Until I Die Again [On The Way To Heaven] (Soul Change Novel)

by Tina Wainscott

  She walked to the raft, which he pushed out over the wavelets and held for her. Still holding the sheet around her, she climbed in. The water, so clear and blue in the daytime, looked black and murky. Mick climbed in easily, as if he’d had lots of practice doing it.

  “Row,” he ordered.

  She rowed. Slowly. Then she started rowing backward toward shore again. He didn’t catch on until they were only a few short feet from shore after ten minutes of rowing.

  “Hallie,” he said with a huff of impatience. “Don’t fool with me.”

  “Go to hill,” she said, trying to cling to Jamie in whatever way she could. She started rowing toward the bobbing light again.

  When they neared the large silhouette of the boat, Mick stood and readied himself to grab a rope. Her eyes widened as something brushed beneath the raft, then lifted Mick’s half up, knocking him off balance. In her confusion, she fell out of the raft, ready to be eaten by a shark. Her heart leapt as slick hair rose to the surface. A blond shark!

  “Jamie,” she uttered breathlessly.

  Mick regained his balance on the raft, an oar in his arms. He struck Jamie in the head, pushing him down into the depths of blackness. She dove under and found his arm. He pressed it to his mouth before moving away from her. She couldn’t catch her breath. She held onto the side of the raft, unable to touch bottom. The knife was lying on the bottom of the raft, just inside the rim. She reached for it while Mick was busy looking for Jamie…and plunged it into the thick rubber.

  “Hallie, get in the raft!” Mick ordered, unaware of her assault. “Hallie!”

  She started swimming away from the commotion Mick created when he slapped the paddle into the water. She frantically searched for any sign of Jamie. The raft was sagging fast, making it harder for Mick to hold his balance. Arms yanked the glob of yellow rubber sideways, sending Mick into the water.

  Hallie swam toward the two men struggling in the water, coming up behind Mick. Jamie pushed Mick up against the side of the boat, smashing his head into the hull. Mick made a gurgling noise before Jamie slugged him in the face. Mick sagged into the water and sank for a minute before Jamie pulled him to the surface.

  “Bastard.” Jamie said, holding Mick up against the hull.

  “Jamie, are you all right? Please tell me you’re okay.”

  “I’ll live. Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she said on a breath. “Now I am.”

  “Good. Can you help me get this slime to shore? I can’t see anything.”

  Her heart lurched inside. “What do you mean?”

  “Everything’s black.”

  “Don’t say you’re blind.”

  The fear in his whisper cut through the darkness to clutch at her heart. He groped through the water to fasten his fingers around her arm. “It’s probably the blood in my eyes. Scalp wounds bleed like a bitch. Help me get to shore. I’ll hold onto Mick, you guide me in.”

  Blood… scalp wounds. Don’t panic. You need to stay calm; he needs you to stay calm.

  Mick murmured and groaned all the way back in, but he didn’t struggle. Jamie left him in the shallow waters and crawled up to shore.

  She dropped down beside his prone body and leaned close. “Please, talk to me. Are you still blind?”

  “Everything’s spinning. I think I’m going to be sick.

  He sat up and put his head between his knees, but didn’t get sick. She pressed her cheek against his sandy back, holding him close. After a minute he turned to her with closed eyes, squinting to see her. In the moonlight, she saw dark splotches dripping down his forehead and into his eyes.

  “You’re right, there’s blood in your eyes.” She wiped it away with her fingers. “Thank God we’re going to be okay.” She hoped they would be all right. If he didn’t blame her for this. It was Hallie’s fault, her affair with Mick, that had brought this to them. Once again, she would pay the price.

  “It’s your fault this happened to him,” Renee said when she passed Hallie on the way out of the bedroom.

  Even in the light of day, Hallie was still too shook up to be angry at the remark.

  Miguel touched her arm, and the gesture caused a tear to spring to her eyes. “It’s not your fault. It must have been a hell of an experience for both of you.”

  She glanced at Jamie lying in their bed asleep. “I don’t know what I would have done if Mick had killed him. I thought I was going to die from the fear of living without him.”

