When we arrived, the procession had already lined up for the bringing in of the body. I felt my throat tighten as I saw the tiny white coffin housing Linda’s body. The first time I had worked with a child’s ghost, I’d cried at least three times: when I met him, when I saw his parents, and when I saw him cross over. Now I only got choked up at the funeral. It had been a rough couple of years.
The cab had let us out across the parking lot from the front of the church so nobody could see us yet. Good. I knelt in front of Linda and mustered an encouraging smile.
“Do you remember what’s kept you here on Earth?”
Linda nodded, making her pigtails bob up and down. “I wanted to tell my Mommy something.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Mommy won’t answer you but she will feel your presence deep down. I want you to go inside and tell her whatever it is you need to tell her. I’ll wait for you out here.”
“Mmkay.” The little ghost headed towards the long throng of family and loved ones until she disappeared from sight inside the sanctuary. I let out a long breath.
Michael stood next to me with a concerned expression. “This isn’t your first time seeing a kid’s funeral, huh?”
I shook my head. He sighed. “That’s a damn shame. Y’know, as much as I bitch about being dead, I don’t really mind. The world will survive without guys like me. Kids like Linda, though…makes you wonder if there’s a greater purpose for stuff like this.”
A small snort escaped me. “Gabriel always tells me to have faith. It’s hard to do when you see little girls and little boys who have lost their lives. I can only imagine how her mother must feel. Maybe something like mine did.”
Michael opened his mouth but I just shook my head again. “Don’t say anything sympathetic or I’ll cry, and I am damn sure not messing up my makeup today.”
He closed it. “Hard ass.”
“I try.”
We spent the next five minutes or so in silence. I spotted Linda walking back towards the cab, looking the same as how she’d entered. So young. She seemed to understand that she wasn’t normal, but I didn’t know if she knew much beyond that.
I smiled at her again. “Did you tell her?”
“Yes. Thank you. What happens now?”
“Have you fulfilled your final wish?”
She looked up at me with her blue eyes. Something in them changed when I said those words. The childish air around her seemed to dissipate as she whispered, “Yes.”
“Then you have nothing to tie you to this world. Your Father is waiting for you, Linda Margaret Hamilton. Cross over and walk the Earth no more.”
A bright golden light surrounded her on all sides and she faded from view with a calm, peaceful expression. When the last speck of light disappeared, I knew she had gone to the next world.
“Wow,” Michael whispered. “Is that what it’ll be like for me?”
“Mm-hm.” I knocked on the glass to let the cab driver know I was getting back in the car. He gave me a confused look.
“What the hell was that all about? You didn’t even go in.”
I spared him a thin smile. “I didn’t need to. Drive back to my apartment, if you please.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Whatever you say, lady.”
We drove back into town until we reached my apartment. By then, the sun had already set and swallowed the city sky in a wave of navy. Not a bad day, all things considered. Especially if it was my last day with my soul free.
The door swung inward, treating me to the sight of Gabriel in my kitchen filling out the Book of Penance. As always, he was dressed in an immaculate, expensive suit and looked out of place in my crummy living conditions. I walked in and shut the door behind Michael, addressing the angel.
“You know, it wouldn’t kill you to show up in jeans one day. You’re making me feel like such a bum with those fancy threads.”
Gabriel smiled and looked up. “Sorry. I’ll try to remember next—”
He stopped in mid-sentence and I swear to God, all the blood rushed out of his face. It took me a second to realize he was staring at the poltergeist behind me.
“Michael?”
“Gabriel?”
My jaw dropped. I stepped back, looking between them to find completely stunned expressions on both their faces. It took me a moment to form a coherent sentence.
“Wait, wait, wait a damn minute. You two know each other?”
Michael ran his fingers through his hair nervously. “Yes. No. Shit, I don’t know. When you said his name, I didn’t notice but now that I’ve seen his face, it all clicked.”
I turned on Gabriel. “Why do you know who he is?”
“Jordan, this is no mere ghost. This is the soul of Michael the archangel, Commander of God’s Army in Heaven,” Gabriel explained in an awestruck voice. He took a cautionary step forward.
“Brother, do you realize how long you’ve been gone?”
I pressed my fingers to my temples and massaged them, trying to keep up. “Alright. One of you had better start explaining something or my brain is going to explode.”