by J.D. Selmser
Chapter four
Seeing the light
I found myself standing in front of an old beaten down white and some fluffy greenish mobile home. I mean truly redneck. The kind of place that you see on TV where the owners seemed surprised that the tornado came and ripped their house off the ground. An aluminum screen door was pushed by the wind and smacked against the door frame like a bass drum. "Where the hell are we?", I asked and thunder boomed above us. Immediately I ducked my head saying, "Sorry." It was more out of instinct by now than fear. Based on the events of the past little bit, I wasn't really that hopeful that I was going upstairs so I don’t think that particular rule would apply to me.
Hazel had a devilish toothy grin on her face as she whispered, "This is going to be your new home for the next six days."
Still looking around the place, I couldn't believe that this dump was going to be my home for a minute but rather six days. Besides, it looked like a strong wind would knock it down. It even had a graveyard surrounding it. My luck was going from bad to pure crap. First I died a death the world would be laughing about. Then seeing a twelve-year-old dead girl who was my afterlife advisor made me wonder when the dead were going to rise. Just my luck too. I was going to be punished by having to run from zombies for the rest of my life. "I'd be doubting that.", I snarled.
“Doubt it if you want, but you are here for six days. You should be thankful that you have a hundred and forty-four hours in order to make things right.”
I was still in shock as I searched the yard. Waist high weeds were growing around the edges of the lawn and the grass was almost non-existent with brown patches scattered all over. Besides if I was dead and all my sins accounted for on the scroll and Kristina was dead already, how could I fix it? It’s not like I could just step back in time and make things right. “Can I step back in time six days and fix things?”
Giggling she said, “Yes you can.”
“So all I need to do is go back and stop the page that displayed her pictures from ever being built or at least not add any comments. Right?”
Shaking her head, she said, “No that isn’t good enough because it would not make you a better person.” Self-improvement wasn’t really my strong suit. Sure I was smart enough and likable, but even I had to admit that I wasn’t exactly that ambitious unless it was for music or hot girls. As the gears started turning, I realized that even without me stopping that damned page, Kristina would still be haunted by those pictures and my want-to-be homeboys would still taunt and blackmail her. Running my fingers through my hair, I tried to decide if I was supposed to travel back in time to stop them from ever thinking of it, or her from ever doing it. It would take four years rather then six days. Before I could even say a word Hazel said, “No that won’t work either. You cannot just step back and change the flow of time like that. The damage might have been done four years ago, but all you have is six days to fix it.”
This had to be a joke. They were giving me an impossible task that they knew I couldn’t complete. They were setting me up to fail right from the start. I walked over to the front step and just sat down, feeling it rock from side to side. Why even bother. I might as well just enjoy my last six days on earth and wait for the end. Hazel seemed angry as she snorted, “Oh come on you can do this. Have you heard of William Cowper?”
Crossing my arms, I muttered, “No.”
“Oh stop your pouting. In one of his songs or poems or something like that, he says God moves in some mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.”
There was a silence and I finally asked, “And what exactly does that mean?”
With a confused look on her face she replied, “I don’t really know, but your mother said it to mine the day I died and it seemed to comfort her.” Sitting beside me she sighed, “I really am not sure what they expect you to do. I am kind of like the messenger, but I don’t know all the answers or steps. What I do know is that you need to make Kristina want to live more than she wants to die. When she died, I mean the seconds before she actually croaked, she said a prayer.” Pointing to her head, “Inside her head and it was granted. I think it was the fear of dying or maybe it was just somebody who could have been there to talk her out of it, but either way,” as she pointed upwards, “If you want to go up instead of down, you have to fulfill it.” With a small giggle she added, “I believe in you even if you have become a grade ‘A’ ... Well you know what you are.”
It still seemed like an impossible task. How can I do something if I don’t actually know what I am supposed to do? “OK so my job is to talk her out of killing herself. Jason Wang can charm anybody so I will try it.” I am considered quite charming so maybe that’s the miracle that I was supposed to do. Talk her out of ending her life in her time of weakness.
