Holly put her excitement on hold for a moment. “What?”
“There was no need to erase your memory because your manual purge was successful.”
“No it wasn’t,” she told him firmly. “Everyone still thinks I committed suicide and even though I know Amy Jenkins gave me those pills, it’s never going to be proven, is it? I mean who’s going to arrest her just because she owns some motion sickness pills? I was stupid to even think it mattered. And then there’s Todd. Wasn’t I meant to go down and make my peace with him? I was even going to apologize to that son of a bitch. But I remember quite clearly that I punched him instead. And you know what the worst thing is? I don’t even care. I’m pleased I did it. In fact I would do it again in a twinkle. So there’s no way I passed.”
Dr. Hill held up something in his hand. “I’ve got one machine that begs to differ.”
Holly looked at the small device and wrinkled her nose. “I-I don’t understand. How’s that possible?”
“Let’s see, you made amends with your stepmother, you saw your boyfriend for who he really was, you let go of your hang-ups about suicide, you figured out what you want to do with your life and you even showed compassion to the girl who inadvertently killed you. Holly Evans, as of now, you’re my star pupil.”
“Really?” Holly tried to hide her disbelief as she felt her chest swell with pride. Not that she really had a clue what she’d done, apart from screw everything up, but still it was nice to be appreciated.
And she had her memories.
She was also completely filled with love for Vince. It wasn’t just a feeling. It was more. It was part of her, and she certainly never had anything like it with Todd. Okay, so it would’ve been a million times better to be with Vince now, but at least she could remember him and perhaps if she played her cards right, she could spy on him from time to time. Would that be breaking some sort of heaven/earth privacy thing? She might have to check up on that one.
“Really,” Dr. Hill agreed.
Then something occurred to Holly. “So, if I only managed to get everything right by accident, wasn’t it a bit risky to let me go back to earth to solve the wrong issues? I mean I might not have made it.”
“That’s always a drawback,” the doctor admitted. “But if I’d told you to go down there and speak to your stepmother, or to ignore Todd altogether because he was a cheating bastard, would you have done it?”
“You
knew
he had been cheating on me?”
“Er...well, that’s really beside the point.” Dr. Hill squirmed in his chair before shooting her a hopeful smile. “Did I mention you’re my star pupil?”
Holly glared for a minute before her body was once again taken over by happy feelings. “I guess it all worked out in the end,” she conceded.
Dr. Hill wiped his brow as he stood up and started to pace the room. “I’m pleased you understand. It really was the best way for you to dig down and find out what’s important. So the question is what should we do with you now?”
“Give me a nice reward?” Holly said hopefully and the doctor smiled. “Preferably gift-wrapped.”
“Actually I was thinking more in terms of your future with The Company.”
“The Company?” Holly wasn’t quite sure she was following the program here. “Are we back in heaven or am I having a weird dream?” she checked.
“Oh, I forgot, you haven’t read your rulebook yet. The Company is what we call Level Two.”
“I’ve reached Level Two! One more level and I can see my parents?” It was more than she had dared hope for.
“That’s right.” He nodded as he continued to pace. “However to get to Level Three requires a vast amount of work. Some people get there quite quickly, like your father, while others spend an eternity trying to reach it. It all depends on your service record.”
Holly scratched her head. “You know I’m still not really following you. What’s a service record?”
“Why it’s the record of how you perform for The Company: the better your performance, the better your record. Obviously a job with a high degree of skill will improve your record.”
“Right, so you’re saying I need a job if I want to get there quickly?” To be honest Holly felt a little bit disappointed. After going back to Baker Colwell, it had become increasingly obvious that corporate life wasn’t for her. Yet apparently she was going to have to go back to the rat race again.
“Er yes. More or less.”
“Fine, so where’s the human resources place in this joint?”
“You don’t need to go there.” Dr. Hill picked up the machine again. “It analyses you and works out what you should do.”
Of course it did. Holly groaned before realizing that Dr. Hill wasn’t quite returning her gaze. “It’s bad news, isn’t it.”
“Of course it isn’t,” he said a little bit too quickly. “The thing is Miss Evans, not all jobs are glamorous. Or comfortable, but remember what I was saying before: high risk is high reward.”
Not glamorous? Not comfortable? Was he talking about working down a mine pit or something? Even if she couldn’t feel anything but divine happiness right now, she was pretty certain once she broke her first nail it would all be downhill.
“Fine, tell me what the stupid thing says then. I know you want to,” she said in a resigned voice.
He shot her a pained look. “It seems to think you’d be a good Mole.”
She knew it. He freaking-well wanted to send her down a mine. Unbelievable. Just because she’d been a big muscley boy with a rock hard stomach and biceps to kill for, was no reason to think she liked digging. Or getting dirty for that matter.
She was getting punished after all.
“I know it’s not everyone’s idea of a dream job,” he admitted, obviously reading the disappointment on her face. “But if you want to see your parents sooner, it might be worth considering.”
“You’re right,” she said with a sigh. “Tell me the worst.”
“The thing is you have to live on earth...”
“What?”
What?
“I told you it wasn’t ideal. Especially since you’ve only just been purged. Most people can’t even bear the thought of losing their celestial happiness and being turned back into a corporeal body again. All the messy emotions, the pollution, the politics. But the machine has calculated you have an eighty-five percent chance of adapting to the transition. The highest percentage ever recorded is eighty-seven percent, so you can imagine why my bosses were so keen for me to discuss this with you.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Holly narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Of course not.” The doctor looked confused. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, perhaps the same reason you sent me back to earth in a guy’s body. When the guy was still in it.”
