Every Death You Take

by Misty Simon

  They turned to Eileen. She stepped closer to Mikey. Mikey and Eileen, inseparable now, floated along the floor. “I don’t think I need closure, but I would like to see my parents and maybe tell them that I’m okay even if I’m dead. I hate to think that they still think I just don’t want to be near them. That’s the farthest thing from the truth.”

  It would take some logistics and some doing, but Mel might be able to get her to at least see her parents. “I can do the see part, but I don’t think I can do anything about the telling part.”

  “Couldn’t you let them know that you’ve talked with her from the other side and that she wanted to convince them that she had never left them?” Mrs. Hatchet asked.

  Just the thought of exposing herself like that made Mel queasy in her stomach. “I have to keep the family business at the junkyard.”

  “And yet other people know about it,” Mrs. Hatchett pressed.

  “Maybe I could ask Esther to come down and do a séance. I’m sure she’d be fine with that.”

  “But my parents don’t believe in that kind of stuff. They’d never let that in their house.”

  “What about auto writing? I could let you in, and allow you to write them a letter that would explain it all in your own hand.” Allowing a ghost into her body also was a quease-maker, but it was by far easier than what they were asking her to do.

  “I wouldn’t be comfortable with that,” Mrs. Hatchett said. “I really think you need to take the girl to her parents and let them know what happened.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Protests rose from every corner. “I know what you’re asking is not too much, and I know that you want me to do this, but at least give me twenty-four hours to figure out what I can do and how I can do it. That’s not too much to ask in return. It’s been thirty-five years, and one more day is not going to make or break anyone.” Mel stomped off in her jelly shoes, her bangs flying.

  “You know, they really aren’t asking a lot, and people do know about what you do even if they don’t acknowledge it. It’s not really the big secret your father has always thought it is.” Mel’s mom sat on the couch next to the Victrola, running a finger around the base of the beautifully polished machine.

  “But I thought…”

  “I know what you thought, and I know what your father would like to believe, but the truth is that more people know than you realize. And if this will bring closure to the family and help the girl decide what she wants to do, then you’re going to have to step outside yourself and do this.”

  “But what if I don’t want to? It’s hard enough to have stayed out here all my life, and kept away from people because they think I’m weird. To actually invite that kind of scrutiny would be agony.”

  “You underestimate yourself. You always have. It won’t be agony. I’ll come with you, if you want.”

  “You haven’t been out of the house since you died.”

  “That doesn’t mean I can’t go. Put the Victrola in the back of the car, and let’s go. Bring light into that girl’s life. She’s got Mikey, which I highly approve of, by the way. That boy has needed someone like her, but she could also have closure.”

  “Fine, but you’re definitely coming with me,” Mel said with her hands on her hips.

  “I already said I would,” Mom said, a smile on her face. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, but I’d like to state for the record that I’m not happy about this.”

  “Duly noted. You don’t have to be, you just have to do your job.”

  ****

  Mel had no idea how to get to Eileen’s family and tried to use that to block the mission. She failed miserably when Becker was able to find that they’d moved to a retirement community on the other side of town.

  The car really was full, with Dougal and Mumford, Mikey and Eileen, Mel’s mom and her Victrola.

  “I hope this works,” Mel grumbled.

  “It will. Just calm down.” Becker patted her jumping leg.

  They pulled up in front of a one-story house, and Eileen began to cry. “I can feel them in there.” She whisked out of the car, Mikey following close behind.

  The front door opened, and out stepped an older couple. All Mel’s ideas about what she was going to say to get them to open the front door went flying out the window.

  She and Becker emerged from the car, and she made damn sure her mother was following behind.

  “Harry and Matilda?”

  “Yes, we don’t often get visitors.”

  “I, um, am not sure how to go about this.”

  “Be strong,” her mother said. “But use compassion.”

  In the end, it didn’t matter, though, because Mumford brought the necklace out of the car, trotting up the sidewalk.

  Matilda gasped, gripping her collar.

  “Where did you get that?” Harry demanded, his face turning red as he rasped the words out.

  “This is the part I’m not sure how to address.” Mel gripped her hands together.

  “Tell them, Mel. Tell them now,” Mom said quietly.

  “We found your daughter.”

  And now Matilda was crying—sobbing actually—and it broke Mel’s heart to go on. But she had to.

  “I’m so sorry, but your daughter never ran away. A horrible accident occurred, and she died.”

