My Friend, Death

by Patrick S. Smith

Part 1 appears in this issue.

conclusion

Laura moved back to the bed. “I must have told you this story a hundred times. Not long after I got off the bus in town, I died. I was nineteen and had maybe twenty dollars to my name and looking for someplace to spend the night. While I was looking, someone grabbed me from behind and shoved me into a wall in an alley. My head hit something and everything went dark.” Laura looked down at the floor as she spoke.

“When I woke up or thought I woke up, Bertha and Cerdic were there. She told me he was a Death, and they were there to lead me to the other side. I refused to go with them because I thought it was all a bad dream. Two days later, someone found my body.” Her face screwed up, fighting back the pain.

“Everything I had was in my duffle bag, which the police never found. So the police and the coroner had no way of identifying me. To them, I was Jane Doe, and I lay in that morgue for three months. They talked about me as if I was a thing. I felt forgotten.” She clenched her hands into fists and beat on her legs.

Owen reached out and put his hands on her fists.

“When they brought me here, I was miserable, all alone. If I had been alive, I would have killed myself. Then you started talking to me. It was as if I was alive again, even if you never saw me or knew my real name.

“Then I started talking back to you, and slowly I opened up to you about my death and coming here. When I did, I felt better about myself. It didn’t take away the misery of those times, but it helped me come to terms with it. And for that, thank you.” Laura got off the bed and stepped towards Owen. She bent over, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” began playing on the stereo.

When she let him go, Owen reached up and touched his cheek where Laura had kissed him. “It has been forty years since someone has done that to me. Not since Deborah died. Partly because I shut myself off from the world. I didn’t want to deal with the judgment. Hell, I didn’t even go to her funeral. But here, I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself to anyone.” He reached out for his water bottle and took a drink.

“I thought I finished this earlier,” he said when he was done. “Can I get you something?”

Laura chuckled for a second. “No, I’m fine. Maybe that is why you started opening up to me?”

Owen cocked his head to one side. “Maybe. Could also be that I thought I was just talking to myself. Either way, I always did feel a little better afterwards.”

“And you talking that way is why I fell in love with you.”

“You... love... me?” Owen said, his eyes as big as teacups.

“I know it sounds weird, coming from someone who is dead, but I still have feelings,” she said after she lowered her head. “I’ve wanted to tell you that for so long. Now, I...”

There was a crackle on the stereo before “I Want to Know What Love Is” began playing.

Owen got up and stepped over to Laura, where he bent down and lifted her chin so he could look her in the eye. “I think I understand what you are trying to say. Because I shut myself up for so long, I don’t think I know what love is anymore. What I do know is that I care about you. I didn’t want you to be lonely all these years. Now, after finally meeting you and getting to talk to you, I want to do what I can to make you happy. So if that is love, then I love you, too.”

Laura threw her arms around Owen and buried her head into his shoulder. “I’ve waited so long to hear those words from anyone. Just you saying that makes me happy.”

There was a brief hesitation by Owen when he went to put his arms around her. The couple held each other for several minutes before Laura lifted her head and leaned back from Owen. “Cerdic, I’m ready.”

“Ready for what?” Owen asked, looking at her with a puzzled expression.

A shadow in the kitchenette darkened and enlarged. As the shadow grew, the center became pitch black. When the shadow completely blacked out the corner, it receded, revealing Cerdic and Bertha standing in its place.

“Please excuse our entrance,” Cerdic said when the shadow had returned to what it had been. “Are you sure, Laura? You still have time left.”

“I’m sure. If I wait any longer, I won’t want to leave,” Laura said. Her voice cracked as tears started forming in her eyes.

Owen held her at arm’s length and looked straight at her. “Leave? What is going on?”

“Her time in this realm is nearly over,” Bertha said as she stepped towards Owen.

“Much like your time among the living is over,” Cerdic said in a detached voice.

“What do you mean?” Owen asked as he stared at Cerdic.

“I am a Death, and Bertha is a Night-mare Life-In-Death. Few among the living can see us, only the dead. Your life expired just before we spoke the first time.”

Owen looked around wildly. “You mean I’ve been dead this whole time? I’m nothing more than a zombie?” His eyes fell on the silent clock, which still showed it was 9:30.

“No,” Laura said as she reached out to stroke his face, “you’re a spirit like me.”

Bertha pointed to the desk and made a small circle with her finger. “Look.”

Owen turned and looked at the chair he had been sitting in. There he saw himself stretched out, his head lolled to one side. The water bottle he had been drinking from sat on the desk, half full. He turned to the clock on the wall, which now showed it was 2:25 as it clicked away.

