Chapter 26

ATLANTA, Zoe waited all day to hear from Keith. She kept busy, though, by hearing from other people and letting people hear from her.

She broke up with Mickey. Although she wasn’t sure it fully counted as a break up, seeing that they were never officially dating. 

His call came hours after she sent the we-need-to-talk text.

"What's up?" he asked.

They did the small talk thing. Then she got to the point. Hey, maybe this isn't working. Do you agree?

He said he thought they were just having fun. It wasn’t a big deal to him. He was fine with whatever she wanted to do.

He really didn’t seem too bothered by any of it.  She found that a bit offensive, but what gave her the right to complain?

It was done. Over. She tried not to think about how her dad would feel…or react.

She emailed Arthur about it. She expected him to write back immediately but then found herself waiting....

Who was going to talk to her first, her brother or the ghost man?

***

She received a bunch of photos of her adorable niece in Sydney. They had gone to an aquarium, a wildlife park, and a wax museum. Her aunt Loretta sent some of the photos and then her cousin's other grandmother (the one that didn’t connect Mia to Zoe) sent some others.

Zoe decided she'd like to go to Australia one day. She'd also like to return to London.

Answering emails and texts didn’t take all day, so Zoe also spent time surfing the web.

She spent about a minute reading about more preschool craft ideas. That got old fast.

She read articles about her grandmother's organization. It didn’t have a name. Or maybe they had one but hadn’t shared it with the living.  

Zoe started reading an editorial about it.The writer pointed out that it was hypocritical for the dead women to make three international broadcasts advising against ghosts and the living communicating with each other. The writer compared it to filmmakers who made ultra-violent films in order to protest violence in films.

After reading all that, Zoe read about eating disorders. She was too happy and excited to worry much. She was pretty certain that Taylor would be okay.  

 ***

Keith texted her at 8 pm. Finally!  Can you talk now?

Yes. I've been waiting all day. 

She wasn't too bothered about sounding anxious. The guy was in her dreams. How much could she hide from him?

I'll do FaceTime with you. Is that okay? 

She said yes; then waited.

And waited.

She was eager; yet anxious.

Twenty-minutes later, she wondered if he was trying to drive her insane. Or maybe her grandmother's plan had come to fruition and all communication had been cut off.

Then, thirty-minutes later, she heard the FaceTime alert sound. 

Her hand shook a bit when she answered.

Her dream boyfriend stared back at her. He gave her a shy smile. She gave a small smile back, feeling very nervous. It was awkward—the man in your dreams coming out and appearing on your computer screen.

"So…" he said. "What's up?" It was really strange hearing his voice. "Are you doing okay?"

"I think so," she said. They both sat there, not saying anything. Zoe had an awful feeling that it was all ruined. By talking to each other in the real world, their relationship had jumped the shark.

 It was very depressing.

 "This is weird," Keith said.

 "Yes." She was pretty certain he was going to say good-bye, nice knowing you, have a nice life.

 Instead he said "I really love your dreams. You've always had a fabulous imagination."

 "Really?"

 "The zombie one was fun. Probably scary for you, though."

"Thanks for saving me."

"You're very welcome." 

Awkward silence again.

Maybe her dad had been right all along. Maybe Mickey was the man for her. Super depressing.

"Do you have any questions?" Keith asked.

She had millions. The thing was, now she couldn’t think of any.

"You're probably wondering why I didn't contact you earlier."

Yes! That was a great one. "Yeah."

"I was nervous."

"About what?"

 "That we'd both feel awkward," he smiled. "Like now." 

"And you worried it would ruin everything?"

 "Oh, no," he said, sounding very sure of himself. "Not at all. We've almost always been together." He chuckled. "I'd never imagine one awkward video chat would end things.

Always? "Like reincarnation?"

"You got it," he said. Then he smiled a reminiscing-type smile. "We've been together a lot. I'll go over the history later."

"Okay." Then she thought of another question. "Why…I mean how are you in so many of my dreams? I've read that it's really hard to do that."

"It is."

"So?"

He smiled. "I'm special." 

That was it?

"Or I should say we're both special. It's not as if I can jump into other people's dreams. Not that I've tried much."

Now she felt  more comfortable and the questions began flowing."Why did you disappear for five years?"

"I was here. Well, not here with you. I mean I was alive. In Wyoming. The Powers that Be had this theory that we need to spend a life apart. Soul Growth or something. Although I guess we weren't apart, since we had the dreams. They never said I couldn't do that. But then I was assigned to my new family.

Zoe liked knowing he hadn't left her on purpose. "So then the boss people changed their mind?"

He shook his head. “ No, it was supposed to be a full term life. I got myself run over by my mom on the driveway.”

Oh no. "I'm sorry," she said. Although she was  glad he was here. "I'm guessing it was an accident?"

"Yes," he said. "At least on my mom's part." He looked guilty and embarrassed. "I think, though, that I did it on purpose. I think a part of me knew that you were out there, and I didn't like being separated from you." 

So sweet. Zoe was done with feeling awkward and was now back to feeling in-love. "It's been a mess, though. My mom was arrested, because the police said she did it on purpose. You know there are a lot of parents killing their kids these days. It's easier to have a ghost child than a real one."

Zoe hadn't known that. She wondered if any of her daycare parents were getting ideas.

"I've been back there, talking to her and the police."

"Do they understand you're the same person as the child?"

"Well, when I talk to her I appear as that incarnation.

"Interesting. "What are you now? I mean what am I seeing?"

"This is how I looked in the last life we had together.

"When was that?" she asked, quite fascinated. And a bit overwhelmed.

"You died in 1982, and I died in 1968."

"I was alive in the 70's!" How funny was that? Sad though that she missed most of the 80's.

 "You were alive for a lot of the decades."

 "So your name was Keith?" She wondered what her name was.

"No. Keith was the name I had in my last life. I'm using it as a…well, I feel bad what I did to my parents. I guess it's my way of honoring them.

"I never knew your name in the dreams."

"Really? Maybe I never told you."

"Why?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Or maybe I did, and you forgot? You know people forget parts of dreams when they wake up."

"So what was your name?" she asked.

 “Tom."

 "And mine?"

 "Bernice."

"Oh."  

Then she thought of more questions. "Are you on the other side, or are you earthbound?" 

"Both."

"Both? I didn't think that was possible."

"It is. In rare cases."

"What are you, Harry Potter?"

He smiles. "Right now I'm OS. I thought it would be rude to invade your privacy on our first meeting. You know EB people can only talk to you if they're in the same room."

She was pretty certain she didn't know that. She thought of something, making her feel quite clever. "You invaded my dreams. Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

He laughed. "You're very right. Do I owe you an apology?"

 She smiled. "Nope."

Continue to Chapter Twenty-Seven

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