  “But she…” Harry trailed off as he looked over Mel’s shoulder.

  Mel followed his gaze.

  Eileen had materialized. Not everyone could see ghosts, not everyone wanted to. But Eileen would not go unnoticed. She walked toward her mother and brushed her hand along her face, where tears made tracks down her cheeks. Then she touched her father’s chin. They both reached out back toward her, Harry crying, Matilda with a smile through her tears.

  “We love you,” Matilda said. “We never stopped looking for you.”

  “I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad. I’m okay now. I’m here, and I’m okay. I have to go away again, but I wanted you to know I always loved you and never would have run away.”

  And then Eileen faded, her color going grayish. Mikey escorted her back to the car as Mel dealt with the parents.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” She waited for them to call her weird or be shocked that she had access to ghosts, that she’d brought one of them to her.

  “It’s not a loss; it’s our blessing to have seen her and talked to her.” Matilda held Mel’s hands in her own. “Thank you. We can’t thank you enough. May we keep the necklace?”

  Yikes, she hadn’t thought of that. “Um, actually I need to take it back with me.” Because if she didn’t, Eileen would be stuck here.

  “Will she be with you?” Harry asked.

  “Yes, and I promise to take good care of her.”

  “Then we’ll let her go. Thank you. If you see her again, tell her we love her.”

  Mel looked back to the car and saw Eileen with her head close to Mikey’s. She was crying while he stroked her hair.

  “She knows,” Mel said. “But if I see her, I’ll let her know again.”

  They both hugged Mel tightly before letting her leave, waving as she backed out of the driveway with Becker, the ghosts, and her mother’s Victrola in the back seat.

  “Phew.”

  “You were wonderful,” Becker said.

  “Fantastic,” Eileen added.

  “Magnificent,” Mikey chimed in.

  “Stupendous,” her mom said.

  Good Lord, it had better end soon. Mel rolled down the windows and cranked up the music to drown them all out. The last thing she heard before Blondie sang about hearts of glass was her mom’s chuckle.

  Not a happy ending, necessarily, but closure. Mikey and Eileen sat in the back of the car with their heads bent toward each other on the way back to the junkyard.

  When they pulled up to the house, everyone piled out. Becker carried the Victrola into the house while Peggy giggled about being carried across the threshold by her future son-in-law.

  Good
Lord, again.

  One final thing to do. They entered the parlor, where Uncle John stood motionless in the middle of the floor. Eileen rushed past Mel to stand right in front of him.

  “They know,” she stated.

  And he wailed like a banshee.

  She put her hand on his heart. “They know I died in an accident but not what happened. They know I didn’t run away and that I love them. I said nothing more. I don’t want your memory to be sullied. It wouldn’t serve any purpose.”

  He jerked as if she’d slapped him, but his rigid posture gave way to a slump. “Why?”

  “Because it was the right thing to do. You made a mistake. And now it’s right. You can rest now.”

  “I…” He trailed off as Great-Grandpa came out of Becker’s pocket.

  “I can help you.”

  “Am I going to the Bad Place? I belong there, no matter what Eileen says.”

  “I don’t make that choice, John. Let’s walk, and we’ll talk.”

  They left the room together as Mel and Becker looked on. When Great-Grandpa returned a few minutes later, he simply nodded his head.

  “The necklace is now free, and so is John,” he said, disappearing into Becker’s pocket watch.

  Mel didn’t know if John had gone to the Bad Place or not, but the necklace no longer had anything attached to it. Eileen attached herself to the thing without a second’s hesitation and asked Mel if she’d go find the pennies Mikey had moved out to the yard an inch at a time over the years until he was in one of the drains of a sink.

  When Mel found them, she polished them until they looked new. Once done, she set them and the necklace, with nothing else, into a jewelry box with no one attached to it. It was rosewood and hand-carved, a gift her father had given to her mother on their first anniversary, and now it held a treasure more precious than gold.

  And maybe that’s what Mel needed to remember. Life was not easy. It was messy, and if she could do anything to clean it up, or make it smoother, then she would do everything she could to make that happen.

  A word about the author…

  Misty Simon loves a good story and decided one day that she would try her hand at it. Eventually she got it right. There’s nothing better in the world than making someone laugh, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books.

  She lives with her husband, daughter, and three insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania, where she is hard at work on her next novel or three.

  She loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at:

  misty@mistysimon.com

  www.mistysimon.com

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