As Robbie ranted, the judge banged her gavel, calling loudly for the bailiff to have Robbie removed from the courtroom.
He was still calling a Briscoe a son-of-a-bitch as he was dragged away.
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for a week later. This time, when Robbie came into the courtroom, his suit was straight, the jacket buttoned, the tie so tight Robert thought it might cut off the circulation to Robbie’s brain.
But the judge wasn’t buying the act. In fact, the first thing she did was reprimand both Robbie and Briscoe for their spurious and superficial attempt at attrition.
“Mr. Malone,” she then said, “All during your trial, I never saw the first hint at remorse over the senseless killing of your own mother. You showed no respect for my courtroom, or for your counsel. It is my understanding that you would not even participate in a rehabilitation program in one of our state’s premiere facilities.”
Robert tuned out most of the mumbo-jumbo about penal codes for the State of Georgia. But he heard the judge’s sentence loud and clear. Robbie was sentenced to life in prison, without parole.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
20 years later - June
Robert and Suzanne had arranged to meet Maggie and Joe at the Prince Albert Memorial across the street from the Royal Albert Hall. Already the crowd of temps was swarming on the sidewalk in front of the huge round auditorium.
“Let’s go around to the back and see if the lines are any shorter,” Robert suggested.
As they strolled around Kensington Gore, Maggie asked, “Have you got a new address yet?”
“Actually, we do.”
Robert gave Suzanne a quick glance before asking Maggie, “Do you remember Dan and Melinda, the couple we hung out with on our Baltic cruise?”
“Your sex partners from Ohio?” Maggie asked.
“Geez, Maggie,” Robert complained. “We didn’t just hang out with them for the sex.”
“That’s right,” Suzanne agreed. “We also used them to fulfill our food and beverage needs.” She smiled at Robert.
“Anyway,” Robert said, “We followed them back to Dayton, to check them out on their home turf.”
Maggie’s eyebrows went haywire. “And did they pass inspection?”
“It’s uncanny how Melinda and I think alike,” Suzanne said. “We’re like sisters.”
“And Dan is just like me,” Robert said. “Brilliant, handsome, a great conversationalist, and a savvy businessman. I mean, we both went on a cruise of the Baltic Sea with a shipload of senior citizens, and he’s only thirty eight. How freaky is that?”
“So you’re living with them?” Maggie asked.
“Yes, but don’t worry. We haven’t taken over their minds. It’s just nice to be in a house with music I like playing, or the television on. Suzanne likes to drop in while Melinda’s soaking in a hot tub, occasionally.”
Robert decided he didn’t need to elaborate on how wonderful the sex was, too. Dan and Melinda were definitely bit old-fashioned. They made love in the dark, with lots of cuddling and kissing, and very little verbal banter. Those preferences made it much easier for Robert to imagine he was making love to Suzanne.
Years ago, Maggie had attempted to overcome the barrier of occupying someone else’s mind. She even tried a couple times to start a fight with another ghost, but no one was interested in duking it out with a ninety year-old woman. Joe finally convinced her to give it up.
“Are you commuting to Audrey’s?” Joe asked.
“I pop into the office a couple times a week, but believe it or not, I’m losing interest. Dan owns several lawn and garden centers. I’ve been learning how to landscape.”
“I don’t believe it,” Maggie said. “Let me check those fingernails for dirt.”
They all laughed.
The crowd didn’t seem much thinner at the back side of the hall. And it appeared as though most of the temps were just standing around chatting with friends rather than moving inside.
“How are the kids?” Maggie asked.
“We’re going to see Angie right after the meeting,” Suzanne said. “Then down to Atlanta to see Rachel and her brood. Are you still coming to the extravaganza?”
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Maggie said. “This Saturday, right?”
Joe leaned toward Robert. “Anything new on Robbie?”
“No, he’s still running with the big dogs,” Robert said. “Rachel heard he even celebrated twenty years in prison by throwing a party for some of his friends. Drugs. Booze. I wouldn’t be surprised if the warden made an appearance, the way Robbie throws his money around. I guess he was greasing the wheels with the guards, too. Telling them to buy a little something extra for the kids.”
Maggie clicked her tongue. “What a shame.”
“Yeah, Rachel’s over it,” Robert said. “After his attorney told her about the party, he invited her to accompany him when he visits Robbie next week. I’m not sure what it’s all about, because Briscoe never goes to see Robbie any more. There’s no need to since they’ve exhausted any appeals.”
“I told Robert maybe he should go, too,” Suzanne said.
The crowd took a sudden shift and temps began to disappear through the doors and walls.
“Guess it’s time,” Maggie said.
Inside, Robert made a mooing sound as all the temps milled through the lobby, trying to decide where to enter the arena.
“I still think Stuart should assign seats, or at least sections,” he said. “If we have to meet in huge halls like this now, at least we should be able to sit together.”
“How is Stuart supposed to know who you want to sit with,” Maggie asked.
Suzanne had her own opinion. “I think you should just meet in smaller groups now. I mean, really. Five thousand people? How are we going to be able to hear the speakers?”
Bernie, the BMW dealer from Jersey flowed by in a crush of temps.
