Chapter 34

Zoe and Arthur played Mario Bros 3 on their NES in the rec room.

Behind them, Taylor did an unending amount of jumping jacks.

Then Zoe was in a cave fighting a real life Bowser. He threw fireballs at her, and she jumped.

She wasn’t too bothered by it.

It was a dream.

She was getting good at knowing when she was dreaming and when she was awake. 

She waited for Keith to appear, and in the meantime, she continued having fun dodging fireballs.

"I really do have a good imagination," she said.

"Yes!" Bowser said. "You do!"

"You're a bit up yourself."

Zoe swirled around to see Keith standing there. Smiling.

He grabbed her and kissed her.

She tore off his shirt, and he did the same with her shirt.

She reached down to his pants.

"In front of Bowser? Isn't that a bit kinky?"

She used her magical mind power to make Bowser disappear.

Actually, she tried to use her magical mind power to make him disappear. It didn’t work.

"You'll get better at it," Keith said. "Don't worry." He grabbed her hand, and they quickly spun through the air.

***

She found herself in a hotel room filled with roses and candles. A cliche, but she wasn’t going to complain. It was her dream after all.

She grabbed Keith and dragged him into bed.

 *** 

Despite the fact that she just had sex at a hotel, on a private jet, on a beach, at a waterpark, and on Space Mountain, Zoe still hungered for more.

When she woke up, she pleasured herself.

She hoped that Keith wasn’t watching. Being watched might turn some people on. It didn’t do that for her. 

Nor was she interested in watching someone touch themselves. 

It was like digging up your nose. She did that sometimes, and it felt kind of good. Not sexual good, of course. She didn’t have a nose-picking fetish. But it felt good to clear her nose of blockage, and fascinating to see what came out. Yet she wouldn't want to have anyone watch.  Nor did she enjoy watching other people do it.

Though, since she was  a daycare worker, it was a display not very foreign to her. She had seen her share of interesting boogers.

Zoe tried to think of a better analogy for masturbation, because maybe nose-picking was a bit off the mark.

How about licking the cake batter from the bowl? Or even better, sticking your face in your bowl of ice-cream when you're still desiring more. Zoe had done that plenty of times. It was one of the nice things about living alone.

Although now that she thought of it....

Had she truly been alone?

Keith had said he didn’t spy on her. She was pretty certain she could trust him. 

But how about other spirits?

Grandma Cornelia!

No. Don't think of that!

 Zoe quickly tried to  change the channel in her brain, because she was still working towards climax.

And now…

It was a lost cause.

She tried again, thinking of their Space Mountain adventure.

No;  not working.

She gave up, got out of bed, and put some waffles in the toaster.

Then she noticed the clock on the microwave. She had to be at work in less than an hour.

There was no time for a relaxing breakfast. She put the uncooked waffles on a plate and stuck them in the refrigerator.

She grabbed a handful of peanuts, and ate them quickly while getting dressed.

 *** 

At work, Zoe helped a child who wet his pants.

She led a collage-making art activity.

She comforted a child who missed his mom. Not dead but on a business trip.

She watched three kids building with unit blocks.

She broke up a fight between two girls who vowed to never invite each other to another future birthday party.

Through all this, her mind was preoccupied with Keith. Her record of refraining from thinking about him was probably ninety seconds.

 *** 

When she got home from work, she ate her waffles while FaceTiming Keith.

"That's a lot of syrup," he said.

 "Yep." She looked into his blue eyes. They reminded her of hotel swimming pools. So inviting.

"Looks good."

"So you really have decent food there?"

"Yummy food," he said; then looked thoughtful. "I just remembered something."

"What?" 

"My last mom was an awful cook."

"Sorry."

"I'm remembering some bad food poisoning episodes."

"Oh?"

"She was a good mom, otherwise."

"I wonder if I was a good mom," she said. He had told her about some of their lives but only briefly. They hadn't done the details yet. "We've been parents together. Right?"

"Yes," he said. "In our late 19th century one, your dad and Arthur were our kids. And Cornelia." 