  Miguel looked at her, his brown eyes filled with something she couldn’t describe. He smiled. “Take care of him, Hallie.”

  “I will. You know I will.”

  Everyone at Caterina had heard about the incident by the next morning and came by to wish Jamie well. Mick was sitting in a four-by-four jail cell in ContinguaContigua that was mostly used for the occasional drunken native. Before Mick, that had been the most serious crime ever committed by a Contiguan, besides the occasional fight.

  When the resort doctor finished his paperwork, he gave Hallie instructions, including peace and quiet, and left her alone with Jamie for the first time in hours. She sat by his bedside, watching him sleep fitfully. His eyes were swollen, and the bandages on his head were gruesome evidence of his multiple concussions. Phoenix was lying on the bed at Jamie’s feet, looking guilty for not doing more than cowering.

  “It wasn’t your fault, puppy. And really and truly, it wasn’t mine either. The only people we can blame are the former Hallie and Mick.”

  Jamie’s fingers twitched, and she pulled his hand into hers. He had saved her life, and nearly died in the process. Even against the white sheets, he looked pale. Purple bruises dotted his chest and arms. She kissed her finger and pressed it gently to each bruise she could see.

  “Psst!”

  The sound came from the walkway leading to the bedroom. She spotted Juicy standing there hesitantly and waved him in.

  “How he be?” Juicy whispered.

  “Okay. It was a hell of a night.”

  His eyes were wide, his gray brows knitted with concern. “I need to talk with you, Mrs. D.” He nodded his head toward the glass slider. “Out there.”

  She glanced at Jamie, then back. Juicy waved a hand in the direction of the bed. “He be okay. Open the curtains. You can peek in on him.”

  She opened the curtains, then walked outside and positioned herself so she could watch Jamie as they talked. George, hanging from the breadfruit tree, chattered when he saw her. It almost looked as if the bobbing branch he was hanging from was waving at her with its finger-like green leaves. She waved at him but stopped when she saw Juicy’s concerned expression.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He looked around, as if to make sure no one else was listening. “I have a bad feeling. Dis Mick man, he think you Hallie.” Juicy thumped his head. “He still wild in love with her. There be not’ing you can do ‘bout it. If he want to possess you, he will do anyt’ing.”

  Her heart tightened. He had nearly done ‘anything’ already. What more could he do?

  “I don’t understand. He can’t do anything from jail.”

  “Ah, right now he be in jail. Contigua not so strict wit’ criminals. Not used to them, you see. Rumsoakers all dey have to worry about. Drunkards. Mick, he be out sometime, maybe not for a while, but sometime. Then he come after you again.”

  Fear prickled over her skin. “What are you saying?”

  “You need to tell him the trut’. ‘Bout who you really be. Your lives, yours and Mr. D’s, depend on you convincing dat crazy man you are not the woman he t’inks you are. You see?”

  She nodded slowly, but his implications were only just sinking in. The danger wouldn’t go away until she told Mick the truth. Convinced him of the truth. Then she realized exactly what Juicy was saying. He knew. Knew she wasn’t really Hallie.

  “What do I tell Jamie? I can’t tell him the truth. I started to, but he wanted me to go to the Sharp Rehabilitation Center.”

  “Da whe
re?”

  “Insane asylum,” she whispered. “Where they electrocute you into being normal. Or catatonic.”

  Juicy shook his head. “No, no, you don’t tell Mr. D anyt’ing. Not even that you saw Mick. You convince Mick, den get him off the island.”

  She swallowed hard, unsuccessful at getting the lump out of her throat. “I don’t want to see Mick again. He scares me.”

  “Mrs. D, your lives may depend on seeing him again. I got the feeling, and my feelings are always right. Right?” He gave her a knowing look.

  “All right. Will you come with me? Maybe it will help convince him.”

  “Yes, I go wit’ you. But we must go soon. Before he has time to t’ink up somet’ing else.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Jamie slept most of the day under the power of medication. Only once had he awakened, looked into Hallie’s eyes, and smiled.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, squeezing her hand with a death grip.

