“I’ve not had a headache in nearly fifty years, and you’re giving me one. What the hell is wrong with you? Just shut up and enjoy the afterlife.”
Joel turned again and saw the portrait over the fireplace. The man in the portrait looked just like this man, from the top of his head and the bow tie all the way to the brown and white shoes he had on his feet. Joel looked at him again.
“It’s me. I had to stand for that picture for two hours. And I hate it. But it brings my lovely a nice smile, so I have to think it was for the best.”
“What the hell are you talking about? That man is dead. I know that for a fact. Evie talked about him…what do you mean, the afterlife? Are you trying to tell me that I’m dead? There’s no way…. Why are they ignoring me?” The man laughed and told him to shut up for a minute. “You can’t talk to me that way. I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but I’m not used to people talking to me like that.”
“You’re dead. Get used to it, newbie. Here in the afterlife, where you are, you have to get used to a lot of things. Some you won’t mind, but there are a few that will bother you. The one thing I still have trouble with, even after all this time, is when they walk through you. Gives me the willies.” The man shuddered. “Even when you know it’s coming, it sort of creeps you out, as my granddaughter used to say. By the way, she’s not here. Addie is hiding. From you, I guess. Smart girl. And I’m thinking that everything my Evie says about you is right. You’re a moron and a bully, aren’t you?”
“Where is she?” Joel decided to ignore the insult. But when the man didn’t answer him, he yelled louder. “Who the hell are you? And what do you mean by all this other stuff? I…I think I’ll go home.”
“You can go home if you want, but you won’t get any more people noticing you there than here. I can go anywhere I want so long as I return here before sunrise. Don’t know why, but that’s the thing. We figured it was the time of my death. Sunrise. There’s this buddy of mine…well, buddy is a strange term for him, but he died so long ago that he no longer remembers what time he died, so he comes and goes as he pleases. You see him yet? Anyway, I’ll keep telling you this because sometimes it takes a while for it to sink in, but you’re dead.”
Joel started to sit down, but what the man said hit him. “I’m not dead. I’m as alive as you are.” The man laughed, slapping his hand on his knee as he did so. “I’m a young man. I exercise and eat right. Well, most of the time. I’m simply not dead. You’re mistaken.”
“You’re right about that one. You’re as alive as me. But you’re dead. Hit your head on the trolley that was over there. And no amount of exercise or eating the right way will help you with a slice of wood sticking out of your neck like that. Sorry about that. But you was gonna hit my Evie, and I couldn’t let you do that. No matter, I guess…you’re dead now too, and as soon as you figure that out, the better off you’re going to—”
“I’m not fucking dead. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But Joel looked to where the trolley had been and saw the stain on the floor. “What happened here, and where did that woman go? I’m not finished talking to her.”
“She’s gone on up to bed, I guess. Took a lot out of her talking to the police and all. Poor woman. I surely wish I could go there and hold her, but I can’t. Stopped going to the bedroom soon after I figured out I was gone. Took me a while, but once I got it, then being with her was easier.” Joel stared at the floor and tried to wrap his head around what the man was saying. As he stood there, a man came into the room with a bucket and some rags. “Oh good. Getting the stain out of the floor will make my Evie feel better. Might be a while before she comes back in this room. Poor thing.”
Joel was starting to remember bits and pieces of what had happened. There had been an argument. He wasn’t sure of the details of that, but he’d gotten up to hit Evie. Women sometimes, he knew, needed a good slap. His mother had told him that for years. But Bentley had stepped in front of him. Joel tried to think if he’d hit him or something else.
“I knocked you back. You can’t hit her. She did nothing wrong but be the woman that I dearly love.” Joel turned to the man as more and more things started to fall into place. “Can’t hurt the dead, so you know. You can…as you grow older and stay here, you’ll gain more…powers, I guess you can call them. But you can’t just go around hurting us. The living, some of them, can feel you, but not a lot. One guy can…there are a group of them, but they can feel you. Talk to you too, if you’ve a mind to converse with them. I go and see him sometimes when he makes a call out for help.”