by Judith Post
Annalise paced restlessly, circling the stone fireplace in the center of the room, stalking from the kitchen to the dining table and back again. Finally, she said, "I have to know. I want to know what happened to Crumb, and I have to make Scorch stay away from Ashleigh."
"How are you going to do that?" Tammy asked. "You're dead."
"If I leave here, I'm a ghost, right? I can travel there and see."
"How will that stop Scorch from putting the moves on your sister?" Tammy demanded.
Chris planted his feet in a determined fashion and stared at Death and Loralei. "She'll have to have help. You saved Miz Rosalie for me. You can help Annalise save her sister."
"This is sort of different." Loralei pushed herself from the table and walked to the kitchen. She rinsed her glass and put it near the sink. "This time, you're not asking us to stop a murder. You're asking us to break up a romance."
"Will you try?" Annalise blinked back tears. She looked outside at the bare trees and the orange pumpkins in the garden. Soon, it would be time for trick or treating, not that anyone ever came to their cottage and knocked on its door. "Does the veil really thin this time of year?"
"Yes. That's probably why you could feel someone calling to you and how you could follow the tug of my crystal ball." And thankfully, if Loralei was right, ghosts could only pester her once a year.
Loralei's gaze drifted to the picture frame on the wall that held a myriad of family photos. Her brother's face smiled out from one of the rectangles of glass. What would she do if her brother called for her? She'd go to him. If it was at all possible, she'd seek him out. She sighed. "I guess we could drive you to your town, let you look around and see what's going on. No one could see you, but it might make you feel better."
Death nodded. "I'll go too, but I can't leave the car unless we're alone. Once I leave this property—just like our ghosts—I'll lose my mortal form."
Annalise stared at him in surprise. "What are you usually?"
"The Grim Reaper."
"All bones and black robes," Tammy said. "Sort of scary."
Annalise shrugged. "Doesn't bother me. I'm dead already."
Chris grunted, looking down at himself. "So are we."
Annalise squared her shoulders and glanced out a side window at Loralei's black Chrysler. With its tinted windows, it resembled a hearse. It was parked near the house on the gravel drive. "How long will it take for us to reach Prosperity? Do you know where it is?"
"I drove through it once." Loralei had driven through the town on her way to a conference where readers, writers, and book cover artists met. She remembered being surprised by the rundown business district. With a name like Prosperity, the irony was hard to forget. "It's two hours from here."
"When can we leave?" Annalise looked ready to bolt for the car right that minute.
Death looked at Loralei. "What do you say? The sooner, the better?"
"Why not?" Loralei went for her keys.
Tammy and Chris started out the patio doors, Ebony trailing behind them.
"You're not coming?" Annalise asked.
Chris shook his head. "We kinda like having bodies again. Don't want to switch back unless we have to. We'll wait here."
Death drove, safely hidden behind the car's tinted windows. As he pulled out of their drive and onto the cement highway, Annalise faded to her ghost form, and he changed into the Reaper. He had to keep his side window up so that no one could look into the car, but Loralei rolled hers down to enjoy the crisp, autumn air. They passed a yard where the owner was burning leaves. The smoke teased her nose. She loved that smell. The drive wasn't nearly as pretty as their last trip to the lake. No brilliant colors painted the trees. But the sky was robin-egg blue with marshmallow clouds—gorgeous enough.
When they reached the small, rectangular sign that announced Prosperity, and Death saw its old, clapboard buildings in need of paint, he raised an eyebrow. "Did the founding fathers hope that if they chose the right name, it would bring them good fortune?"
Annalise laughed. "No, Prosperity started out as a small farming community with good soil and good crops. Times change. Now most people work in factories a few towns over. They shop at the malls in Creeksville."
Death drove past a brick hardware store, a beauty parlor painted pink with yellow trim, and a grocery mart with dirty windows. Across the street, a tiny post office shared walls with a diner. Its neon sign blinked erratically. A photography studio sat on the corner, and an ice cream parlor with a torn awning over its window stood across the street.
