Physical restrictions. As a race, we are gifted with so many abilities. To remove them and essentially trap us within bodies that are so fragile and weak seems counterintuitive.”
“Question 26. Would you recommend a lifetime experience to a friend or family member?”
Unsure. I think that I would suggest they wait until the kinks have been ironed out. It is a large sum of money and quite a time commitment for an unfinished product.
“Question 27. Were you aware of the upgrades available at time of purchase, and do you regret not taking advantage of them?”
The sales person explained all the packages available when I signed up. At the time, I was sure that the basic package would meet all of my needs. The upgrades didn’t seem to help the user experience more of life, but seemed designed to make their experience more comfortable. I wasn’t there for recreation, but to enhance my existence as a whole. The upgrades, such as wealth, seemed to be a better fit for vacationers and not educational users such as myself. Would they have been fun? Absolutely. Especially the vanity package. But they were of no actual use for me.
“Question 28. Do you see yourself returning to Lifetime Experiences?”
If I ever return it will be as a tourist. I am not sure that this program has an intellectual use. I can see the use as a stress reliever. This would depend on the programmers’ ability to nail down the end date. Anyone who is not retired or self-employed cannot take that much time off without a definitive end date. The margin of error still being anywhere between 0 and 100 years is unacceptable. If they can cut that in half, I would easily be able to request the sufficient time off once I am employed in my expected field.
“Question 29. What was your stand out moment in your lifetime experience?”
Love. There should be more of that. At 13, I met the girl I would spend a lifetime pining for. She was beautiful inside and out. We became neighbors for one wonderful year. She was my first kiss. I chased her memory for the next 32 years. I hope that I might find her outside the program, but I have no idea who she really was, so I guess that will never happen.
“Question 30. Any last thoughts you would like to share with Lifetime Experiences Inc.?”
You should follow up with people in a few years. Just to see if their opinion has stayed the same once they re-enter existence for a bit.
Thank you for sharing your opinion with us. We hope that you enjoyed your time with us, and we would be honored if you were a repeat customer. As a reward for taking the time to share your opinions with us we would like to send you a coupon for 20 percent off your next experience, or one free upgrade. Thank you again from all of us at Lifetime Experiences. Please enjoy the rest of your existence.
Ghost
One small slip can end everything. Especially if that one small slip is in your shower and you manage to smack your temple on the cast iron tub. Then it definitely ends everything. John looked down at his limp body and wished that he had invested in a set of those tub flowers or ducks with the grit on them. The small investment of a dollar or two would have lengthened his stay in his physical body by at least a few more years.
He sat staring at himself until his mother came knocking on his door. The banging distracted him and he floated through the walls out to the hallway. She looked nervous. His mother always had a connection to him, and he was sure she knew something wasn’t right. If she could hear him, he would have tried comforting her right now, but she couldn’t so he didn’t see the point. She knocked and knocked, and eventually called the police for a wellness check.
When the officer arrived, he asked John’s mother to wait outside. He had asked the landlord to open the lock so they didn’t have to break the door open. The landlord tried to follow the officer inside, but he blocked him from entering. “Just in case,” he stated.
John, unlike the other two, was able to follow the man back inside. It was a bit of a surreal experience knowing this man was about to find him naked on the bathroom floor. He thought he should feel embarrassed by this, but he didn’t. Death removed the need for modesty, which was a giant blessing considering the circumstances. The officer called for John several times as he worked his way toward the bathroom. The sound of running water was the only response.
He pushed open the door and instantly knew that John had passed. The air was thick with steam, and his body was barely visible on the floor. The officer bent down to check to see if there was a pulse, even though he was sure he wouldn’t find one. Just following procedures. Once he had made every attempt to detect signs of life, he turned off the shower. He was careful to use a gloved hand, just in case. Although he was positive this was an accidental death, you could never be 100 percent sure.
Dread filled his chest. There was nothing worse than informing a mother that her child had died. Even when that child was an adult. Mothers never really see it that way. As he headed out he felt a presence behind him. The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end. Maybe this scene wasn’t as it seemed. His hand slid down to the butt of his gun. Slowly turning, he kept his hand at the ready, but there was no one there. Thank god his shift was almost over. He could notify the mother, seal the scene, and wait for someone else to replace him. This place was giving him the creeps.
The mother took it the way he thought she would. Her entire world had just crumbled. The landlord escorted her back to his house. The deceased lived in an apartment above their garage, so it wasn’t too far. He promised to keep her with him until she was able to walk home. She only lived a few blocks away. The officer suggested that they took the time to walk her all the way home. He handed them a card with all the department’s information on it, and asked that they contact someone in the morning.
The door was sealed up for the CSU to arrive. They had to sign off on everything since the man was not elderly, and there were no witnesses. John floated away from the officer and back to his body. Watching the officer had gotten boring. All he was doing was sitting on his phone while he waited for the others to arrive. You can only watch someone match three in a row for so long, before you lose it. His body was still on the floor, but it was covered in a white sheet now.
