Heaven Painted as a Christmas Gift

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  As the four of them turned and started toward the hotel, Jewel finally realized that she and Tommy not only were still in their jogging clothes, but they had no supplies at all. No bathroom stuff, no change of clothes or underwear or anything.

  “You know,” Jewel said to her partner as they walked ahead of the two women down the wide, tree-lined sidewalk, “You and I need to do some shopping and get a few things to make it through the night and to wear tomorrow.”

  Tommy laughed, glancing down at his blue sweat pants and tan t-shirt. “Good point.”

  Jewel turned to the two women. “How far is that mall from here?”

  Belle pointed to Jewel’s right. “About four blocks. Easy walk. But not sure when it closes.”

  “Easier shopping after closing,” Jewel said. “No people to dodge that way.”

  “Oh,” was all Belle said.

  Nancy just laughed. “I’m starting to like this new life, or death, or whatever, even more.”

  “Let’s get rooms first, then food, then clothes,” Tommy said.

  “A perfect plan,” Jewel said, looking back over her shoulder. “Sound good to you two?”

  “We’re just following and learning,” Belle said.

  “But I am getting hungry,” Nancy said. “And I think I need to pee. Is that normal? Do ghosts pee?”

  Tommy laughed and said nothing.

  Jewel remembered wondering that same thing.

  “I’m afraid most everything stays the same in this state,” Jewel said.

  “And what happens if the lid is down?” Belle asked.

  Jewel laughed. “You pee in the sink.”

  “Oh, great,” Belle said.

  “It’s ghost pee,” Tommy said, laughing but not turning around. “No one will notice.”

  “What about periods?” Nancy asked.

  Jewel laughed. “So far, that hasn’t been part of this new state of being.”

  “Oh, thank you for small miracles,” Nancy said.

  “Small!” Belle said. “Hell, that’s a major plus to being dead in my mind.”

  “I’ll second that,” Jewel said.

  “Amen to that,” Tommy said.

  THIRTEEN

  BELLE WATCHED AS Jewel went through the counter at the front desk of the suites hotel and into the woman working behind the counter. The woman looked to be about sixty, with a haircut right out of the nineteen-sixties. She had on slightly too much make-up, especially red lipstick. A moment later the woman was typing on her screen, clearly looking up reservations.

  The big lobby around them was comfortable, decorated in brown tones, with high ceilings, a wide staircase leading up to a mezzanine level, and a number of seating areas with cloth couches and chairs. A huge stone fireplace dominated one side of the big room and the light brown carpet looked thick and comfortable.

  After a moment, Jewel stuck her head out of the desk clerk and looked at Belle and Nancy. The woman suddenly looked like she had two heads, since Jewel’s head came right out of the woman’s shoulder. That was creepy-looking, actually.

  “You two want to share a big suite?”

  “Sounds great to me,” Nancy said.

  “I’d love it as well,” Belle said. After the day, she really didn’t want to find herself alone in a hotel room. Having Nancy beside her would be perfect.

  Jewel nodded and her head disappeared completely back into the woman’s shoulder.

  In another thirty seconds or so, Jewel appeared completely, leaving the woman standing to one side of the computer doing what she had been doing before.

  As Jewel walked back through the counter to them, she said, “I’ve blocked two suites for the night for maintenance scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Perfect,” Tommy said.

  “We’re not going to keep the hotel from renting those, are we?” Belle said, if they run out of room.

  “They are far, far from full,” Jewel said. “In fact, over two-thirds of the hotel is sitting empty right now. So won’t cost them anything.”

  Belle wasn’t sure why she had suddenly worried about that. More than likely her job of corporate accounting had her mind working that way.

  As they headed up the stairs, Nancy asked Jewel and Tommy a question that had been starting to bother Belle as well.

  “Is it normal to not feel grief about dying?”

  Jewel just shrugged as she and Tommy reached the first landing and kept going.

