Jump When Ready

by David Pandolfe

  The fact was, Nikki had only been curious about seeing the place they kept disappearing to all the time. Henry and Jamie had created it together, so the invitation had been needed, but originally she hadn’t been sure she’d even get on a board. Now, she smirked as she spun and turned to look back. She watched as Henry and Jamie picked themselves up.

  “Beginners luck,” Jamie said, preening his mohawk back into place.

  “I was seriously gaining,” Henry said. “Another few seconds and I would have—”

  “Still lost,” Nikki said.

  Henry pretended to consider, then shrugged. “True, but not by as much.”

  Henry’s eyes met Nikki’s and she forced herself to maintain a neutral expression. She did allow the corner of her mouth to rise just a little, enough that she knew Henry would smile. Sure enough, he smiled. Henry was Henry, after all. Some things in afterlife remained the same and Nikki appreciated that consistency.

  Nikki was long past questioning so many aspects of this realm she’d come to think of as home. After all, people on Earth just accepted that the sun would rise and that night would fall. That was the natural order of things. Obviously, time moved way differently here—to the point where time itself barely mattered. Sure, it used to disorient her but that had mostly been during the years when she’d kept crossing over. Back when she’d watched her parents, and then her sister, slip away. After that, she hadn’t looked back. She’d only been torturing herself and it hadn’t benefitted anyone. It hadn’t been until Henry arrived to join them that she’d found the courage to make that leap again. And it had paid off, no doubt about it. They’d rescued Henry’s sister. They’d saved—or at least, prolonged—a life. Still, that had been almost twenty years ago, Earth time. Where Nikki lived, maybe a few months. At least, that’s what it felt like.

  “What next?” Henry dusted himself off. “Maybe the woods? Or how about the pond? You know, someplace relaxing.”

  Nikki missed the pond. They hadn’t gone there much since saving Bethany. Henry went there sometimes, she knew. Well, she didn’t know for sure. But he went somewhere, just slipped totally off the radar. She shouldn’t care. After all, why would she? Nikki asked that of herself too frequently lately. It scared her, this change, this caring, in a place where she’d long thought it couldn’t happen. Maybe shouldn’t happen? What kind of doors might that caring open? Big doors, she suspected. Doors that couldn’t be crossed through again. At least, not at the time of her choosing.

  “I was thinking about maybe laying on the beach for a while,” Jamie said. “Not that I’m tired or any—”

  “White water rafting.” Nikki looked Henry in the eye. Not nice, she knew. Mean, even, considering that he’d drowned last time around. Was she trying to push him away?

  “Okay, sure,” Henry said. “Show me.”

  It wasn’t lost on Nikki that Henry said, “Show me” rather than “us.”

  “No issues, River Rat?”

  Henry stared at her, eyes smiling. Sure, keep testing me, his eyes said. Keep trying. I’m in, no matter what. Nikki looked away. “Jamie?”

  “Nice,” Jamie said. “New one. Let’s do it.”

  They picked up their boards and walked toward their bikes. Something they’d agreed upon, at least for now, was that it just felt right walking or riding their bikes together. Technically, they could be driving cars now—or flying jets, for that matter—but none of them had gotten their driver’s license in their last life. For now, they remained teenagers continually poised on adulthood. Still, Nikki wondered how long it might remain that way. She kept trying to resist thinking about it but couldn’t quite manage doing so lately. Kids grew up. They graduated from high school, they left home and went to college. They fell in love, fell out of love, then fell in love again. They got married, then—

  “So, the white water place,” Jamie said, pedaling along beside her. “Was it somewhere you knew? You never mentioned it.”

  Nikki swerved her bike just enough at Jamie that he almost went off the path. “That’s because I grew up in southern California. Not a whole lot of white water going on there.”

  “So, you just thought of it?” Henry said, from her other side.

  “Yep. I’m thinking we should have a race.”

