In Between

by Beca Lewis

  Sure, people loved to hear angel stories, and what Connie had done would definitely be turned into an angel story in that woman’s mind.

  But Rachel knew that was the extent that most people would be willing to go. There were angels. Understanding how the angel thing worked wasn’t necessary to them, just the idea that angels existed was enough.

  But for Rachel, just knowing that things existed was never enough. She always wanted to know more. Even though she had needed to put her hand on Bryan’s arm to see Connie and Eddie, she had once seen two people on her own. Perhaps that’s why she wanted to be part of this so much.

  Without thinking about it, Rachel headed to the coffee shop. A nice cup of coffee and one of Grace’s pastries would help her think. Maybe she would pick up a book while she was there.

  Rachel thought Grace was smart to add books to the coffee shop. It made it so inviting. But Rachel knew it was more than coffee and books that was taking her to Your Second Home.

  Grace was the town’s busybody. She knew everybody and everything going on in Doveland. Maybe she would help.

  Twenty-Five

  Connie had meant to go to Edith’s old house and sit in the garden.

  Instead, she found herself waiting outside Bryan’s house until Rachel left, and then without thinking about it, she followed her.

  She watched as Rachel opened the door to Your Second Home and wave to the woman Connie had seen in the park serving people coffee.

  For a moment, Connie hesitated and then took a deep breath and walked through the window into the room. She felt nothing. It was strangely exhilarating. Being dead might not be that terrible, after all.

  Although the older woman glanced her way as she slid inside, Connie was sure that she hadn’t seen her. Connie waited until Rachel found a seat and then stood behind her.

  But when that same woman headed to Rachel’s table with a coffeepot and glanced her way again, Connie decided that perhaps it was best she stood behind one of the bookcases. Maybe some people didn’t see her, but they felt her presence.

  Rachel glanced up as Grace stood at the table looking behind her and then turning back to Rachel, took her order.

  “Thanks, Grace,” Rachel said.

  Ah, Connie thought, now I know her name.

  A few minutes later, Grace returned to the table, bringing Rachel’s order, and then asked if Rachel would mind if she sat with her. Rachel smiled at Grace, thinking how wise this woman must be. Grace must know that she needed to talk to someone.

  The two of them chatted about things around town for a bit, and then Grace mentioned that she had seen Rachel with Bryan in the park. Rachel leaned back in her chair and looked at the woman sitting across from her.

  Grace’s brown eyes were alert and kind. A pair of glasses hung from a chain around her neck. Her steel gray hair was styled in a fluffy cut framing her slightly plump face. Rachel thought Grace was the picture of what grandmothers looked like in books. Except Rachel knew Grace didn’t have any children. That much gossip had circled the town when Grace and her friends had first arrived.

  Rachel glanced around the coffee shop. There was no one there but them. A rare occurrence. Perhaps this was meant to be.

  “You have questions, dear?” Grace prompted.

  Rachel nodded.

  “But I don’t know where to start. I have heard rumors about you and some of your friends. That you do ‘magical’ things, know things others don’t, do things that others can’t do. Are the rumors true?”

  Grace smiled at Rachel before answering.

  “Oh, not me. I am just someone who pays attention. But yes, I have friends that some people might call ‘magical,’ but really, it’s just different gifts. Some people have them and don’t know that they do, or choose to ignore them. But my friends are aware of them.”

  “And help others?” Rachel asked.

  Behind the bookshelf, Connie started trembling.

  Grace smiled, “Yes, and help others. Some of those friends have moved away. My partner in this coffee shop, Mandy, and her husband, Tom, moved away, as did Tom’s sister Mira after she married Sam. They come back to visit from time to time.”

  Grace paused before continuing. “Some of them have gone to another place, and won’t be returning.”

  “What other place?” Rachel asked.

  Grace looked at Rachel and wondered how much she needed to tell her, or what Rachel would accept. Would she understand the idea of other dimensions? Would she accept it? Perhaps not.

  Trying to explain that they went to another dimension called Erda might be too much. Some people understood and accepted that other planes of existence were real, but not everyone.

  For a moment, Grace allowed herself to remember when they had all lived in Doveland.

  Then her husband Eric, knowing he was ill, had left with Sarah and Leif because they assured him he would be well in Erda. Eric hadn’t stayed there. He missed Grace too much. He had told her that even if he wasn’t cured, he would rather spend his last days with her.

  Although Eric lost his memory of his time in Erda, he did remember that Suzanne told him she was closing the door between the two dimensions of Earth and Erda because it was safer that way. Sarah, Leif, Suzanne, and Hannah were gone forever.

  Grace didn’t know what had happened to them. All she knew was that Erda was where they needed to be.

  Grace smiled to herself. Those were magnificent days. And although she was often lonely, Grace knew that one day they would all be reunited.

  So, there were not that many of them left in town now. But there were enough to help Rachel with whatever was bothering her.

  “Why don’t you tell me what you need,” Grace said as she reached over and laid her hand on top of Rachel’s. “I’m sure we can help. We can at least be sympathetic listeners.”