"Ha."

"I'm serious." He looked serious.

She still wasn’t buying it. "Come on. You have to be joking." 

"I'm not joking," And we had one other. His great-grandson is living in NYC. He just did an interview with Cornelia."

 "You have to be joking." She realized she sounded repetitive, but come on!

"You don't believe me?"

She laughed. "No."

He wasn’t laughing with her.

"You really are serious?"

“I am.”

She thought of something. "Cornelia did an interview? Wasn’t that really hypocritical?"

"She was hypocritical when she was ours as well."

"Hey, that's our daughter you're speaking ill of!" She still wasn’t sure she believed him but figured she should try to play along.

"Sorry," he said, his eyes twinkling. She hated that she couldn’t reach out and touch him.

"What about Arthur and Phillip?" she asked. "Did they get along well?"

"Phillip was a girl. Bessie. They got along for the most part. You kind of favored Arthur, though….Howard. He was your favorite, and you weren't good at hiding it. Bessie was jealous. She'd try and try to get your attention. She would do these amazing tricks, and you never gave her the time of day.

"Really?" Zoe wondered if she should feel guilty. She didn’t really. More overwhelmed…by all the information. "Well, why didn't you intervene?"

"I was too busy favoring Cornelia, who, by the way, was Cornelia back then too. She really likes that name."

"Interesting." Zoe suddenly remembered what he had said before. "You liked the hypocritical one?" 

"Yeah. She was funny with that. And very cute."

"And now in her future life…current life, she was interviewed by the grandson of her brother."

"Great grandson."

"Am I expected to get all this straight?"

"If you want to get into heaven."

"You're funny."

"I am," he said.

 ***

Later, Zoe had time alone. Keith was out…. doing...ghost stuff?

She used her alone time to do some stomach crunches, vacuum, and sort through old mail.

After finishing her chores, she decided she might want to see that interview with Grandma Cornelia. Or should she say, hypocritical-daughter Cornelia.

She opened her laptop and first checked her email. There was an email from her dad—a group email with  a link to a new article. Above that, her dad had written:

We've made headline news!

She clicked on the link.

The headline: Joker Jenson CEO Working On New Talking-Dead Breakthrough!

Oh…little Bessie. You've done it now. Mommy's very impressed with you. I'm sorry I neglected you in the past.

She WAS impressed. It wasn’t the first time she had seen her father in the news but usually it was local news. 

Sometimes it was national but just financial stuff.

Just financial!?

Listen to her. She was still downplaying poor Bessie's accomplishments.

Zoe went to Google news and plugged Phillip Jenson into the search slot. She saw many websites had picked up the press alert—The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sky News, Times of India, The Independent, Fort Worth Telegram, Fox News, and many more.

Zoe skimmed through a couple of them. There was nothing more than what she heard at the picnic. She'd learn more soon. Probably.

When she was done with her dad (daughter?), she Googled Grandma Cornelia. Well, she didn’t actually search for "Grandma Cornelia." That wouldn't work. She searched for Cornelia O'Keefe.

It turned out that didn’t work either. All she got was a website with Grandma Cornelia's obituary.

Well, that and a PinInterest account.

She looked at it. This Cornelia O'Keefe was quite fascinated with Christmas wreaths and clown cupcakes, which made her think it was a different Cornelia O’Keefe. Then again–maybe she didn’t know her grandma as well as she thought she had.

She tried again to find the article. She Googled, “Dead and Living Communication. Against.” 

Bingo. Zoe ended up on a website called Together at Last. Together Forever. It was a website dedicated to the whole new phenomena.

There were articles, poetry, short stories, photographs, contests, editorials, and videos. Her dad's announcement was on the home page, to the left a bit.

Grandma Cornelia's interview was to the right. The link box was illustrated with The Ghostbusters icon, a circled ghost with a slash across it.

Zoe clicked on it. 

She read.

In ten days from now, my fiancé and I will be exchanging vows. We're expecting 100 guests. For twenty-five of those, we won't need to pay the per person fee. They won't need to eat.