  “We were bothered by that as well,” Tommy said. “It felt as if we should have been angry about being killed, but neither of us were. We think it’s because this feels so real. We haven’t really left the world, just been given a new job to do.”

  “In fact,” Jewel said. “When I asked K.J. about that, he said simply ‘What’s to mourn? You’re still here eating great, living free, doing an important job, and having great sex.’ I think he was exactly right. We are still alive, just in a different state is all.”

  Belle could understand that. All of this was feeling very, very real, even though she could go through things and make other people do things and who knew what else. One moment she had been alive in the other state, then a truck had hit her and she hadn’t felt anything, just ended up in this state.

  “So other people just move on to the next world?” Nancy asked as they reached the first floor landing and turned to go up another flight of stairs.

  “Almost everyone,” Jewel said. “From what we understand and have been told.”

  “White tunnel and all?” Belle asked. She wasn’t much of a religious person, but afterlife had always interested her.

  “That’s what K.J. said,” Tommy said. “But you would have to ask him to get more information.”

  They reached the second floor and Jewel led them down the hall to the right, all the way to the end. “You two can take that one, we’ll take this one.”

  Jewel pointed to two doors.

  “I need a shower,” Tommy said. “So can we meet in thirty minutes back here?”

  “Take showers, get changed into comfortable clothes,” Jewel said. “And we’ll go get dinner and then do some shopping.”

  “Perfect,” Belle said and Nancy nodded.

  Jewel and Tommy turned and vanished through the door to their room, leaving the two standing in the hallway.

  “Guess we don’t need keys to anything anymore,” Nancy said, laughing.

  “Guess not,” Belle said, smiling at her best friend.

  She turned and with her eyes only slightly opened walked through the door and into the huge suite.

  Tall windows ran along one wall looking out over the trees, the neighborhood, and the mall beyond. The sky was colored with a beautiful sunset since it was just about seven in the evening.

  The room was furnished in comfortable-looking cloth couches and chairs in varied brown tones. The carpet was a soft brown and a number of lamps were turned on around the area.

  Through an open door to the left Belle could see a huge king bed and she headed that way, pulling her suitcase.

  “Wow, this is something,” Nancy said. “It’s bigger than my apartment.”

  Inside the bedroom, Belle spotted a huge walk-in closet. She pointed at it. “Guess people who stay here travel with a ton of clothes.”

  Nancy laughed and dropped her suitcase by the closet, then went to look at the bathroom.

  “I take it back,” Nancy said. “The bathroom is bigger than my apartment.”

  Belle followed her into the gigantic tile and mirrored bathroom. The glass shower could hold ten people and the big jet tub next to it could hold another ten.

  There were three sinks in the long vanity counter, something Belle had never seen or could see a use for.

  “And look,” Belle said. “They left the toilet seat lid up.”

  “Oh, thank heavens,” Nancy said, laughing.

  Nancy went back into the bedroom and started to undress, putting her blouse on the bed, then her slacks. Then she peeled off the matchin
g blue underwear and bra she had been wearing, finally standing there in the nude.

  All Belle could do was stare. Nancy was the most attractive person she had ever seen, and Belle loved it every time Nancy undressed in front of her.

  Nancy glanced at Belle. “Come on, we only have thirty minutes. I’ll wash your back if you wash mine. I want to rinse as much of this day away as I can.”

  “I can’t agree more,” Belle said, finally kicking herself into gear.

  Nancy had just gotten the water temperature set in the huge shower and was stepping in through the glass when Belle got into the bathroom. Belle quickly unwrapped the ghost version of the hotel soap from a basket on the vanity and joined Nancy in the huge shower.

  Nancy looked at her and smiled, blushing slightly. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a wonderful body?”

  “Only you,” Belle said, staring in to the green eyes of her best friend. “But so do you, you know. Anyone ever tell you that?”

  “Not a soul but you,” Nancy said.