  “We’re screwed,” Jamie said.

  ~~~

  Simon and Naomi stared at the three of them as they entered the kitchen, soaked and dripping water onto the floor. The addition of the kitchen to Halfway House had been a recent mutual decision, partly because it gave them someplace else to hang out but mostly because Naomi had become interested in learning how to bake. She wasn’t likely to develop her new skill if their only option remained the food court, where whatever they wanted appeared at will. As it happened, the aroma of baking cookies wafted through the relatively small space they’d decided upon.

  “What the hell, mates?” Simon said.

  Jamie gestured at Nikki. “Her idea.”

  Simon thought for a moment. “Get caught in a squall?” He took another look at Jamie’s Mohawk, which now resembled a dead bird laying on his skull. “Maybe a hurricane?”

  “Rapids,” Henry said. “We went tubing.”

  Naomi wore baking mitts, ready at the oven door. “That’s super dangerous.”

  A silent moment followed since no one wanted to hurt her feelings. Then Naomi giggled. “Scary, I mean.”

  “Definitely,” Henry said. “If I could have died, I would have at least three times.”

  Nikki laughed. “Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

  “Yeah, it kind of was,” Jamie said, still trying to straighten his spikes.

  “What have you two been up to?” Nikki said, wondering how long it would be before Naomi’s cookies were ready. They smelled fantastic. Naomi was a natural at baking—almost as if she could somehow infuse a child’s expectations into the flavors she created. Could she?

  “Not much,” Simon said, “Just hanging out.”

  Nikki thought she caught a reluctant tone, as if he might be leaving something out.

  “Simon’s in trouble,” Naomi said softly.

  “I’m not in trouble,” Simon said. “I just had a little talk with Martha, is all.”

  Nikki could guess where this was going—Simon had been doing a little wing-stretching again. Not that she blamed him. They’d all been through the same steps.

  “Sweet. What did you do this time?” Jamie peered into the oven. Apparently, he felt the same way about Naomi’s baking.

  “Nothing much, really. Just sort of popped up on a few computers for the fun of it.” Simon shrugged and turned to Naomi. “How many more minutes on those?”

  Henry wandered over to the oven too, where he stood hovering. “Okay, sure. Nothing you haven’t done before.”

  “Right, exactly,” Simon said.

  Nikki knew Simon well enough to suspect something more must have happened. “How many computers?”

  Simon didn’t meet her gaze. “Hard to say, exactly.”

  “Simon, just tell them,” Naomi said. “Jeez, don’t be so evaded. No, that’s not it. What’s that word—”

  “Evasive,” Nikki said. She returned her attention to Simon. “Why is it hard to say, exactly?”

  “Look, I’m not particularly familiar with that YouTube thing but I guess the numbers keep changing as more people look at it.”

  “You got on freaking YouTube?” Henry looked both horrified and gleeful.

  Simon turned to face the guys. Of course, Nikki thought, since they found nothing more amusing than their own immaturity. “Yep. Not on purpose, of course. I’m not a grand-standing kind of bloke, after all.”

  “Of course not,” Nikki said. “Total wallflower.”

  Simon pretended not to hear her and grinned at the guys. “See, the thing is I may have overdid it a little to see how people would react. Who knew people could film their computer screens and show them on the internet?”

  “Pretty much everyone,” Henr
y said.

  “I didn’t,” Naomi said, finally opening the oven door.

  “See, there you go. Thank you, Naomi,” Simon said. “By the way, those biscuits look super!”

  “Cookies,” Henry said.

  “Biscuits. Cookies. Same thing,” Simon said.

  “Well, ‘biscuits’ also means those salty, little…” Henry sighed. “Never mind.”

  “Can’t imagine why Martha might object,” Nikki said.

  “How’s that any different from Naomi manifesting a bunch of sparrows?” Simon followed Naomi over to the counter where she set the hot tray down on a towel.

  “You can manifest birds now?” Jamie said.

  Naomi shrugged and slipped off her baking mitts. “Just little birds so far. I can’t quite get the hang of anything bigger.”

  “Hey, that’s really cool, Naomi.” Henry said. “Martha didn’t mind?”

  Naomi picked up a spatula and started placing cookies onto cooling racks. “Not really. She just suggested that maybe I don’t overdo it.”

  “How’s that any different from YouTube?” Simon reached for a cookie and Naomi batted his hand away.

  Nikki and Jamie both said, “Shut up, Simon,” at the same time.

  Henry laughed. Nikki suspected one of these days he’d have the same knee-jerk response to Simon’s continued idiocy. Which she well knew was a total act—Simon just liked to play stupid to get your goat.

  Simon waited for Nikki to say something since she was almost always the one to lay things out for him—something of a tradition by now. Nikki supposed he enjoyed the attention. “Well, it’s kind of like this, Simon. Someone sees some sparrows flying by and they think, ‘How pretty. Nice little birdies.’ On the other hand, someone sees a freaky, greased-back English teenager staring back at them through their computer monitor and they think, ‘What the hell is that!’ Provided they don’t have a heart attack, of course.”

  Finally, Naomi started setting the cookies onto a plate. Jamie had already retrieved milk from the refrigerator (Nikki prayed he hadn’t been drinking directly from the bottle recently).

  “Nobody had a heart attack,” Simon said. “Jeez, give me some credit. Most people just said they thought it was some sort of attack thingy. What do they call that again?”

  “Hacking?” Henry suggested.

  “Yes, precisely!” Simon said.

  “How do you know what people were saying?” Henry said.

  Simon shrugged again. “It kind of made the news. Like on TV and stuff.”

  Nikki, Henry and Jamie stared at him, stunned.

  “Anyone want a cookie?” Naomi said.