  Just as Rachel started to say something, a group of people piled into the coffee shop, and the moment passed. Grace knew the group. They were members of the town council. They often stopped by after their meetings were over. One woman caught Grace’s eye and smiled at her. Grace waved her over to the table.

  “Valerie, do you know Rachel?” Grace asked.

  “I’ve seen you around town,” Valerie replied, shaking Rachel’s hand.

  “Rachel needs a little help. Perhaps we can get the group together tonight and listen to what she needs?”

  Valerie looked at Rachel and then back to Grace. “Of course. Shall I pass the word? Do you want everyone? Johnny is in town. Do you want him to come too?”

  When Grace nodded yes, Valerie smiled at the two of them and then headed back to the table where the members of the town council waited for her, still smiling. It had been a while since they had an adventure together, and seeing the look in Grace’s eyes told Valerie that was exactly what they were heading for.

  It would be good for Ava. Although she and her husband, Evan, accepted that their daughter, Hannah, had returned to Erda, it had been hard for them. Helping Rachel might ease the sting of missing her. And Grace. It would help Grace, too. She had handled Eric’s death as well as could be expected. But the sparkle of curiosity in her eyes had been absent, and today it had returned.

  Twenty-Six

  Eddie found Connie sitting on the park bench, watching the people of Doveland.

  When Connie had visited Edith in Doveland, the two of them would often do the same thing. Sit on the park bench and watch the town walk by.

  Although some things were new, like the gazebo and Grace’s coffee shop, much of it had stayed the same.

  Connie was playing a game with herself, wondering what would have happened if she hadn’t done what she had done. Would she have continued working and then retired and moved here to Doveland?

  Perhaps she would have been friends with that woman, Grace. Maybe there would have been other people she c
ould have laughed with and counted on. Instead, she had run away with her daughter Karla.

  Connie tried not to think about Karla. It made her heart hurt. She and Karla had barely made it through Karla’s teen years before Karla had left to go to college as far away from her mother as possible. Watching the people of Doveland walk through the park holding hands with their children brought back all the memories, both happy and terrible.

  She had taken the wrong path. It was apparent now. Why couldn’t it have been evident to her before? Mama Woo had tried to tell her, but she hadn’t listened.

  Now Edith’s son was trying to help her. Connie promised herself that this time she would listen. She hoped it wasn’t too late.

  That was the mood she was in when Eddie appeared beside her on the bench. The whole time she had been sitting there, no one had seen her, which was both good and bad.

  She could watch without being seen, but she was also lonely. Eddie’s appearance was welcome. He was someone to talk to and hopefully he was bringing something for her to do. She had sat too long in her life doing nothing important. Now, she felt hungry for a purpose.

  Eddie didn’t waste any time.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. A timeless moment later, the two of them were walking down what appeared to be a city street. When she made a motion to ask where they were, Eddie held up his hand.

  “It doesn’t matter where we are. It matters what you will do here. Can you feel it?”

  Connie stopped walking. Listened. Waited for something, anything. If she had decided to listen to Eddie, she would have to trust him too. There was a reason they were here. What was it?

  A few minutes passed before Connie saw a girl and a boy walking down the sidewalk holding hands.

  Young love, she thought to herself. The girl reminded her of her daughter, Karla, when Karla was that age. She glanced at Eddie, and he nodded. Yes, it had something to do with the two of them.

  As she watched, Connie felt something dark coming towards them. Without thinking about it, Connie started running towards the couple. The darkness was moving closer. As she ran, Connie glanced over her shoulder and saw a truck turn the corner and head down the street towards them, moving too fast.

  The couple had stopped near a telephone pole. The boy backed up against the pole, pulling the girl closer to him. Neither of them could see the truck from where they stood.

  Besides, they were on the sidewalk, and the truck was in the street. But Connie knew. She didn’t know how she knew, but she did. The truck was heading straight for them.

  She yelled, “Move!” and reaching the couple pushed both of them out of the way. A second later, the truck struck the pole.

  As soon as she saw that they were safe, Connie turned back to Eddie with tears in her eyes. Real tears.

  “What’s happening?” Connie whispered.

  A flash later and they were back on the park bench. Connie leaned forward, head in her hands, and tried to catch her breath.

  This was new. She could feel the seat a little, she could feel her head in her hands, and the tears that had begun after the near accident continued to flow down her cheeks.

  “What’s happening?” she asked again.

  “You are passing tests. Each time you do, you get closer to being able to return to the past.”

  Connie stared at Eddie, taking in what he had said. “Are you telling me I am not going back as a ghost when I go back in the past? I’m going back as an actual person?”

  When Eddie nodded, smiling in approval at her dawning awareness, she got up from the bench and started walking.

  Eddie followed her, even though he was reasonably sure he knew where she was going. Back to his grandparent’s house. To sit in the garden.

