Soul Insurance

by Glenn Bullion

  He shook his head before walking away. "Your client."

  That was it. He didn't wish her a good day, or give a goodbye hug. Hopefully she could stretch out the time she next saw him a little longer.

  The nurse looked Brooke up and down as she approached. "Wow, I've gotta get a job where you work. I'd love to dress down here."

  Brooke looked at her clothes and smiled. "Yeah, I look nice, don't I? Is this Isabel?"

  Isabel circled around the nurse a few times before settling next to her. Both women smiled at her energy.

  "Yes, this is her. I was with her when she passed, and her soul hasn't left my sight since."

  "It's nice to meet you, Isabel."

  The spirit stopped a few inches from Brooke's nose and bounced up and down. She flew in a figure-eight pattern around the nurse and Brooke, and stopped near Janice's desk. Brooke traded glances with the women as they giggled.

  "And they say they can't understand us," the nurse said.

  Brooke signed a few forms, Isabel staying close the entire time. She handed the last form to the nurse and picked up a box with Isabel's belongings. Isabel only came to the hospital with her purse and some clothes that in a short matter of time would no longer fit. Brooke nodded at her as she hovered near the front door.

  "Are you ready to go?"

  The pair were nearly outside when Janice leaned over from behind her desk.

  "Isabel, I know you won't remember, but come see me when you're back. We'll go dancing."

  Brooke smiled. "Don't worry, I'll tell her."

  *****

  Brooke slid in behind the wheel while Isabel floated through the window and hovered over the passenger's seat. Brooke turned to face her, feeling slightly foolish. She'd seen spirits ride in cars before, but wasn't sure exactly how it worked.

  "Soul-Ful isn't far away. I'll drive slowly, but uh…if you fall out of the car for whatever reason, I'll pull over. Okay?"

  Isabel didn't move. Brooke could only hope she understood. She'd never seen any problems during her four years at Soul-Ful, but there were definitely plenty of awkward moments with only one-way communication. She wasn't even sure if Isabel was looking at her. How did a soul see?

  Brooke engaged in small talk as she drove.

  "We've got a small crew working today. You'll have the place all to yourself. There's nothing to it, really. You'll spend most of your time filling out paperwork more than anything else."

  She glanced at Isabel. The spirit hovered perfectly over the passenger's seat as Brooke sped up, slowed down, and took every corner.

  Brooke was fascinated. Coexisting with spirits was so commonplace that anyone outside the scientific community stopped asking questions. A lot of people had even learned how to ignore them completely, unless they flew directly in front of them. That wasn't the case with Brooke. How did Isabel stay in the passenger's seat? Was she actually sitting? Did it take concentration to float in one spot?

  She pulled into Soul-Ful's lot for the second time that day. Dana had already went home, as the Volkswagen Beetle was gone. Brooke smiled at Isabel as she killed the engine and took a deep breath.

  "Here we are. Are you ready to get your life back?"

  Isabel flew through the passenger's window and seemed to move just a little faster as she aimed for the front door. She stopped before entering, and Brooke could almost sense the soul waiting for her.

  "Hold on, I'm coming."

  The pair entered the lobby, where Wesley was waiting for them. He flashed a grin at both person and soul.

  "Brooke, hey. Did everything go okay?"

  She decided not to bring up the run-in with her father in front of Isabel, even if the soul wouldn't remember anything since her death.

  "No problems at all. This is Isabel."

  Isabel circled Wesley and rested just above his shoulder. He laughed and reached out to touch her, even though he couldn't.

  "Whoa. She's a bundle of energy, isn't she? Isabel, Brooke here will take you to the lab, where you'll meet our tech Chris. They'll both take real good care of you, and in a half hour we'll all be drinking coffee."

  The spirit circled the lobby, almost as if she was running. They laughed, and Wesley approached Brooke and lowered his voice.

  "Is this okay? Dana's husband came and picked her up, and I've got an important conference call in five minutes. I could let Chris run the whole show, but you know…he's a tech. I think Isabel would feel a lot more comfortable if she woke up and you were there."