“Bernie!” Robert called out. “Where are you sitting?”
“Madeline’s trying to get one of those boxes. I’m just tagging along.”
Maggie nudged Robert. “Here comes Jess. I understand he’s taking his twelfth group on an Everest expedition. You can still get in on that.”
“Yeah, right,” Robert scoffed.
“Look!” Suzanne hissed. “It’s Brian Campbell and his crew.”
Glancing off to his left, Robert spotted the young man who’d committed suicide all those years ago. He had a following of nearly one hundred other young people, all
looking bored, sullen, and angst-ridden.
“Dear God, they look just like those Goth kids did back when I was alive,” Maggie said.
Inside the arena, the center floor was empty except for a lone ping-pong table. A tournament was scheduled for the next day. All the seats on the floor were taken with temps.
“We need to move up.” Robert pointed to the loggia above.
“Let’s get a box,” Suzanne suggested.
But after wandering around the hall for several minutes, they realized all the boxes were taken.
“You know,” Robert said as they made their way to the cheap seats, “I’m seeing a lot more women temps now.”
“Sam says that every year the possibility of cryonics becomes more real, and more people jump on the bandwagon,” Maggie said. “I can’t imagine what our meetings will be like in another twenty years.”
Robert spotted Bernie standing off to the side, looking befuddled.
“What’s up Bernie?” he asked.
The man seemed relieved to see a familiar face. “That goofball Madeline. She must have told a hundred people she was getting a box. The place is packed.”
“Come sit with us,” Robert said.
“I guess you heard the Cryonics Center is about to get bought up by Crycor,” Bernie said as he ambled along beside Robert. “Cryonics is big business now. It’s no longer a handful of eccentrics and nutjobs gambling on extended life.”
Yeah,” Robert said. “
People are dying to get in now.”
There were groans all around.
“This could be our last small meeting,” Bernie said.
“Relatively speaking,” Maggie said as she turned to take in the large hall.
Here’s something interesting,” Bernie said. “If we merge, that will reconfigure all of our numbers. I won’t be number fifty-nine anymore. I might be number one hundred fifty-nine. We’ll all have to wait a bit longer to be revived.”
“Fine with me,” Robert said.
Seated in front of Robert were two women who looked to be in their mid-eighties.
“It’s not right,” said one of the women. “The price has nearly doubled again since Nick was preserved three years ago. And this new cryoprotectant they’re using is cheaper because more companies are manufacturing the stuff.”
The other woman nodded in agreement. “I could only afford the minimal service. Storage only. I didn’t even get to select a different hair or eye color for that price. And now that they’re packing more brains into each container, I’m sure they’re saving money on maintenance.”
“I heard they have a temp who wants to come back as the opposite sex,” the first woman whispered to her friend.
Stuart Greyson walked out to the center of the arena and climbed up onto the ping-pong table. He welcomed everyone to the meeting.
“What a thrill it is to see so many of our temps attending. Are you all enjoying London?” he asked.
The crowd murmured their approval of the city selected.
“Our growth has been astounding,” Stuart told the group that nearly filled the hall. “This year alone, we have processed six hundred and twelve patients. Nearly two a day! I remember when we hit one thousand, what a grand celebration we had in Miami. And now we’ve nearly reached five thousand. We won’t be able to use Albert Hall anymore.”
More titters of appreciation swept through the auditorium.
“We’ll be breaking into smaller groups today as usual,” Stuart told them. “We’ll change every half-hour so you can go to all the meetings and get caught up. Travel information will be shared in the Café Consort on the grand tier level.”
“Not interested,” Maggie said.
“Current events and interests,” Stuart said, “will be handled in the Elgar Room on the circle level.”
“I don’t care who’s dying,” Robert murmured.
“Science and technology updates will be in the East Arena Foyer,” Stuart called out.
Maggie stood. “Let’s just sit in on Sam’s presentation and go. He’s doing something special for the end of the decade report.”
“Yeah,” Robert said. “Then we can go get some haggis and blood pudding.”
“Haggis is in Scotland, Robert.”
The East Arena Foyer was packed with temps. Everyone wanted to know what was happening, and how soon they’d be coming back.
Sam stood on top of the bar that ran along the wall. He told a couple corny jokes before launching into his spiel.
“We have seen amazing progress in the past ten years. The continued popularity of cremation has helped tremendously in getting the new law passed that people must specify that they DO NOT want to donate their organs. Otherwise, all organs are now cryonically-preserved in organ banks. And naturally, we are seeing a lot fewer deaths due to organ failure. Tissue banks, eye banks, are in nearly every hospital. Surgeons are having much better success with liver transplants.”
Sam ambled down the bar like he was on a runway. “Spray dermal armor will soon be approved for over-the-counter use. We all know how wonderfully it protects the skin from harmful UV rays, plus it reduces cuts and scrapes.
“And like Stuart said, we’ve all watched the steady increase in cryonics patients. As technology continues to advance, we see more people opting for the cryonics option over death. There are now 12 cryonics companies in America, compared to only two when I was preserved. That doesn’t include all of the facilities in foreign countries.
“Our gamble has truly become a reality.”