I guess you catch my drift. It's not unusual these days to have OS and EB loved ones at wedding ceremonies and receptions. They're not only at weddings but also birthday parties, baby showers, graduations. You name it!

Most of us think it's wonderful that the ivory gates have opened, and we no longer have to question whether there's life after death. Now we know Celine Dion was completely right when she said the heart does go on. Well, if not that, the soul at least.

But some people are less keen on the whole practice. A man in New Jersey has started an online organization called TTDWYD. Talk to the Dead When You're Dead. He already has 2000 members.

His group's not the only one. They're popping up all over the world. On the Other Side, we have a yet to be named group led by Cornelia O'Keefe who passed away from cancer in 2013.

I sat down with Cornelia via my laptop, and we chatted about her feelings and misgivings. 

Cornelia apologizes for her hypocrisy in talking to me, a member of the still-alive club. "Sometimes we have to break our own rules, if it means preventing harm." And Ms. O'Keefe certainly believes these communications will cause harm. She's only recently learned of the gravity of the situation.

"In the beginning I knew only that we were messing up with a path that has worked well for a very long time. Our souls go through many lifetimes; and between those lifetimes we rest and learn in what you call The Other Side."

I interrupt to ask about the earth bound spirits.

She says, "Yes. That happens. Many spirits cling for a time to their earthly life. Eventually, though, they move on, and once they're here, the process of rebirth begins. Sometimes it takes days. Other times it takes years or centuries. We need to have lives in order to learn, and for our souls to grow. One of the most important tools in our education is the temporary memory loss. It's hard to take your relationship with your granddaughter seriously if you realize you were once her daughter."

Zoe wondered if that line was not a coincidence.

 Even more counterproductive than that is knowing there's life after death." O'Keefe sighs at this point. "This interferes significantly with the whole process.

I ask her, what can we do. There's no turning back. Right? Unless there's a way you can wipe away our memories of the past year.

"Unfortunately, that's not possible," Ms. O'Keefe says. "As I said before, though, there are more dire concerns."

I encourage her to explain. 

"There's a darkness. We call it the Arcide." 

I wait for her to continue, and she does.

"It's in every single one of us. It's not a good thing. It's angry. It's hateful. It's evil. Fortunately there's only a small amount of it in most of us. But there are very lost souls who have accumulated more of the Arcide through numerous lifetimes. They're earth bound and feed on the souls of other earth bound spirits. They can turn a good spirit into something very ugly. In very rare cases, they were able to cause torment to actual living beings.

She takes a moment and then says, "When the gates opened so all of you could talk to your beloved, the Arcide gained more power."

"It sounds like a horror movie," I joke.

Mrs. O'Keefe doesn't laugh. She doesn't even crack a smile. "It's not the least bit humorous," she says. "The Arcide is very dangerous. I can't overemphasize that. We know from here that some of its minions are entering the living and causing very distressing situations. The victims become very angry and hateful. At this point, it's usually just an inconvenience. The Arcide is weak and can't stay in the body too long. It's expelled. But we worry that gates are opening further and further. And as that happens, the Arcide's power will grow. We think, then, they will have the power to stay in the living person and cause irreversible harm to the victim's body, soul, and anyone nearby."

Will we be dodging green pea soup?" I ask.

"Please, Mr. Ramsay. Stop with the jokes. This is not a laughing matter." Then she reminds me of that short woman from Poltergeist as she says, "There's one more thing. The Arcide itself is a huge uncontrollable mass that collects souls. Each soul helps it grow in strength. Those who join it permanently lose all their memories, their personality and any feelings of love and happiness. Essentially, who they have become, through numerous lifetimes, is completely lost."

Scary. I don't know about you Dear Reader, but I'm certainly terrified.

He sounded a bit sarcastic, and Zoe was offended on behalf of her former daughter and also former Grandmother.

That being said, she wasn’t too scared. She thought Grandma Cornelia might be a bit zealous and exaggerating a bit.