Annalise sighed. She rubbed at her eyes. "It feels like it's been a long time since I lived here."
"Three years," Death said. They passed a hospital before farmers' fields rolled toward woods or asphalt roads.
"It looks so different when you come back."
Loralei nodded. "Home is perfect. Nothing on Earth can compare."
"Your place can." Annalise motioned to a side road. "My parents live eight miles west of here."
"And you walked home every day?" Loralei looked, but didn't see anything that resembled a high school.
"It's a new building for the whole area. You'll see. The walk wasn't that bad."
They passed a white, two-story on the left side of the road and Annalise craned to see it better. "That's where Crumb lived."
"Did he leave town?" Death asked.
"I don't know. Always said he would."
A few miles later, a wide, gray bungalow came into sight. Annalise gripped the back of Death's seat until her knuckles went white. "My parents' house."
Fields sprawled on both sides and behind it. A woods covered part of the property. "My witch garden was behind those trees," Annalise said. A brick high school stretched farther from view. It looked as though someone had dropped it in the middle of nowhere.
"See?" Annalise pointed. "I took a trail through the woods to get home."
Death drove to the high school's empty parking lot and stopped. "What now?"
Annalise floated through the car door and fidgeted, anxious to leave. "I'll fly home and check on my family. I saw cars parked in back of the house."
"We'll wait here," Loralei said.
Annalise was gone before she finished her sentence. Loralei got out of the car to stretch her legs. "No one's around," she told Death. "Want to walk to the woods and back with me? If someone comes, you can transport back to the car."
Death studied the area. No car or person in sight. "Sure, why not?" He and Loralei started across a grassy field, made their way around the football bleachers, and headed toward the woods. Before they reached it, Death put out his arm to pull Loralei to a stop. Voices came from behind a hedge of bushes. They peeked through the branches at a young man sitting near Annalise's makeshift, stone altar. A woman hovered close to him.
"Come on, Crumb, it's time to head back. Why do you do this to yourself? Why can't you let it go?"
"I should have saved her." His voice was a rasp, barely audible. A cough followed it.
"Look at you. You're a mess. You couldn't even save yourself. Come on. You'll catch pneumonia again. You barely made it through the last bout."
"You're not letting Scorch get to you, are you? He always treated Annalise like crap."
"Scorch treated everyone like crap back then. He thought he was king of the school."
A chill slithered up and down Loralei's arm, and she turned to see Annalise standing behind them. She pressed her finger to her lips.
"That's not an answer, Ashleigh."
She laughed. "I'm not staying in Prosperity, dork. I graduated from hair school and came to see Mom and Dad before I move to Charlotte."
"What's in Charlotte?" Crumb asked.
"A job. A new start. Nightclubs, theaters, signs of life. Everything that's missing here."
Annalise's shoulders relaxed. She heaved a sigh of relief. Then she looked confused. A frown formed a groove between her brows. She raised them at Loralei in a question.
Lora
lei understood and shrugged. She had no idea who'd called Annalise back.
Ashleigh moved closer to Crumb. "I promised your dad I wouldn't let you stay out too long." She bent to help him to his feet. As he stood, he reached for his crutches. It was rough going across the bumpy garden. When they reached the road, Ashleigh bent again, and Crumb dropped into a wheelchair that was hidden behind the bushes on that side.
Annalise gaped.
Crumb covered his mouth as more coughs doubled him over.
"You probably got chilled," Ashleigh fussed. "Let's get you home." She pushed his wheelchair faster down the street.
Between coughs, Loralei heard Crumb ask, "Do you miss her as much as I do?"
"Every day."
The three of them stayed hidden until Ashleigh and Crumb were dots in the distance. Then they headed back to the car. They didn't talk until they were settled inside it.
Death asked, "Did you see your parents?"
