He stared at the floor for a handful of seconds before lifting his head to look at me. “Why am I still here, then?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the front door opened and Michael stepped inside. It took him about three seconds to spot the boy by my bed. He rushed over, his brow furrowed in a frown.
“Who’s the kid?”
“This is Jacob. He’s a ghost.”
He sighed, which was odd. Did he honestly think a child would hurt me?
“Have ghosts ever followed you home before?”
I shook my head. “No. They always see me on the street.”
“Right.” Michael knelt so he could be eye-level with Jacob.
“My name is Michael. I’m an archangel.”
Jacob’s face brightened with surprise. “Really?”
Michael chuckled. “I know. I don’t look like one, but I am. You need my help if you want to pass over to the next world.”
“Hey, he was my ghost kid first.”
He looked at me then, genuinely shocked. “Jordan, you don’t have to do this any more.”
“I know that. I actually want to help him. This ability isn’t going to go away, so I might as well use it.”
Michael studied my face. Then he smiled. “Alright.”
If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought he was proud of me. Good thing I knew better. I tossed back the covers and stood up, ignoring all the parts of my body that complained, and set about searching for my notepad. “Okay, Jacob. Why don’t you tell me the last thing you can remember?”
“Well, I was outside some sort of building. It wasn’t an office or a skyscraper. It looked sort of like a hospital.”
I nodded, having found a pencil and my worn notepad, and started scribbling what I knew so far.
Jacob
Appears eight or nine years old
Caucasian
Brown eyes
Brown hair
Remembers hospital or building that looked like one
“Do you remember how far you walked to get here?”
The boy shook his head. “I lost track of time. Something just told me to walk away and when I finally stopped, I was here. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Your memories will start to come back after a while.”
“What happens then?”
“We’ll find out what your final wish is and you’ll cross over to the other side.” Michael jumped in this time.
Jacob still appeared anxious, not that I blamed him. “What if I’m not ready to go yet?”
I glanced at Michael and he understood the look. “It’s natural for you to be worried about crossing over, but I promise it’s a better place to be. You won’t have to worry about anything ever again, and you’ll be loved for all eternity.”
Jacob’s shoulders relaxed. “Okay.”
“Follow me.” I headed towards the kitchen. My laptop lay on the table. Its blue light occasionally glowed in the dark, beckoning me to find my answers. Michael flipped the light switch on and automatically began clearing away dishes and leftover food. Strange behavior, since his own home had been a pigsty.
After everything on the computer had been set up, I went about my normal researching route. My initial information gathering always started with a document I had compiled of local hospital morgues. I could weed out some of them, considering the fact that Jacob had gotten here on foot. The kid didn’t remember how far he had walked, but I couldn’t imagine it had been more than half an hour. Even without his core memories, he would have noticed if it took an hour or more to “find” me.
The hardest part of my cases was locating pictures. Jacob was a child so he wouldn’t have any ID even if we found his body. The best course of action to take would be to call the hospitals and ask if anyone with Jacob’s description was in their morgues. Hopefully, something would turn up.
“What happens now?” Jacob asked.
I brandished my cell phone. “The fun part of my job—phone calls.”
Michael sat a mug of fresh instant coffee in front of me with a sympathetic smile. “Happy hunting.”
“Thanks.” I took a deep sip of the delicious beverage and dove in.
An hour later, I set the phone down and stretched my back with a miserable sigh. All those numbers and I still hit a dead end. At the very least I knew one thing—Jacob had not ‘woken up’ outside of a hospital. The morgues were still open, and none of them had a kid with his name or description. Most of them told me to call back the next day to double check. I’d most likely end up doing that just to be thorough, but the chances of finding anything were slim.
“Alright, so if you didn’t ‘wake up’ outside of a hospital, where the heck were you?” I muttered to myself, peering at my laptop as if an idea would spring from the screen. Jacob stood to my right, chewing his bottom lip.
“I wish I could tell you something more helpful,” the boy offered. “I’m sorry.”