  She couldn’t help but laugh as she smoothed back his hair from his forehead. “Am I okay? Are you okay?”

  He grimaced. “I’m real tired. But I’m all right as long as you’re here with me.”

  His eyes drifted closed, but a trace of his smile remained. She touched her finger to his lips.

  “I love you, Jamie,” she whispered.

  She watched his eyelids twitch and wondered how a man could look so gorgeous when he was battered and bruised.

  Miguel knocked softly before stepping inside the bedroom. He walked over to the bed, studying his brother.

  “He’s all right,” she said. “He just woke up and talked to me for a minute.”

  He scratched his fingers through his beard. “I sure wish they had capital punishment in Contigua. With their rules of justice, Mick’ll probably get a slap on the hand.”

  Her heart froze. “You mean they’ll let him out of jail soon? He’ll be able to come back here?” She glanced toward Jamie.

  “They’ll probably send him away, but there’s no policing every beach to make sure he doesn’t return.” Miguel’s broad chest puffed up, and his eyes were trained on Jamie. “If he comes back and I get hold of him, he’s dead.”

  His words made her mission even more important. “Thanks for coming out, Miguel.”

  “Have you even left the house all day?”

  “No. I’ve hardly gone to the bathroom.”

  He gestured toward the hallway. “Be my guest.”

  She walked in and pulled a brush through tangled hair that hadn’t been combed since she’d gone to bed the night before. The mirror image reminded her of the one she’d seen more than two months ago in the hospital: pale, scared.

  She returned to the bedroom. “I need to run some errands.”

  “Stay out as long you want. I’ll be here ‘til you get back.”

  She couldn’t take her eyes from Jamie. “I won’t be long.”

  Twilight skies washed everything an eerie pink hue. She and Juicy rode the golf cart as far as they could before embarking through the woods to Contigua. She walked in silence, tensing her hands and glancing around at the moving shadows. The smells of smoke and pork filled the heavy air. She felt traitorous, sneaking off to see the man who had nearly killed her husband.

  The village of Contigua usually shut down at dusk, but Juicy had called ahead to arrange a special visit with their most important criminal. The jail house was only as big as her bedroom, with rough white stucco on the outside and two glassless windows. A tin sign over the wooden door squeaked in the breeze, JAIL hand-painted in blue.

  Miguel hadn’t exaggerated about the size of Mick’s cell. Smaller than a closet, it held a cot, a toilet and a sink. The floor was dirty concrete. Nothing else, and literally no room to even stand and use the toilet and sink. Obviously Mick had to use the facilities from his cot. She hoped he wouldn’t demonstrate while they were there.

  Mick was facing the wall when they stepped inside. With a nod, the uniformed black man with the afro bowed and backed out of the room, standing just outside the door.

  “Gentry?” her voice croaked out, echoing against the bare brick walls.

  His shoulders jumped first, then he whirled around to grasp the rough black bars. “Hallie? Hallie! You came!” Then his brown eyes took in Juicy, and his expression faltered. “Is he a lawyer?”

  “No, this is a friend of mine, Juicy.”

  Mick slipped on his thick glasses and studied the man standing beside her. “Why did you bring him?”

  Juicy walked around to the tiny metal desk and pulled two folding chairs around for them to sit on.

  She said, “I have to talk to you, Mick.”

  Mick flopped down on the bed, causing a metallic shriek. He sighed, staring at her between the bars.

  “I’m sorry for what I did. When I found out about your giving the Manderlay back, and coming here, I got crazy. I followed you, watched you make love to that man, watched you enjoy it….” He turned away, removed his glasses and ran the back of his dirty hand across his eyes. “I got crazy,” he whispered. Then he turned to meet her eyes again. “You made me crazy.”

  She leaned forward, but still outside reaching distance from the bars. “I didn’t make you crazy. Hallie did.”

  Mick stared at her for a moment. “That’s what I said.”

  “Not exactly. You are in love, obsessed, with Hallie. She is the woman you met at La Moustache with Joya, the one who stole the gem, the one you’ve been seeing up until her brain hemorrhage. That woman was Hallie, and she died.”