  Brooke nodded and tried to hide her excitement. She thought her day would be full of dull paperwork.

  "Of course."

  "Thanks, Brooke. I owe you one." He looked up and smiled as Isabel continued to circle the room. "Uh, Isabel?" She stopped. They could only assume she was looking at them. "I have to go, but I'll see you soon."

  Wesley disappeared through the double-doors leading to the offices, leaving them alone in the lobby. Brooke gestured to the door leading to the lab behind them.

  "Shall we?"

  They walked the halls, passed a few offices and a conference room, until they arrived at the main lab. Soul-Ful was a successful company, but they were relatively small compared to the soul resurrection companies in the larger cities. They only had one lab.

  Brooke was familiar with the soul resurrection process. She'd seen it once officially as part of her company tour, and several times unofficially as part of her ex-boyfriend Troy trying to woo her. She had no doubt Isabel was given instructions when she first purchased soul insurance, but Brooke would go over it again. She stood with her outside two doors.

  "Okay, the lab is where you'll go, this door to our right here. I'm gonna be in the control room right next to you with our tech Chris. The rooms are separated by glass, so you'll be able to see everything we're doing. Chris will give you some instructions over the speaker. Your body will be on a table, covered with a sheet. We don't want you waking up feeling completely naked."

  Isabel flashed slightly, and Brooke wanted to think she was laughing.

  "Now, don't be alarmed when you see your body. I'll be honest, it'll look a little weird. There's gonna be wires everywhere, but it's all part of the process. When you wake up, I'll be right in to meet you. Are you ready?"

  She moved back and forth and stopped just near the door.

  "Okay, let's get started."

  Brooke went to open the door for her, but Isabel already moved through it. She laughed and went inside the control room.

  She didn't have a tech bone in her body. It was a miracle she knew how to check her email. The two rooms separated by glass were impressive, and couldn't have been more opposite. The control room was full of computers, gadgets, and printers. The main lab where Isabel hovered had a warmer feeling, with paintings on the walls, a water cooler in one corner, and a couch in the other. The table in the middle of the room was the only thing that gave away it was truly a lab.

  Brooke narrowed her eyes as she closed the door behind her. Immediately she knew something was wrong. Isabel's body should have already been waiting for her on the table. Instead it lay empty, and Chris sat in front of a computer with his head in his hands.

  Chris wasn't much older than Brooke. He fit the stereotype of a lab tech. Very intelligent, very lacking in social skills. Where Chris was different was that he tried to be social, but failed miserably. He wore his lab coat over his shirt with a hole in the middle and a pair of jeans. A half-eaten sandwich sat next to the keyboard.

  "Chris?"

  "What?" he asked, anger in his voice. His tone lessened when he saw Brooke. "Oh, it's you. Hey, do you know what Amber is doing tonight?"

  "I don't know."

  "Oh, okay. What are you doing tonight?"

  "Chris, what's going on? Where's Isabel's body?"

  "I have no idea. It's gone."

  "Gone? What do you mean gone?"

  "As in it's not there." He gestured to his monitor. "I got an error when I tried to move it from storage. I
checked the computer, all is fine there. So I went down to storage myself, and the body isn't there. There's plenty of others, sure. But her main choice is missing."

  Brooke glanced over at Isabel, who waited patiently near the center table. She tried to stay calm. The last thing she wanted was for Isabel to see panic on her face.

  She was only vaguely familiar with the pre-resurrection process, but when a client would knowingly die soon, their choices were shipped from the factory to the center. At any one time they had close to fifty bodies in storage.

  "Did something go wrong at the cryo-factory? They didn't send a report or anything?"

  "And how exactly would I know that? I'm the tech-boy. Sales doesn't tell me anything."

  "What did Wesley say?"

  "I haven't told him."

  She frowned and reached for the phone. "Shit, Chris."

  Wesley didn't answer his extension. He was probably already on his conference call. Brooke hung up and quickly looked up his personal cell phone number, stored on the company's file server.

  "What is it?" he answered, irritated. Brooke could hear his call continuing in the background. "I'm in the middle of—"

  "Wesley, Isabel's main choice isn't here."