  The next thing Belle knew, Nancy was holding her tight against her wonderful-feeling skin.

  Belle hugged her back and the two of them stood there like that under the warm water for a very long time.

  Belle loved the hug and everything about it.

  Finally Nancy pushed back slightly, keeping her body against Belle’s. “Thank you for trying to save my life this morning.”

  Belle didn’t know what to say, but before she could say anything, Nancy smiled. “I’m damn glad you didn’t succeed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here with you like this, and I would have been totally heartbroken you were gone.”

  Then Nancy hugged her again, long and hard.

  The sensation of Nancy being against her naked skin felt fantastic, and she could feel herself becoming aroused.

  Belle kept hugging her, hoping the moment would never end.

  Finally, Nancy pushed back slightly, her wonderful face flushed from either the heat or the moment. Belle had an idea her face was the same way.

  “Wash my back,” Nancy said. “We keep this up much longer and we won’t make dinner.”

  “And that’s a bad thing how?” Belle asked, surprised but excited at the hint that Nancy had just given her. Did they really have the courage to take their friendship to the next level?

  It seemed Nancy did.

  And Belle had wanted to, secretly, for years.

  Nancy smiled as big as any smile that Belle had ever seen. Then she turned around and braced herself against the tile of the shower wall, the water flowing over her head and down her back.

  Belle spent the next wonderful five minutes exploring every inch of Nancy’s back, butt, legs.

  Then Nancy did the same to her.

  And never in all her life had Belle been so turned on.

  FOURTEEN

  JEWEL AND TOMMY managed to get showered and get their running clothes back on and into the hallway about the time that the two new recruits appeared from their suite. The shower felt wonderful after the long day and Jewel had almost decided to stay in and help Tommy with his shower, but knew if they did that, they would be late for dinner.

  Both women had wet hair (just as she and Tommy did) and they were wearing the same comfortable clothes they had changed into in their apartments.

  “Anywhere close to eat at 7 p.m. that won’t be too crowded?” Tommy asked.

  “Sizzler is about it,” Nancy said. “In the parking lot of the big mall. There are restaurants on the other side of the mall, but they would be jammed this time of night.”

  Jewel looked at them. “Can you handle going back there?”

  “Oh, sure,” Belle said. “I like the place and it’s big enough we can find a table out of the way.”

  “Always a good plan,” Jewel said, impressed that they were already thinking like that.

  “I think it would be fine as well,” Nancy said.

  “Lead the way,” Jewel said.

  Belle smiled at Nancy and they turned and headed for the stairs.

  It was a nice walk as the sun was setting. Belle and Nancy led them along the tree-lined sidewalk in front of now-closed office buildings. Jewel enjoyed the walk, but the evening air was chilling right down and Jewel wished she had something heavier to wear. She would shortly.

  About ten steps in front of her and Tommy, Belle and Nancy walked side-by-side, at times laughing at something one of them said.

  “They are going to make a great team,” Tommy said softly so the two women in front couldn’t hear. “We got to get their auras contained, though. They are simply radiating.”

  Jewel laughed. “That’s because dying has given them the freedom they both needed to be with each other. See how the colors of their auras are merging in places. They are in love.”

  “Seriously?” Tommy asked.

  “If we opened up our auras,” Jewel said, “ours would match like that as well.”

  Tommy nodded. “Let’s get theirs contained and if we can’t do it, let’s call K.J. and have him teach them. Those things could be seen from space.”

  “After dinner,” Jewel said, laughing. She smiled at the man she loved more than anything in the world. He was always thinking and caring about others.

  “You are right,” he said. “First we need to show them how to get dinner in a buffet and restaurant.”

  Jewel smiled at her partner. “That and answer about a thousand questions I’m sure they both have.”

  “Yeah, good point,” Tommy said, smiling back.

  Jewel was glad the air-conditioning in the restaurant wasn’t on. The restaurant was so big that the ninety-plus people in the place didn’t make the restaurant feel crowded.

