repeated the incantations when she told me to. Strange shadows danced on the walls, and I grew drowsy. All I could think about was Delancey. I kept repeating her name. My eyes closed slowly; the room seemed to shake violently. All was quiet.
I heard a noise. Everything was dark. The noise continued, pounding louder.
“You cannot speak with your voice here. Say it in your mind.”
I thought to myself, “I can hear you.”
“I can hear you too,” Delfina said. “The incantations just moved you into a deeper plane of the astral world. Rise up…just will yourself up. The world here is similar to when you are dreaming. Just rise up and come my way.”
I floated upwards. Delfina stood in the room and I glided toward her. The pounding noise grew fainter.
“What’s that noise?” I thought.
“It’s your heart beat,” she said.
The room was no longer dark.
“I can’t leave here. You have to head out on your own. The beings that appear before you may look like faces you know, but that is your mind making them more familiar. Your mind will extrapolate any energy that it cannot resolve or decipher. Find Delancey. And hurry.”
I left her store front glancing at a clock on the wall. It was after 3 pm.
The streets were empty. I walked down a vacant Flatbush Avenue. There were no crowds of pedestrians at every intersection. Brooklyn was a ghost town in this world.
At the empty subway station, I waited for a train that never arrived. I must have waited an hour. I went back to the deserted streets. Small flickering lights moved past me. I decided to go over the Brooklyn Bridge. A dark orange sunset spread over the city. Sunset already? I did not have a watch, but realized that I must be moving very slowly. I thought I had waited for the train for an hour. It was likely three hours. Time moved more quickly in this plane. That’s why Delfina urged me to hurry.
Crossing the bridge was a struggle. The breeze felt much stronger, and I pushed with all my might to take each step. Someone was sitting on the guard rail, in the middle of the bridge. The person looked like he was going to jump. As I approached, his face looked familiar.
“Wilson, is that you?” I asked.
“I am Wilson.”
“I thought you looked familiar,” I said.
“Where are you going? Did you commit suicide too?” he asked.
“No. I’m looking for Delancey. I’m headed to the hospital where her body is.”
“How are things at Stanton?”
“Well you missed the April Dance, and the prom, not to mention graduation.”
“I made a big mistake, and I can’t take it back. I can’t believe I committed suicide. I was just overwhelmed. I was so close to graduation and leaving high school. So close to the finish line, what a mistake.”
“You would’ve been an adult and had the freedom to do whatever you wanted. You didn’t even give it chance.”
“I know. I know. Such a big mistake. Things would’ve been better after high school. What happened to Delancey?” Wilson asked.
I explained the circumstances of Delancey’s death and how I was trying to get to New York Hospital.
Before I could finish, Wilson jumped off the bridge. Horrified, I scrambled to the edge, and looked down into the water. He was nowhere. I called out but there was no answer. I turned around and Wilson was standing right behind me.
“I saw you fall over.”
“I did and I’ll do it again. I’ve been here for a while doing this over and over. This is where I committed suicide. It’s the last thing I remember,” Wilson said.
I kept walking. Wilson was weirder in the afterlife than he was in high school.
There was no one else on the bridge, as dusk was turning into nightfall. I thought my conversation with Wilson took a few minutes, but time was moving so quickly that it must have taken closer to an hour.
By the time I entered Manhattan, it was dark. The astral plane looked very different at night. More lights moved back and forth on the streets of Manhattan. In the material world the city was a bustling mix of sidewalks, buildings, wide streets, and cars. But here, the buildings appeared older, and the cars were missing. Light and dark sentient beings moved at a rapid pace, some floating, some walking, some gliding.
Four full moons decorated the night sky. It was an unusual sight to behold. High above, beings flew past me. Some were bright colors, others were dimmer. Some were demonic and glowered at me, and others seemed angelic and benevolent.
The more I focused on the hospital, the faster I floated toward it. Minutes later I entered the hospital where she had perished just a few hours before. The hospital was not as deserted as the streets were. People were walking around. Some were old, some were young, and some appeared injured or ill. I felt nervous around these beings. Some of them looked confused.
Delancey’s body was in the morgue. I called out to her, but it was no use. She was dead. I needed to find her soul. I searched the entire floor and called out her name, but there was no answer. An old woman sat in the chapel.
“Where can I find Delancey’s soul?” I asked.
“Lets see…when did she pass?”
“Last night…I think,” I said. My concept of time was nebulous.