“I’m sorry for the illusion, Owen. We thought it best to hide the truth from you until Laura was ready to go,” Bertha said.

Slumping his shoulders, Owen asked, “What happens to me now?”

“You are to become like me, a Death. Charged with assisting the living with their transition to the next realm,” Cerdic said.

“Can Laura stay with me?”

Cerdic’s eyes flickered a dull yellow as he looked at Owen.

Bertha lowered her head and said, “Her existence here has been extended as much as it can be. Should she not move on, she will fade into oblivion with the rising sun.”

Laura reached up and put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Owen. I knew this day would come. After spending this time with you, I’m ready to move on.”

Owen spun on Laura and seized her by her arms. “But what about me? You’re going to leave me all alone again.”

A palatable, awkward silence settled over the room until Owen turned to face Cerdic. “What if I refuse?”

“You are dead,” Cerdic replied. “I do not have—”

Stomping his foot, Owen said, “No, what if I refuse to become like you?”

Laura grabbed Owen. “What are you doing!? You can help so many people!”

“And let you go on alone and become a shell of what I was? No, I can’t. We go together.” He reached out and stroked her hair. Leaning forward, he rested his forehead on hers. “We go together, understand?”

“I will not permit that. I have stated my terms, and neither of you have any choice,” Cerdic said.

“You won’t permit it, Cerdic?” Bertha asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

“That is correct.”

A sly smile came to Bertha’s lips as she stepped away from Cerdic. “Fine,” she said, followed by a shriek whistle.

Cerdic’s eyes glowed red as he glared at his companion. “What have you done?”

Bertha looked back at him with a look of mock innocence. “Just a curse.”

“I know it was a curse. What curse?” Cerdic asked with a growl.

“What did you do to us?” Owen asked.

Batting her eyes playfully at Owen and Laura, Bertha said, “Love is its own type of curse. Since both of you confessed your love, I’ve bound you two together. Where one goes, the other goes.”

Cerdic’s eyes dimmed and changed to a pinkish hue. “And I cannot break her curse. Since Laura must move on, Owen, you have to go with her, else you consign yourselves both to oblivion. You cannot become a Death.”

Cerdic turned towards the door and pointed. “Go. Just open the door and step through. You will emerge on the other side.”

“Thank you both,” Laura said, wiping her eyes.

Owen led Laura to the door, then stopped. “Wait, Laura’s new headstone. Did it get updated correctly?”

Bertha waltzed over to Owen’s computer and tapped the screen once while “Save the Last Dance for Me,” played in the background. “Done,” she said with a smile. “Along with a few gifts for you two.”

“I’ve revealed Laura’s name and the evidence to the authorities, along with an order to exhume her. Now her new headstone will no longer say ‘Jane Doe.’ And, Owen, I reserved you two adjacent plots with a request that Laura be buried next to you, if she is ever exhumed.”

Owen stepped back over to the computer while Laura followed a step behind. When he looked at the screen, he grinned. He looked up at Bertha: “Thank you.”

“Yes, thank you,” Laura said as she threw her arms around Bertha.

“I think you both have earned it. Now go.”

Owen took Laura by the hand and the two walked to the door.

Cerdic and Bertha watched Owen and Laura as they walked into something blacker than night. As they left, Bertha glided over to Cerdic and leaned up against him as she moved to the rhythm of the music.

When the song ended, she looked up at Cerdic with a smile and said, “You manipulated things.”

Cerdic looked down at her. “Manipulated things? How?”

“The music selection, for one. The timing of some of those songs was just too spot-on.”

“Chance. I have no power over what song is played.” He reached up with a bony finger and tapped Bertha on the tip of her nose.

Bertha pushed herself off of Cerdic and looked at him scornfully: “And you played me into intervening.” She then wrapped her arms around Cerdic and rested her head on his chest. “I enjoyed it. It was romantic in its own way. But, Cerdic, why did you do it?”

He reached around her to put his hand on her back, and they moved back and forth to the music. “Why not? Neither had the life they deserved. In death, they have each other for eternity. I could not have done it alone.”

“Had Owen become a Death, would Laura still have to go?”

A chuckle escaped Cerdic. “No, nor is the option gone for him to become a Death. In time, they will learn this. Maybe they will choose to return.”

Cerdic’s bony finger twitched, and “Unchained Melody” began playing on the stereo. “The night is ours, my love. Let us embrace it,” Cerdic said in a whisper.

“You are manipulating the music,” Bertha said in a coo as they danced.

“Maybe.”