  "Are you kidding me?"

  "No. We've got Isabel waiting, and an empty table."

  "You checked storage, every tube?"

  She looked at Chris for confirmation, as he could hear the conversation. He nodded.

  "I went through every storage unit before you got here," Chris said. "Her body isn't here."

  "Probably another screw-up at cryo again," Wesley said. "Fuck."

  Brooke winced. Wesley only swore when he was very angry.

  "Okay, I'll call cryo when I get out of this call, see what the hell happened, straighten this whole mess out. But you know how those guys operate. We might be a week or so before I even talk to a human being. Brooke, tell Isabel she can wait it out until we get everything fixed, or she can pick one of her other choices. That's why we have them pick three anyway."

  Her eyes went wide. Her mouth quivered as she tried to find the words. Wesley was asking her to give a client horrible news. It went way beyond pushing papers across her desk for four hours.

  "Brooke? Are you there?"

  "I'm here. I'll tell her."

  "Okay. Call me in ten minutes."

  The phone went dead. Brooke stared at the phone, and nearly took a step to start pacing, but controlled herself. Chris reached for his sandwich and took a bite, like he didn't have a care in the world. Brooke wanted to slap it out of his hand.

  "Do you want me to tell her?" he asked.

  "No. Pull up her other choices."

  Chris typed at the keyboard until pictures of three bodies were on the monitor, side by side, along with data under them. The first choice had the word Unavailable blinking in red under it. Brooke glanced quickly at all of them. They were all grown to be twenty-one years old, like she'd figured. It was illegal to transfer to a younger age, and anyone with soul insurance always wanted to be as young as they could. All three choices were the same height, five feet five inches. Brooke raised an eyebrow at the thought of wanting to be short. She was the same height, and hated it. Every body had a distinctive tiny mole on the cheek. Brooke wondered if Isabel had that same mole in her old life. Each body had a different hair color. Blond, brunette, redhead. She studied the missing choice number one. Shoulder-length blond hair, tan skin, blue eyes, slender build. Certainly an attractive woman.

  "Number two has a nicer rack," Chris said. "Why the hell isn't that option number one?"

  Brooke gave him an irritated look, and her jaw dropped when she took note of Isabel's third choice.

  "Whoa."

  "What's up?"

  "Choice number three is a man."

  The two traded looks and laughed for a moment. It wasn't against the rules to change sexes during a resurrection, but it wasn't typical, and involved a lot more paperwork. Changing the sex of a driver's license alone took a mountain of forms.

  "She's definitely a wild one," Brooke said. She leaned over and pushed the intercom button. "Isabel, would you come in here for a minute?"

  Isabel hesitated, and then floated out of the lab. A moment later she came in through the control room door, and hovered a respectable distance from Brooke.

  "I have some bad news." That felt like an understatement. "It looks like there was some kind of mix-up at the factory, and your first choice isn't available. Now, our boss Wesley is calling them, but it might be at least a week before we get your body in here. But your second and third choices are ready to go. So, you can hang out here for a week, or go out and tour the world." Brooke's cheeks turned red. She wasn't exactly sure what souls did. "You can come back, and we'll ask some challenge questions to make sure it's you. Or we can go with your second or third choice. It's all up to you."

  Isabel hovered perfectly still for a minute. She moved toward the monitor in front of Chris. He scooted back, and Isabel rested on top of the monitor. Brooke smiled, understanding her meaning.

  "Okay. Chris, put number two on that monitor over there, and number three on that one."

  Isabel floated and rested on the monitor displaying choice number two. Brooke said a silent Thank you. She didn't want to deal with the paperwork for a sex change.

  Chris typed at the keyboard and glanced at Isabel. "Very good choice."

  "Shut up, Chris. Okay, Isabel, you can go back in the room. We'll have your body up shortly."

  The floor vibrated slightly as Isabel took her place near the table. Brooke had only seen the storage room in videos, but underneath of Soul-Ful was a large room with a complicated system of cryo-tubes, belts, and mechanical arms. When in use the entire building shook.