  *******

  Grace often stood at the window of Your Second Home and stared at the park bench. It was her favorite place to sit. Sometimes when she sat there, she would think about the man who had passed away one night on that bench. She would think about the things she and the town had learned after he died while tracking down who he was and why he had been there.

  There was something about the bench that made everyone want to sit on it. But for the last few hours, no one had sat there. They would glance at it and then walk away. It was as if someone was already sitting there, which Grace was sure was happening.

  Not that she could see anyone there, but ever since Eric had died, she had felt people around her. It was an interesting experience. Not one that she was sure that she liked. But here it was, and she would embrace it as if it were a gift. She had always tried to say yes to gifts that expanded her world.

  After all, it was saying yes to her friend Sarah that had brought her to Doveland. Now Doveland was her home. And the people were her people, including the ones she couldn’t see—like whoever was on the bench.

  Grace turned away from the window and looked back at the space. She loved it. It was just what she had always wanted. A place people could meet and talk or read—a safe space. Mandy had helped her build it, but now that she and Tom had moved away, Grace had hired people to do most of the work. That meant she could come and go at will.

  She waved at the young woman working behind the counter and pointed upstairs. She would know that Grace meant she was heading to her apartment above the store.

  If there was an emergency, she could be downstairs in a flash. But if she was having people over that night, she needed to get ready. It had been a while since they had met for something like this.

  Yes, Grace thought, this will be exciting.

  Before heading upstairs, Grace glanced outside at the bench and saw a mom and her daughter sitting on it.

  Whoever had been there must have gone, she thought. And then she wondered if whoever had been there was a part of what was going on with Rachel.

  Twenty-Seven

  While Rachel met with Grace, Bryan returned to the woods. He could walk out the back door of his parent’s home, cross the backyard filled with flowers, bushes, and his mother’s favorite redbud tree, open the hidden back gate, and within a few feet, he would be in the woods. He didn’t know who owned the woods. It had always been there and had always been his escape.

  But this time he wasn’t escaping from life, he was fleeing from what Eddie had said. Except Bryan knew there was no escape from that, and as he walked, Bryan realized that perhaps he didn’t want to escape it, anyway.

  What if what Eddie had said about this always being his calling was true? Maybe if he did this thing—as if he had a choice—he would start living.

  Bryan understood what Eddie meant. Here he was forty years old, and his life hadn’t begun yet. How ironic it would be that it would start by helping those that had died.

  Bryan had no trouble understanding that life continued. He saw it every day in the woods. The system lived because the pieces of it appeared to die and then live again in another way. Which for Bryan meant that life always went on. Life could not include death.

  Although Bryan knew that most people thought of death as the end of life, that wasn’t possible. As he had reasoned for himself long ago, if there was death in life, death would eventually eliminate everything. Since that didn’t happen, and he had witnessed the cycle of life in the woods year after year, Bryan knew that life was a forever thing. How that worked, Bryan didn’t know. That wasn’t the important part. That it was true, that was what was essential.

  Knowing that life continued had helped him when his dad and mom died. It was what his mother must have meant when she told him he had just refused to see the open door, so she showed it to him. Bryan wondered about all the things that his mother must have known, and that he hadn’t asked her about.

  Like never asking her about Edith. Although he had known she once had a friend named Edith, he couldn’t remember what happened to her.

  Obvious
ly, Edith had a son. Had his mother mentioned him, and he ignored her? How had Eddie died? Where was the father? What had Connie done that kept her stuck in the in-between? If they didn’t succeed, what would happen to her? To him? To Rachel? Was this going to be a safe thing to do?

  A red-tailed hawk startled Bryan as it swooped through the trees, coming within feet of him, screaming as it did so. Then, soaring through the trees, it flew higher until Bryan could see it in the clear blue sky through the tree canopy opening.

  “Okay, I get it,” Bryan said to the hawk. “It’s not about being safe. It’s about being who I am.”

  Bryan chose to believe that the hawk had gifted him with the insight. It gave him the courage he was looking for.

  Bryan spent the rest of the afternoon in the woods, talking to his friends, leaning against trees, and watching the forest creatures live life as a community. Each one had a purpose that fit neatly into the tapestry of forest life.

  Humans, Bryan decided, get in their own way by over thinking. It was certainly true for him. As the sun dipped lower in the sky, Bryan made his way back home, his rabbit friend leading the way.

  Eddie met him partway, appearing on the path in front of him, startling both Bryan and the rabbit. The realization that the animals probably saw the in-between people passed through Bryan’s mind before Eddie spoke, and then what Eddie said chased the thought away.

  Eddie only stayed a few seconds, but it was enough. He told him that the next day they would do a practice run with Connie, so Bryan might want to get some rest.

  As Eddie dissolved away, Bryan thought he heard him giggle. Probably laughing because telling him now meant he probably wouldn’t get any sleep at all.

  That turned out to be the case. As hard as Bryan tried, he couldn’t stop his mind from racing. He kept thinking about his mother and Edith. How well had they known each other? And why was Connie so important that they both had asked him and Eddie to help her? Then he remembered the picture albums.