He looked hurt. “I thought we’d moved on from that?”
“We have, but I’m not sure why else you are acting like this is a horrible job.”
Dr. Hill ran his chubby fingers through a red curl and studied her face. “
You mean the idea doesn’t repulse you?
”
Oh now she understood. It was a trick. “I can’t believe you almost got me,” she groaned. “There’s a catch, isn’t there? I can only go back as...a tree...oh no, wait...a horse.
Well, I’m not falling for that one again
.”
“Of course not.” Dr. Hill looked offended. “Your main duties as a Mole is to go back to earth and live a normal life, while keeping us updated on certain things.”
“What sort of things? I mean I’m not that crash hot with politics, and I don’t think I’d be able to break a secret code if it was spelt out to me in a Cosmo magazine, so I’m not quite sure what I could do?”
Dr. Hill smiled. “The Company gathers all sorts of intelligence. Anything from eating trends, whether family values are changing through to the latest fashion collections.”
“And I can go back as Holly Evans, aged twenty-two years old and living at thirty-four Windsor Street,” Holly double-checked, still not quite able to take it all in.
“That’s right.” He didn’t seem to notice her incredulity. “
“So you’re seriously giving me the chance to go back and live a normal life, without death?”
“Well of course you won’t die when you’re already dead. But there will be some point when you move onto another position in The Company, or even another level. But in earth years it covers more than a natural life span.”
“I’ll take it,” Holly blurted out.
Dr. Hill widened his eyes in surprise. “Generally people like to spend some time thinking it over or at least reading the rulebook. Then there is the question of your parents. Even on the accelerated program, you do realize it will be quite some time before you can see them.”
“The whole time I was down there I was determined to clear my name so that my dad didn’t think I’d tried to commit suicide again. I wanted him to know how hard I had been working to make amends. Of course, I should’ve realized that I didn’t really need to tell him any of that stuff. He already knows, doesn’t he?”
“So proud.” Dr. Hill sniffed as he fanned his face with his hands. “You really
are
my star pupil and yes you’re right. Your father knows exactly what kind of person you are Holly, and I think that you finally do as well.”
Holly grinned for a minute as she clutched her photograph. “Yeah, I think I do...and now, about this new job of mine. Send me back already.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The scalding coffee burnt her tongue as she forced herself to swallow it. Well, wasn’t that just typical of heaven. They were clever enough to send her back through time to the day she died, and even went to all the trouble of wiping everyone’s memory but her own. But did they think to stop Amy Jenkins from slipping her the motion sickness tablets? Er, no.
“Holly, should you really be drinking so much caffeine before the ball tonight? You don’t want to be jumping around like a grasshopper.” Her stepmother appeared from the lounge room, clutching a camera as she raised a questioning eyebrow at the three other empty cups sitting on the bench.
Holly took another gulp of steaming hot liquid. “I’ve just been feeling a little bit tired. I thought it might wake me up,” she improvised.
“I see. Well, it was nice of you to stop by before you go out. I wasn’t expecting it. You used to like spending all your time in the bath to get ready for a big night out.”
“I guess I just thought it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you. I should’ve come sooner.” Holly said as she tried to ignore the fact she did feel like a long soak in the tub, especially after the week she’d just had. Except until the pills were out of her system she had decided it was probably safest not to. Technically, Dr. Hill had said she couldn’t die again, but since she still hadn’t had a chance to read the rulebook yet, she wasn’t taking any chances with the fine print.
Been there, done that, and almost got kissed by another girl to prove it.
“I know you’ve busy.” Her stepmother smiled. “You don’t have to explain. I hope you don’t mind if I take a photograph of you though, you look wonderful. Todd’s a lucky guy.”
Oh, that freak-faced waste of space loser.
She sucked down the last dregs of coffee and tried not to screw up her nose at the bitter aftertaste. “Actually, Todd and I broke up this afternoon.”
“Oh, Holly.” Her stepmother’s face was now a picture of genuine concern and again Holly wondered how she had failed to notice this for so long.
“It’s all right,” she quickly reassured her. “In fact I feel great about it.”
“But what happened?”
Well, let’s see. I died the day we were meant to get engaged only to find out he was cheating on me with a stupid tart named Rochelle Jackson while I was sitting at the next-door table in the body of a boy.
“Oh, you know, normal reasons, it’s no big deal.”
“That’s all right,” her stepmother said quickly. “You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want. I didn’t mean to pry.”
Gosh, had Holly really been so super-sensitive before that her stepmother couldn’t even ask a normal question without worrying about the reaction she would get?
Wait, don’t answer that.
“You’re not prying,” Holly said instead. “I guess I started to realize that I was with Todd for all the wrong reasons. Just because he has a perfect résumé, it didn’t make him the right guy for me. I suppose I didn’t like who I was becoming when I was around him.”
Her stepmother put down the camera. “It takes a big person to admit that.”
“I sort of had it spelt out to me,” Holly reluctantly admitted.
“Well, all the same. You might not be able to change the past, but you can always try and make tomorrow better,” her stepmother said and for a moment Holly wondered if Dr. Hill had really managed to purge everyone’s memory because if she didn’t know better, she would say her stepmother was talking about more than just Holly’s disastrous relationship with Todd.
“Anyway…” Her stepmother gave her a shy smile. “Now’s hardly the time for this, you’ve got a big night ahead. Who knows, you might even meet the man of your dreams.”