  Chris glanced at Brooke as the middle of the floor near Isabel opened up. Isabel floated to the side of the room, and the empty table began to lower, ready to pick up Isabel's body.

  "That was good," Chris said. "Why aren't you in sales?"

  "I just told a woman the body she'd picked for her new life wasn't available. This isn't a car dealership. How does crap like this happen?"

  Chris waved dismissively. "Number one is smokin', don't get me wrong. But number two is hotter anyway. I've always liked brunettes. And that rack—"

  "Chris, come on. Reel it in."

  They both looked back to the table as it slowly lifted into the room, and the floor closed. The beautiful brunette lay perfectly still, a sheet covering her toes up to her neck. Her eyes were closed. Wires peeked from under the sheet and ran in a bundle to a hole in the floor.

  Chris pushed the intercom button. "Okay, let's rock and roll. We just need you to touch your body, and don't stop until we say."

  Isabel floated across the room and settled on the brunette's head. Chris turned to the keyboard and typed quickly. Brooke couldn't keep up as the monitor changed and his fingers moved.

  The lights in the lab dimmed as the brunette twitched. With every twitch Isabel's glow grew dimmer. The entire process took thirty seconds, much more efficient from the first resurrection machines thirty years ago. The brunette twitched one last time, and Isabel disappeared completely. Brooke watched in fascination. She'd seen it before, but it was humbling to realize science had discovered some of the secrets of reincarnation.

  Isabel opened her new eyes.

  "Aren't you gonna get in there?" Chris asked.

  "Huh?"

  "Puke, and water. Did you forget?"

  "Oh shit."

  Brooke rushed out of the control room. She threw open the lab door and ran to the trashcan in the corner. Isabel was already on her side, coughing and trying to push herself off the table. The wires hooked to her had automatically detached and lay across the floor. Brooke grabbed the trashcan and made it to Isabel just in time. The sheet had fallen away from her thighs and she had one foot on the floor, barely holding her weight up. There was no food in Isabel, but she vomited anyway. They always did. Brooke look
ed away as a clear liquid splashed in the trashcan.

  When she was certain Isabel was finished Brooke moved to the water cooler in the corner. She wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held the cup to her lips. Isabel clutched the sheet with one hand while guiding the water with the other.

  "Welcome back, Isabel," Brooke said. Her mind immediately went to the list of questions she was supposed to ask, but she'd left them in the control room. The questions were designed to get the client thinking and talking. She shook her head, angry with herself, but remembered the first few. "What is your full name?"

  "Isabel Thompson." Her new voice was sweet and pleasant.

  "Do you remember any of your experience as a soul?"

  The answer to that question never changed.

  "No."

  "What is the last thing you remember?"

  "The hospital. I had a heart attack. I remember the TV in the corner, playing something stupid. Janice from downstairs would always come up to visit me. I fell asleep."

  Isabel stood up, her legs still wobbly. She gripped the edge of the table while still clutching the sheet to her. Looking down, her eyes went wide at the mounds pressing against the sheet.

  "Oh my God, it worked! Would you look at these breasts?"

  Brooke looked up at Chris. She couldn't hear him, but saw him laughing hysterically at his desk. Brooke couldn't help but smile herself.

  "You don't understand," Isabel said. "For the past few years, I've been tripping over my own breasts when I walk."

  It was Brooke's turn to giggle slightly. She shoved the humor aside, but had forgotten the rest of the questions. But there only one that truly mattered.

  "How do you feel?"

  Isabel, now a twenty-one-year-old beautiful brunette, smiled. "I feel alive. Thank you so much. What's your name?"

  Brooke once again identified Chris and herself. Isabel hugged Brooke tightly as she sat on the table. She stared at her chest once again, and then pulled up her sheet just enough to study everything below her knees. She wiggled her toes and studied her hands. A look of confusion crossed her face as she moved a strand of hair in front of her eyes.

  "I'm…a brunette? I was supposed to be blond."

  "We had a mix-up with the factory. You…your soul decided to go with your second choice."