A small smile played at Annalise's lips. "Yup, and my new, little sister."
"Your mom had a baby?" Loralei couldn't hide her surprise. "Ashleigh just graduated from beauty school, didn't she?"
"They needed a fresh start, some way to get past what happened. A baby will do that."
"It doesn't bother you?" Loralei wasn't sure how it must feel, being left behind like that.
"They still remember me, just not how I died. I'm happy for them."
"And Ashleigh?"
"I'm happy for her too."
"So are we finished here?" Death asked. "Your family's doing okay. You can go Home."
Annalise's lips pressed together in a firm line. She shook her head. "No, someone called me. I have to find out who it was. And…" She hesitated. "…Since I'm here, I want to see what the others are doing…Zeb and Cherri, Donnie and Scorch."
"You can't punish them." A pickup drove past the school, and the driver gawked at the black Chrysler. Death started the engine and began to drive away. "I don't want a deputy showing up to see if some kids are necking in the back seat. Where's a good place to hide out for a while?"
Annalise thought for a second. "There's an old barn on the far side of Crumb's property. No one uses it anymore. We could park the car in there."
"Give me directions." Ten minutes later, Death turned off the Chrysler's engine and looked at the inside of a neglected barn that hadn't been used for years.
Annalise floated out the doors once again and stood, waiting for them. "Can I go look around? See who's doing what these days?"
"As long as you remember…."
Annalise didn't let Death finish. "I know. I'm less than a mist. I can only watch, nothing more."
"Don't make us come looking for you," he said. "It will get ugly."
She smiled. "I don't want you grabbing me by the throat and throwing me at the Light. I'll be back before it gets dark."
When Annalise left, Loralei put her hands on her hips and turned to Death. "Can you do anything about a ghost?"
"If I have to. I'm Death. But I don't usually make spirits go to the Light unless they're ready."
Loralei looked around their unglamorous surroundings. Paint peeled from weathered boards. The whiff of long-ago, rotted straw lingered in the air. Oh, the glamour of being a Death Seer! She stalked to her car and opened the glove compartment. When she returned, she carried a deck of cards. "Do you know how to play Gin Rummy?"
"No strip poker?"
"Not when you're a bunch of bones."
He grinned. "Get ready to lose, woman."
"Just like every man," she said, "all talk."
They played until the light dimmed and it was too hard to see their cards. Death was getting antsy when Annalise finally returned. "Well?" he demanded.
The girl sighed. "Donnie went off to college, drank too much, and lost his basketball scholarship. He works at one of the local factories now."
"Guilt is a heavy burden," Death said.
"Cherri's married to a guy who gives her a split lip or a black eye when he's unhappy."
Loralei didn't comment. She hated abuse, but part of her thought it was what the girl deserved.
"Scorch can't seem to stay in one place. He's traveled from one spot to the next and can't hold a job."
"And Zeb?" Loralei asked.
"Zeb's in college, and from what I could tell from listening in, he was accused of date rape but made the girl look so bad in court, no one could decide who was telling the truth."
"So Zeb hasn't changed." Death shook his head, dissatisfied.
"Zeb's slime." Annalise crossed her arms over her translucent chest and stalked to the barn doors to watch the sun set.
Loralei yawned. It had been a long day. "I packed some sandwiches. I'm eating one, and if we aren't going home, I'm getting comfortable on the back seat of the car and going to sleep."
"You've done everything you came for, haven't you?" Death asked.
Annalise stared outside at the gathering darkness. "There's something…I don't know what…that's not finished here."
"I can't stay away from my duties too much longer." Death unlocked the trunk and put a blanket and pillow in the car for Loralei. The sun sank, and blackness surrounded them. No streetlights blinked on. Loralei couldn't see her hand in front of her face. Death opened the car door so that the dome light turned on. "Get some rest."
Loralei thought she'd have trouble falling asleep, cramped on a hard, narrow seat, but she grumbled a few hours later when Death tried to wake her.