“Damn it! No! You cannot just be nice to her and then go straight to Heaven. That’s not how it works. You need to save her, by being genuine and real. Be her friend.” Grabbing my hands, she looked at me with warm eyes, “Give what you gave me.” Stopping for just a minute, sadness came over her, “You weren’t just being nice to me were you?”
I could see the hurt and fear in her eyes as she waited for me to respond and it broke my heart because no matter how much of monster I was now, everything we shared that day was real. I wasn’t charming her or just being nice to her. I was building a bond with Hazel that surpassed death and Heaven. Our short time together was special for me and even now it’s one of my fondest memories.
A giant smile filled her face. “Good.”
“Can you read my mind?”
“Kind of, but in this case I can see it your eyes. When you thought of that day, you got the same warm look you had when we first met.” Hazel’s warm smile was a sight I loved to see. “Listen Jason. Just do for her what you did for me. Open your heart and be her friend. You don’t need to act like her friend or sweet talk her. Just be genuine and make her feel as special as you made me feel. You only needed an hour to change my view of the world. Now you have one hundred and forty-four of them. Make them all count.”
Hazel was walking away and started to fade like some kind of eerie mist. I was starting to miss the munchkin already and running after her, I screamed, “Won’t the owners of this house realize that a stranger is here?”
Laughing, she stopped and turned around, “I almost forgot. No, the owners of the house moved away in the summer so when school starts tomorrow, you will be Jason Hines.” Waving a finger, she added, “You can’t tell Kristina who you really are which is probably a good thing considering how much she hates you now. After the comment and the fact that she emailed you hoping you could be her friend and you ignored her.” She was walking away and turned back, “I am sure the rest you will figure out when you look in the mirror.”, then she was gone, leaving just a wild giggle behind. Even though she was gone, I could still hear her laughing as she added, “I only wish I could see your face when you look into it.”
Walking up to the front door, I took a deep breath, reached for the door and prepared to enter a nightmare. The yard looked horrible so who knows what the inside of the place was going to look like. If the screeching from the hinges being forced to turn wasn’t a good enough sign, I had just stepped into my own decorating hell. The fact that my first step into the place was like being pulled back to the 1980’s was a definite sign. It had one of the old tables that looked like it had ugly greyish silver linoleum on the top and
rusty aluminum poles for table legs and the floor was covered in random burn marks that went into the floor boards. In the corner was a small little tube like TV with a built in DVD player that had the door ripped off. Tucked away in a little shelf were a variety of western movie packs and each one had John Wayne on the front. They were those movie packs you see with 50 movies nobody remembers for like $5. I am not sure if this was redneck Heaven or Hell, but either way, for the next six days I was trapped here.
I made my way down the short paneling covered hallway and found the
bathroom. Right outside the door were these green four leaf clovers that had an H on each one. Damn it. I must be a member of some farmer’s version of the boy scouts I thought. Well at least it can’t get much worse than this. I am not even going to describe it with the exception that it had a green bath tub and dull yellow toilet that looked like it had not seen a toilet brush since before I was born.
I screamed like a sissy at a horror movie as I stared at my reflection in the water stained mirror. “They made me a white guy and not even a good looking one.” They turned me into a tall chunky white guy with curly red hair that seemed to shoot in all directions and so many freckles it looked like a pumpkin exploded on my face.
I heard Hazel’s giggle as she appeared in the mirror beside my reflection, “I knew that this was going to be funny.” Her eyes were twinkling with joy as she laughed at my next handicap.
“What did you do to me? I am a fat ugly white guy with freckles!” Even the clothes I wore looked horrible and so outdated, I think my grandfather had newer ones and he died before I was born.
Still giggling Hazel said, “Look at it as a challenge. Besides, Kristina hates Jason Wang with good reason. Now go to sleep because tomorrow is Sunday and if you wander through the graveyard you will find her. The clock starts tonight at midnight. We all will be watching.”