“She’s probably in limbo,” the old woman said.
“Limbo?” I asked.
“Yes. A holding area, it’s where a soul would wait until a decision is made on its destination,” she said.
“Where is limbo?” I asked.
“Ellis Island is the holding area for New York.”
“How do I get there?” I asked.
“You have to take the ferry from Battery Park.”
I left the hospital bewildered by the notion of Ellis Island as limbo, and started toward downtown. I picked up the pace, aware of my need to spend as little time in this world as possible.
I ran and floated down Broadway, then over to West Street. I glanced upwards at the mighty Twin Towers, a familiar sight in a somewhat unfamiliar landscape. I was soon in the middle of Battery Park City.
Snakes slivered on the streets of Manhattan, but I could only see them in my peripheral vision, not when I looked directly at them. They were green and black. They moved sideways, and they moved quickly.
I raced to State Street. The ferry dock was nearby. I tried not look at the faces of the souls on my left and my right. Some were children, and looked human. Others were demonic, and their sinister facial expressions were starting to scare me. They looked angry and frustrated.
It felt like I was being followed, and whenever I looked over my shoulder, small creatures seemed to escape into the corners. They were humanoid in appearance but no more than two feet tall. Their teeth were disproportionately larger than normal. I stared further, fearing their appearance. A chill went down my spine when I noticed their feet were backwards, toes pointing behind them.
Shadows moved on the streets, like bodies walking. Some came close to me; others stayed far away.
I was hurrying but getting confused. My mental acuity was fading. Some of the street names were not familiar. Some buildings were unfamiliar. My mind was wandering, and I was no longer sure what direction to take. I spun around in circles.
Perched on a tall building were shadowy figures with human faces, wings and tails. I changed directions, and headed to the left, but was disappointed when I realized I was still lost.
I ran toward downtown, but then I found myself standing where I had begun, Downtown New York Hospital. Frustration started to take over. Composure was a struggle. I headed downtown again, counting my paces in order to maintain some semblance of mental acuity.
Along the way, balls of bright lights flew by at rapid speeds. The lights were different colors, and varying intensity. I became confused again, and struggled to remember the count. I kept going, deciding not to change directions, and not to allow the confusion to overwhelm me. Ignoring the demonic faces, and the small beings, I did my best to get to the ferry. I lost the count, but after intense concentration, I regained my count at 341 paces.
I pictured the ferry in my mind, and remembered what Ellis Island looked like. Doing so created diminished mental discombobulation. I floated faster in the direction of my most intense thoughts.
Finally, upon arriving at the ferry dock, I waited on line. This was still New York and there was a line for everything. Several women, children, and a few men waited on line ahead of me. Demonic beings were on line as well. I ran up to the front of the line, but angry faces yelled for me to go back.
The ferry arrived an hour later, and we boarded in silence. Above the skyline, high over the Hudson River, three moons and a half moon beamed in the night sky. There were four full moons when I had arrived.
The ferryman looked a lot like the cab driver from the night of the prom. Perhaps this was just my mind extrapolating, like Delfina said it would.
The ferry headed south on the murky Hudson River. Sea serpents swam in the river. In the material world, the weather had been hot, and the city was bustling. In the astral plane, it was chilly, and silent. The ferry moved through the waters without sound. I did not know how much time I had left. There were no stars, only the three and a half moons.
The wind increased steadily as we neared Ellis Island. I stood at the bow of the ferry. The souls of the recently departed remained silent. We passed the Statue of Liberty, but she had four arms, appearing like a Hindu goddess.
I asked the ferryman why there were four moons when I had arrived and only three and a half now. In a deep voice, he said that the moons told time. The ferryman explained that as the night grew older, parts of the moons would disappear, until an entire moon vanished. Before sunrise, only a small part of one moon would remain. It would vanish in daylight.
The ferry docked at Ellis Island. A line formed for passengers to clear a checkpoint. I waited in the middle of the slowly advancing line of souls. When I approached the checkpoint, I was pulled aside by the guard.
The guard was an enormous figure, draped in a black cloak. His face was intimidating, with a large jaw line, and rough skin. His presence emitted a powerful negative energy. The guard looked like one of Delancey’s doormen, and through inexplicable means, seemed to sap me of my strength.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
1“I am looking for Delancey,” I said.
“Delancey who?”
“Delancey…” I paused, unable to recall her last name. “Kenmare? Yuridis? Orpheus?”