  ~~~

  After devouring Naomi’s cookies, Simon wandered off saying something about maybe going to the library. Since he’d never invited anyone there, Nikki had never seen Simon’s library. She wasn’t sure if it might even mean he was planning to visit an actual library somewhere in Northampton where he’d gown up (or, at least, almost grown up) since in the past he’d mentioned one there that he’d liked to frequent during his last life. If so, Nikki hoped he’d stay out of people’s phones and computers for a while and just look at books. Not that she cared all that much about what Simon did but Nikki couldn’t help feel sorry for Martha having to put up with their antics.

  Naomi didn’t linger either. After they helped her clean up, she hung her apron on a hook by the back door and said she was going to take a nap. Naomi had always been an early riser.

  “Anyone in the mood for a movie?” Jamie said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Henry said. “I’m kind of in a Jim Carrey mood.”

  “That could work,” Jamie said. “Although, I was maybe thinking about some sci-fi.”

  Henry put the milk back into the refrigerator. “Sure. I’m okay with that too.”

  “I guess that leaves the deciding vote with Nikki,” Jamie said. “What are you into, Nikki?”

  Nikki folded a dishtowel and hung it on the oven handle. She turned to Jamie and her breath caught in her throat. She stared past him at the person who couldn’t possibly be there. Curtis stood in the kitchen doorway, silently staring back at her. A moment later, he disappeared.

  Jamie checked to see what was behind him. “What’s up?”

  Curtis couldn’t have been there. Maybe it was just her conscience bothering her a little. After all, Simon wasn’t the only one who’d been misbehaving. Nikki just hoped Martha hadn’t somehow caught wind of it.

  “Um, nothing. Just kind of spaced out there for a moment.”

  “So, the movie?” Jamie raised his eyebrows. “What’s your vote?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Nikki said.

  “To which?” Henry said. “Comedy or sci-fi?”

  “I’m thinking maybe some comedy would be good,” Nikki said. “Living here is already weirder than sci-fi most of the time.”

  About David Pandolfe

  David Pandolfe is the author of the Streetlights Like Fireworks and Jump When Ready series. Reading his books, you'll soon learn that he likes writing stories about psychics, ghosts, unusual settings and characters who approach adventure with a sense of humor. He’s not sure where the ghost obsession came from but he figured he might as well roll with it.

  Before becoming a writer, David did a few other things. For example, he was once a bartender in Seattle, a singer/songwriter in a Los Angeles rock band and a college writing teacher in Richmond (not all at the same time, of course). These days, he lives near Richmond, Virginia, with his wife, two kids and a dog who's terrified of thunder. Not the best situation for their dog since it thunders from spring until fall in Richmond.

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  Copyright © 2014 David Pandolfe

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

  Cover art and design by Samantha Pandolfe.

  For Samantha and Cooper

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Voices from the Other Side

  Chapter 2: Life in Technicolor

  Chapter 3: I’m Looking Through You

  Chapter 4: Ghosts in the Bathroom

  Chapter 5: Total Darkness

  Chapter 6: River Rat Can Speak

  Chapter 7: Gone Too Long

  Chapter 8: Banished

  Chapter 9: Ghosting Out

  Chapter 10: A Cockroach Driving Dangerously

  Chapter 11: Jamie’s Got Skills

  Chapter 12: Talking to a Dead Kid

  Chapter 13: Will and Karen Pay for Parking

  Chapter 14: Sister in a Coma

  Chapter 15: Ready to Jump