"Loralei, Annalise had to go. Whatever's calling to her got stronger. You should follow her."
Loralei rubbed her eyes, stretched the kinks out of her back and legs. "Where did she go?"
"To the hospital. I'll drive you there. You'll be awake by the time we reach it. If you need me, call."
She gave a groggy nod and sat in the passenger seat beside him, trying to focus, when he drove out of the barn. It took them a while to find the hospital. Death could feel its draw. People dying always called to him. Hospitals were no exception. He parked in the visitors' lot and watched her stalk inside its doors.
What now?
Death's voice whispered inside her mind. "Room 417. Annalise is there."
Loralei braced herself. As the elevator took her to the fourth floor, she wondered what she'd find there.
She was surprised to walk into the room and see Annalise in her mortal form. She stood next to the bed, holding Crumb's hand. He lay still, his face pale, his breathing labored.
"Pneumonia," Annalise said.
Crumb opened his eyes and smiled. The only thing in the room he saw was Annalise. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. You're always on my mind."
Annalise smiled back. "I heard you calling to me. I came."
"I never got a chance to tell you…."
"You don't have to. I know."
He winced, fought for breath, and sighed. "I'm tired of pain."
"Has it been like this since I died?"
He nodded. "The shovel….It damaged something."
"How tired are you?" Annalise asked.
Loralei looked at her in surprise, but Annalise didn't budge. She squeezed Crumb's hand. "It's beautiful at Home."
"Home." Crumb made the word sound wistful.
Annalise turned to Loralei. "This is why I was called. Let me take him Home."
"It's not that easy…." Then Loralei rethought those words. "I'll call Death."
"Death?" Crumb frowned and forced himself to really look at her.
"Are you ready?" Loralei asked.
Crumb looked at Annalise.
"I'll take you with me," she promised. "We'll be together."
He nodded.
"Scythe?" Loralei said his name, and he was there.
Crumb looked at the Grim Reaper, shaken for a second.
"I can spare you," Death said. "I can ease your pain."
Crumb gripped Annalise's hand. "Can I stay with her?"
"She's your Guide."
Crumb nodded again.
Death swung his scythe, and Crumb gave a weary nod, closed his eyes, and took his last breath.
Loralei didn't expect tears to fall, but she didn't seem able to stop them. Her shoulders shook, and Death wrapped her in a close embrace.
"This is a good thing," he told her.
She nodded. She knew that, but somehow, this experience had been more emotional than most.
Death hooked his finger into Crumb's chest and pulled out his spirit. Crumb saw Annalise and grinned. She hugged him to her and started to fade. A beam of Light filled the far side of the room. Both spirits ran to it. Still clinging to one another, they stepped into it, and the Light left, taking them with it.
Death sighed. He looked at Loralei. "Are you all right?"
She nodded.
"Let's go home." To their home—the stone cottage at the end of the long, winding, gravel drive.
They left the hospital together and made the two hour drive in silence.
Crumb's death had been terrible and wonderful, both at the same time. Loralei closed her eyes, seeing it all again. He and Annalise. They'd have gotten together if she'd lived. They were on their way before Zeb kicked her feet out from under her.
Zeb. She pushed those thoughts away. It wasn't her job to judge people. Karma had a way of playing catch-up.
Death slowed to maneuver the car around pumpkins that had been smashed on the road. Halloween. Trick or treaters. When the veil between worlds thins, and people like Zeb get their just rewards.
Loralei leaned back against the plush seat. Crumb and Annalise were happy now. That's what mattered.
And soon, after a few days passed, and she worked in her gardens and painted and made love to Death, she could put this behind her. Living was sometimes worse than dying, and Death had offered Crumb a happy Hereafter, one he deserved. Sometime soon, Loralei would be glad for that.
Spirits Bound
(Fourth Death & Loralei novella)
A Lunch Hour Read
by
Judith Post
Thanks to Tyler & Nathan,