John began to wonder why he hadn’t left yet. His mother made him attend church for most of his childhood, and even though it had been a while, he was sure they taught him that he should be at the pearly gates by now. He wasn’t a religious man, but he held spiritual beliefs. He believed in Heaven and Hell, and in a higher power. Maybe this was a test of faith. Or maybe it wasn’t, and this was it.
“Nope. Neither.” a voice rang out behind him.
He turned and was shocked to see his dad standing behind him. “What the hell are you doing here?” he blurted out.
“Gee, thanks son. Good to see you, too.”
“Um, I’m not sure what it is to see you. It’s been what, 45 years?”
“Yeah, about that. I’m sorry. I wanted to be able to be there, but I couldn’t. I just wasn’t that kind of man.”
“I’d say you weren’t really a man at all.” John said.
They stood in silence for longer than was comfortable for either of them.
John was the first to crack. “You know it was shitty to leave me, but it was even shittier to leave mom like that. She thought it was her fault. She never moved on after you. I don’t think she was able to trust anyone again.”
“I know. I’d say I was planning on going back, but you can’t lie here. I was never going back. I left and went back to the life I lived before I met your mother. I spent the next two years drunk out of my mind drifting wherever booze was available.”
“Then what?” John asked.
“Then I ended up here. Well, not here. I had to head back here. I kicked it somewhere in Mexico. The best bars were always across the border. Cheap liquor and no one ever cut me off for being too wasted.”
“I don’t get it. Why’d you come back? A
nd what the hell possessed you to sit here for forty something years.”
“Unfinished business, my boy.”
“Oh.”
They were silent again. John wished he had a clue what his unfinished business could be, since he wasn’t the kind of man that up and left a family behind. He didn’t have a family in the first place, so that helped. His father being around was unnerving. It would probably be easier for him to figure out his own issue if he could get his father on his way to Heaven or Hell, wherever the man was destined to go.
“Well, I forgive you. So, I guess you can move on now.”
“Don’t be stupid boy. You aren’t my unfinished business.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me? Well, then why the hell are you here?”
“For your mother, you moron. You said it yourself. My leaving stopped her from living her life to the fullest.”
“I never lived my life to the fullest.” John interrupted.
“Yeah, but that was your own damn choice,” his father pointed out. “Even if I stayed, you would have never figured your way out into the world. There was too much risk and you had no interest in getting hurt. Your mother, on the other hand, she was alive when I met her. She was wind and light. She was music and stars. She captivated me. I had to have her. But once I had her, I lost interest. She was no longer free to dance through the world. Without that spark, she was nothing in my eyes. Then the bottle began to call again. I stole her life from her, and it’s my responsibility to give it back.”
“The best you could do was wait 40 years to fix it!” John shouted angrily.
“I’ve been trying. It isn’t easy. There is no training for this kind of thing, so I am just winging it here. Maybe with the two of us we can get it done.”
“What makes you think I feel like helping you out? It’s not like you’ve ever done a thing for me.”
“Can you think of any other reason you would be stuck here. Notice it is just you and me, kid? If there was nowhere else to go after this, we would be stacked up like cordwood with ghosts around here.”
Damn it. John knew his old man was right, but he didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that just yet. He took off running down the few blocks to his Mom’s place. He wanted to see her so he could think this through. When he got there her house was filled with relatives and family friends. Everyone loved his mother. They weren’t there to mourn his sorry ass. She, on the other hand, was special. But all he found was a house full of people there to give their sympathies. His mother was nowhere to be found.
Then he heard it. Muffled crying coming from the back porch. She was hiding from them. He wondered why she was hiding her grief from her loved ones. No one would judge her as weak. And without John alive anymore, who was she trying to be strong for? That was the curse of the single mom. They carry the burden of the world for so long, never able to show how heavy it weighs on them, that they are forced to hide when they are crumbling. John guessed the habit was hard to break.
John would have cried if he still had tears. She deserved so much better than the hand she had been dealt. Never once had he heard her complain about all she had sacrificed, but there it was staring John right in the face. He decided to help his father, but not for the wretched old man, who oddly looked years younger than John. He would do it for his mother. To give her one last chance to find true happiness.
They were going to have to give her time. She needed to grieve, and heal. John floated into the space next to his mother and tried to place his hand on hers. She reacted as if she had felt him, just for a second, then she wiped her face and collected herself. As she headed back inside, she removed all traces of weakness from her face. The mask was pulled back in place, and they would never know she was falling apart.
Days passed and John lingered. His father lingered also, but he did so from afar. His being there still weirded John out, but as the days passed that feeling became less and less. After a week or so, John had settled on a plan. “We need to give her space,” he called out knowing his father was listening.