  He laughed oddly, rubbing his fingers into his forehead. “But you came back.”

  “That’s right. I came back, but I am not Hallie.”

  “This is crazy. You’re punishing me, aren’t you? For what I did last night.”

  “No, I’m not punishing you. Not that I don’t want to strangle you for what you did to Jamie. No, I should have told you this long before, but I had no idea it would escalate to this.”

  “I know you’re different. You don’t have to tell me you’ve changed.”

  She took a deep breath, aware that Juicy was leaning toward her, listening intently.

  “Mick, what I’m telling you is that I am a different person, absolutely, completely different. I never was Hallie. I’m Chris Copestakes. I was born in a small town in Colorado where I lived until I was twenty-three. Then I had a car accident and died.”

  Mick’s face went pale, but he didn’t say a word.

  “When I asked God for a second chance, I woke up in Hallie’s body.” She gestured to herself. “This isn’t Hallie, it’s me in her body. Do you understand?”

  Mick shook his head. “That’s crazy. Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you need to understand why I don’t love you. And why you don’t love me. Not who I am now, anyway. The woman you love is dead, Mick. Dead. My name is Chris, and I am alive. In Hallie’s body.”

  Juicy spoke up. “She be a different person. Her aura is different, pink instead of blue. You can’t change your aura. When she come to the island, I knew she not be Mrs. D anymore.”

  Mick’s gaze drifted back to Hallie. “Then why are you with Jamie?”

  “Because as Chris, I fell in love with him.”

  Mick leaned back and crossed his arms. “If you’re really someone else, prove it.”

  She pulled out the torn envelope and handed him the two articles. “I ordered them from the library in my hometown.”

  After reading them, Mick looked up. “This doesn’t prove anything.”

  “It’s all I have. But I can tell you everything you could ever want to know about Colorado. My dad taught me how to ski when I was six, in Telluride. My sister Bernice never picked up the skiing thing, but my other sister, Charlene, competes nationally. My third sister, Paula, never cared to try. I wore nothing but jeans my whole life, except on Sunday when we went to church. I climbed every tree within a half-mile circumference of our house. I was five-foot-four with kinky brown hair and
no chest. Would I make this stuff up?”

  Mick’s expression was uncertain, his eyes fixed on her. “And Jamie knows. About you being this Chris person?” His fingers were white where they clutched the iron bars.

  “No. There’s no need to tell him.”

  “And what if I tell him his wife is either a wacko or another woman in Hallie’s body? What would he say?”

  “He’d think you were the crazy one. I only told you because I thought you should know about Hallie.” Her heart was tightening, but she fought to keep a calm expression on her face. “Do you think I’m a wacko?”

  “I don’t know. Whatever you are, whoever you are, you’re not the Hallie I knew. She wouldn’t have given the Manderlay back, and she wouldn’t have made me come get her.” He lifted his arm to show the fingernail marks, then tilted his head to show gouges on his neck. “She was too afraid to fight me like this.”

  “You tried to kill my husband,” she stated with a flat voice.

  “I just wanted him out of the way until I could get you back to your senses and find out why you double betrayed me.” He bowed his head to show her a glob of dried blood. “I’d say we’re about even.”

  “The hell we are. He’s…” She stopped herself, not wanting Mick to know that Jamie was defenseless in bed. “He got it a lot worse than you did.”

  “But he’s alive?”

  “Yes. If you come back again, both he and his brother will kill you if I don’t do it first.”

  Mick leaned his head against the bars, his eyes closed. “Hallie?”

  “No, Chris.”

  “Chris, if what you say is true… if Hallie died…, do you think she got a second chance?”

  “Not in my old body, she didn’t. Maybe in someone else’s.”

  He raised weary eyes to hers. “How can I find out?”

  “You can’t. She’ll have to find you.” If she wants to, and I doubt that.

  “My trial is tomorrow. What kind of trials do they have around here?”

  Juicy said, “It be in Ralph’s house. Mr. D will sign papers, then you, him and Mrs. D assemble in his living room and proceed to tell your stories. He decide which story he like better and give his ruling.”