* * *
Mark and Angie’s new home was one of those McMansions built on half an acre, in a subdivision of similar homes.
Standing in front of a three-way mirror in the bedroom, Mark tightened his tie. “What’s the latest with the awning people?”
Angie sat at a secretary tastefully positioned in the bay window of their master suite. A calendar glowed red on the desk. When Angie touched a day, the information in that box enlarged.
“They’ll be here at ten o’clock Friday,” she said. “And yes, they plan to have sensors at fifteen, thirty, and forty-five feet beyond to keep any and all insects away.”
“Good.”
Mark slipped his suit jacket off a hanger. The pole holding the empty hangar retracted through a small sliding hatch into their closet.
“How are you coming with my corrections to the guest list?”
Angie scanned the illuminated data, touched a different box, and a seating chart appeared on the desk.
“I moved Gordon Appleby to table seven, and brought Seth Temples over to table eleven with Carla Brooks.”
Suzanne was incensed, as usual. “Why can’t she see that he’s treating her like hired help? I’ll bet she doesn’t even get a goodbye kiss when he leaves.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want one.” Robert slipped an arm around Suzanne’s waist to take the sting out of his admonition. “We go over this every time we visit, sweetheart. I agree, Mark is a first-class jerk. And I was totally wrong about him being a good guy. But Angie seems to be happy.”
Down the hallway, Robert and Suzanne peeked in on Abby. Her room reminded Robert of Rachel’s when she was a teenager: posters on the wall of the latest heart-throb, clothes strewn across the floor. And Abby lay sound asleep in bed, her arms hugged around her pillow.
In Jarod’s room, he was already awake and on his computer. On one side of a split screen, he was playing a game. On the other side, some kid was chattering in German, and the computer was translating. Evidently, the boys were playing each other.
Once Mark left for work, Suzanne trailed Angie around the house. If her daughter wasn’t picking up after her children, she was coordinating arrangements for Mark’s soiree. By noon, Robert and Suzanne were on their way to Atlanta.
* * *
Every year Rachel and Min held a charity event at the Atlanta Zoo, where they invited underprivileged kids from all over the city to spend a day. They even arranged for the city’s public transit system to provide free rides to kids when accompanied by an adult. The event had become a great public relations promotion for the city.
Robert and Suzanne waited at the entrance to the zoo for Maggie and Joe. Excited kids flooded through the gates. Some looked suspiciously well-dressed, as did their mothers, but no one questioned if they were legitimately poor.
“Wow!” Maggie called as she and Joe stepped off the bus. “What a turn out.”
Suzanne nodded. “I hope they don’t have to turn anyone away.”
“Things will die down after the free lunch,” Robert said.
Both women gave him evil looks, but he got a nod of agreement from Joe when they weren’t looking.
“Where is everyone?” Maggie asked.
“Hunter is at the reptile house making the little girls scream. Christa is in charge of the face-painting near the panda exhibit. Kwamee wanted to be in charge of the raffle this year, so he and Min are handing out tickets right now. They start drawing numbers at ten.”
Robert thought back to Rachel and Min’s decision to adopt. Hunter was only two at the time. His daughter read about some uprising in Uganda, and saw all the orphaned children. Min was pregnant with Christa at the time, but it didn’t matter. They had to do something to help. Not only did they adopt Kwamee, they held charity events to encourage other Atlantans to join the cause. The project just sort of mushroomed across the country. And Audrey’s market share rose nine points.
“I supp
ose Rachel’s handling the food again?”
“Yeah. She’s got Raj and Neeta with her. They’re too young to do much more than hand out cartons of milk or juice to the kids who come through the line.”
The twins were now ten years old. They’d come a long way from the day they arrived in Atlanta at the age of five. Robert remembered how they’d barely spoken any language, either Pakistani or English. They were under-nourished, neglected, and infested with lice. Rachel and Min couldn’t keep their hands off the two.
Robert and the others meandered through the zoo to the party pavilion, where picnic tables were mounded with giveaways: backpacks, school supplies, hats and mittens for the coming winter, and supermarket gift cards.
“They make it look like you’re a big winner when they call out your number,” Robert said, “but everyone wins something, even if it’s just a ten-dollar grocery card. Rachel and Min have coerced nearly every business in the city to participate in one way or another: caterers, department stores, the media.
“It’s great publicity for the city. The mayor declared Atlanta “The City that Cares” on the news last night.”
Suzanne told Maggie in a stage-whisper, “Don’t let Robert fool you. He doesn’t give two shakes about the city. But Audrey’s stock continues to grow steadily.”
“Hey! I’m proud of Rachel, too. She’s a lot more hands-on than Amanda and I ever were. We hosted plenty of charity events back in the day, but other than shaking hands and schmoozing, I didn’t pay much attention to where the money went like Rachel and Min do.”
“Rachel has become quite the philanthropist,” Maggie said.
“Who would have guessed?” Robert said. “I have a daughter who’s on the cover of every magazine from People to Fortune 500. And a son rotting in prison.”
“Are you going to see him?” Maggie asked.
“Yeah. I want to go see what this big meeting with his attorney is all about.”
The Ups and Downs of Being Dead Page 26