“I’ve given her 40 years of space,” he answered.
“No, you haven’t. Not just that. She just lost her son. Let her heal.”
“Fine. A month or so?” his father asked obviously annoyed.
“Nope.” John got to be in charge and he wasn’t going to rush this for her. “A year. We meet back here in a year. I’ve got things to see, and I don’t want to have you hanging around when I go. You make me nervous.”
“That’s nonsense. We should stay together. What if something comes up sooner?”
“You’re not rushing this. This isn’t about you. This is about her. So, get over it. Man up and wait the time you have to. Go do whatever the hell it is you want to do for a year. If we get this right you won’t be around here after that. So, go enjoy yourself, or go sulk in a ditch. I don’t give a crap which. Just get back here in a year.”
Before his father could argue anymore John poofed away. For the next year, he flew to every corner of the earth. His father was right about one thing. His lack of living had nothing to do with anyone else. He had no one to blame but himself. And he was pretty sure part of his unfinished business was getting out there like his mother always wanted. The risk was gone, so it really wasn’t a challenge. He wished she could see him now that he was out there taking it all in.
In life John never took the time to dream of all the places he could go, or of all the people he could meet. In death, he only had to think it and he was there. From mountain tops to city streets, John spent the months before meeting his father again experiencing more of the world than even the most traveled explorer. John saw not only the sights, but the people and interactions that he had missed out on in his life. Weddings, births, and parties all played out in front of him. He saw the bad too. People died, and very few stayed behind. Most disappeared in a flash of light.
There were fights, wars and consequences. He pushed himself to witness it all,regardless of how it made him feel. He owed himself this much. The more time that passed, the more he realized that he had robbed himself of a life. His mother had hers stolen, but he had freely given his away. He was truly sorry for that but it couldn’t be undone. Once the bell has been rung, it couldn’t be un-rung.
Time flew by way faster than he could have expected. He headed back to his mother’s porch. He was a far different man than he had been a year prior. The anger he had felt towards his father was gone and had been replaced by pity. John now understood that his father had robbed himself of his life too. Unlike John though, his father had been presented the gift of an amazing woman and the love of a son. He actively refused it, and paid dearly for shunning the creator’s gift.
When he arrived back at his mother’s home, all of her support was gone. People go back to their daily lives after a week or two and forget that the ones they care about may still be suffering. That was the way of the world, and not just the people connected to his mother. She was obviously still grieving. Just not in the fresh raw state. She was in the mellowed-out form where she was stuck frozen in place as she couldn’t let go of all the opportunities missed by her son.
He waited over a week for his father to return. With each day that passed, he grew more convinced that his old man had walked off again, which is why he nearly jumped out of his non-existent skin when his father snuck up on him. “Boo.”
“Whoa, what the heck man?!”
“Just a little ghost humor. I saw an opportunity and had to run with it. You ready to get started on this?”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I hope you have a plan because sitting here for the last week made me realize that I’ve got nothing.”
“Well, damn boy. I thought that was what you were doing for the last year.”
“Nope, I was out there doing what I should have done for the last 45 years. I got my ass moving and it was amazing. I t
hink I am ready to move on though. So, we have to figure out how to her back on track.” John said.
“I’ve already got a plan. I was just yanking your chain.”
“Well, thank god for small miracles.” John smiled.
The next few weeks were spent with the two of them working on how to interact with the living world. This takes time and practice for a ghost. You can’t just walk up and move things around when you are existing on a different plane. John had learned a few tricks by accident over the last year, and his father had learned a few things intentionally over the last few decades. Their combined knowledge should be just enough, if they were lucky, to pull off a complicated series of events meant to look like accidental coincidences as opposed to a group of events orchestrated by two specters.
Every week, without fail, his mother would buy a lottery ticket. She had once been told somewhere that the only way to increase your odds in any significant way was to play the same set of numbers faithfully for a long period. So, step one was to rig the lottery. John was better at moving inanimate objects without it looking like something was pushing them so they decided that he would be the one to sit inside the lottery ball machine and send out the correct set of numbered balls. Part of him wished he could be there to see the moment that she realized she was a millionaire. But this wasn’t his moment to experience, it was hers, and it would have to be enough that he would be the one to start the ball rolling on changing her life.
She was in a state of giddy shock for over a month, which is understandable when someone wins over 100 million dollars after taxes. Rita was not a stupid woman, and John was thankful for that. She told no one about her win until after she got a lawyer and a financial planner that specialized in people who had sudden cash windfalls. Even then, the list of those who got to hear it from her was short.
The problem with secrets, though, is that people have a hard time keeping them. Soon enough her phone was ringing off the hook with people who claimed to have some kind of flimsy connection to her looking for cash. Even worse were those with no connection who claimed tragedies to get her to open her wallet to them. John and his father already had a plan in place for that.
The Many Afterlives of John Robert Thompson Page 4