Yes, this Arcide thing probably existed. But Zoe was pretty certain it wasn’t as bad as Grandma Cornelia claimed. Just like Harry Potter wasn't really going to turn Christian children into evil Pagans. The world didn't end in 2012. Nothing happened with the YK2 thing. The killer bees never took over America.

It seemed likely that Cornelia was  just seeking attention.

Or then again, maybe it was a huge threat and Zoe was being foolish for not worrying enough. 

Either way. She wasn’t going to give up Keith. She loved him, and she couldn’t see how in the world that was going to make this Arcide thing grow.

If it did, she'd go out and seek Horcruxes or something like that.

 *** 

 When Keith FaceTimed her later, she told him about the article.

"Do you mind if I EB for a moment and read it?"

"Sure," Zoe said, glad that she had  cleaned a bit. He could see her apartment when they FaceTimed, but he had a limited view. When he EBd (which was rare), he had a full 3D view.

"Have it open for me," he said. "I don't have the power to surf the Internet."

"Poor you."

He disconnected, and she found the article for him. She had no idea if he was there or not. It seemed to her  that she should get some type of feeling of his presence, but each time he had visited in an EB fashion, she felt nothing. It was pretty disappointing.

She felt a bit awkward sitting there waiting. She picked up a wildflower coffee table book that sat on the coffee table. It was full of dust. It had been ages since she last opened it. 

She wasn’t really into wildflowers. It had been a random gift from one of the parents at the daycare.

Now she looked at the book, because what else could she do?

***

Finally, Keith got back to her.  He didn’t look like one who was terrified about the universe ending.

"So it's not as bad as she said?"

"No," he said, relaxed. "It's just Cornelia. She's always been a bit overdramatic."

"She's a hypocritical drama queen?"

"That's one way to put it."

"There's an Arcide, though?"  She couldn’t imagine her grandmother completely inventing something to scare people.

"Yes. It's always been around. But people don't get sucked up into it. Okay, maybe on very rare occasions they have. You have to go through many lives of being horribly, disgustingly evil. Not just one. You know Hitler?" he asked.

"No? Who's that?"

"You're funny. Okay, but Hitler, Josef Mengele, Jeffrey Dahmer, Bin Laden…all those people? None of them have been sucked up into it. So that tells you something."

"Definitely," Zoe said. "

"A soul may gain a lot of evil in a lifetime, but they're not allowed to continue down that path. The Powers that Be have ways of preventing it. Their next incarnations will put them right."

"So Hitler has a good soul now?"

"Well, he's not like Mother Theresa or anything like that. He and most Nazis are still doing major rehabilitation. Some of them are fine now. Hitler and others are still struggling. Hitler's on his 12th life. They never let him get past the age of nine, because they worry he's not ready for adulthood and the power that entails."

"Interesting," Zoe said.

"He's been Jewish three times, a child with cancer once. He's lived in poverty in Africa, India, and the United States.

"And that's not helping him?"

"Well," Keith said. "He's not become less anti-semitic. He's very unhappy as a Jew. Well, one time he was okay with it but then directed all his hatred towards Palestinians. His life with cancer was okay; though he sometimes used his illness to get his parents to be overly indulgent. He does fine when he's living with extreme adversity….the poverty stuff. Where he really fails is when he's born with attributes that allow him to gain popularity. He becomes a bully."

"Who is he now?" Zoe was very curious.

"I don't know that. Incarnations are not public knowledge until they're over."

"Oh." But she thought of something. "You knew about my dad and Cornelia."

"That's because they're your family, and they've been my family! That counts as personal knowledge rather than public knowledge. If Hitler was in your family, I'd probably know about it."

"I think I get it," she said. "For the most part."

He smiled. “It does get complicated."

"So back to the Arcide," she said. "We shouldn't be too bothered by it?"

"I don't think so," he said. "I wouldn't worry about it." He smiled in that way that made her want to melt. She couldn't wait to dream about him tonight.

Continue to Chapter Thirty-Five

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