  Tommy found a table in the back that looked to be in a closed section and then Jewel and Tommy led both women toward the salad bar.

  “This will feel just like normal,” Jewel said. “Once you get used to it. Everything has a ghost component, so you just serve yourself like normal.”

  Jewel grabbed a plate from the stack, then started fixing herself a salad.

  Both women watched. Finally Belle said, “That just flat looks strange. You are picking things up and filling your plate, but nothing is really moving.”

  “We function on what seems to be a slightly altered plane of existence,” Tommy said.

  “Too much,” Nancy said, holding up her hands. “For the moment let’s just say I grab a ghost salad and go sit down.”

  Jewel laughed. “That’s how I think of it as well.”

  “Perfect,” Belle said. She reached over and grabbed a cherry tomato and popped it in her mouth.

  Jewel watched as Belle’s eyes got large. “My god, that’s the best tomato I have ever tasted.”

  “Everything tastes wonderful,” Jewel said.

  At that moment, a young waitress appeared from the kitchen carrying a large tray of food on her shoulder.

  “Hold off for a minute on the salad,” Jewel said, handing her plate to Tommy. “Let’s go see what’s on the menu for the main course.”

  Jewel led the two women over to where the waitress set down the huge tray on a stand. From what Jewel could tell, the tray was filled with plates of steaks and baked potatoes. There was also a couple baskets of fries and a basket of fried shrimp.

  “See anything you like?” Jewel asked the two.

  “What do you mean?” Nancy asked.

  Jewel reached over and grabbed a plate with a steak marked medium rare and a baked potato with everything on it.

  The real plate stayed in place, but Jewel could feel the heat of the plate in her hand.

  “Found what I wanted,” Jewel said. “If there’s nothing on this tray that appeals to you, there will be more coming out of the kitchen regularly from the looks of this crowd.”

  “This won’t affect the taste of the food for the person eating that meal?” Belle asked, pointing at the real plate still left on the tray.

  “K.J. told me it didn’t when I asked that same quest
ion,” Jewel said.

  She turned and threaded her way to the table in the back and put the steak on the table in a place facing the restaurant.

  Then she went over and grabbed a full glass of water off another tray and some silverware and put those beside the steak. Then she headed back to the salad bar to get a small salad.

  Belle and Nancy had gone back to the salad bar and were standing out of the way of an elderly couple working to get salads. Tommy already had a plate full and was headed back to the table.

  “Leave my steak alone,” Jewel said to him, smiling.

  “No promises,” Tommy said, giving her an air-kiss as he went past.

  A couple minutes later, Jewel had a salad and was back at the table.

  It took the two new recruits a little longer, but they made it, talking about what had happened when Belle accidently brushed one of the waitresses.

  “The waitress was having the same problems I had in college,” Belle said as she and Nancy joined Tommy and Jewel. “Not enough money, a shitty boyfriend she doesn’t really like but who wants to get married, and pressure from trying to keep grades up to get into grad school.”

  “It’s amazing what you will see in people’s lives,” Tommy said. “For the most part, they are good people.”

  “The waitress was a good person,” Belle said. “Just hit home to feel her struggles.”

  “You made it,” Nancy said. “She has a chance if she’s as smart as you are.”

  “I married the perverted slug, remember?” Belle said, smiling at her friend.

  “Everyone makes mistakes,” Nancy said, and the two laughed.

  Jewel was so happy to see them laughing. Especially so soon after being killed.

  “Great job saving those two girls’ lives this morning,” Tommy said. “You two had an amazing first day and it’s not even done yet.”

  Both nodded thanks and blushed slightly as they went back to eating their salads, commenting on how everything tasted better and clearer.

  Jewel worked on her salad for a moment, then couldn’t take it any longer and pulled the steak plate over and dug into the steak and potato. She was hungry and she didn’t care what they thought, she was going to eat.