Written as an entry in the NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge, #100.
“Number
eight,” said Rob, as watched the sun rise over the horizon.
“Ya
know, eight’s a lucky number for the Chinese,” replied Frank. He wasn’t able to
produce much of a response out of Rob this year.
He
knew Frank meant well, but he wondered why he still accompanied him after all
this time. He’d thought after the second or third year, he’d grow tired of
following him around. Maybe Frank was the only friend he had left. Still, he only
saw Frank maybe three times a year, which is more than he could say for anyone
else.
Rob
let himself feel the cool air of a late-August morning for a moment. At that
moment he felt alive again. Fall will be here soon, he thought. He eyed the few
leaves around him already starting to change colour. Rob noticed Frank nudging
at something in his coat pocket.
“Just
like to point out Rob, of all the places in the city to start the day off –
like every year – we have to pick your grave?” asked Frank. All Rob replied
with was a shrug of his shoulders.
“Why
so early this year? Something special I don’t know about?”
“Not
really,” replied Rob, “just felt like seeing some of the sights.”
***
“Very well,
you may go,” said his guide, who introduced himself as Duncan.
Duncan continued, “But
not without someone to accompany you.”
After hours of
debating with Duncan,
Rob decided to acquiesce. As long his chaperone stayed out of his way.
“Allow me to
introduce you to Frank. He will help you return to Earth since you have yet to
learn how to travel between here and there.”
Duncan reached for a
doorknob that appeared from the wall, opening a door. He quickly stepped
halfway through for a few seconds followed by a man who introduced himself as
Frank. Rob pegged his accent as someone from New York. Duncan said his farewells and disappeared
through the door.
“Sheesh, guy
is a total square. So, where are we headed?” asked Frank.
“I have
something I need to do … just get me there and stay out of my way, alright?”
replied Rob.
“Yeah, alright
Mister Sensitive, where we headed?”
“I need to get
back.”
“Well, that’s awfully specific, ain’t it? Alright, I’ll take you back to where you left off. We can start there.” Frank stretched out his hand for Rob.
They
immediately appeared in a destroyed office complex. Rob couldn’t remember much
about what happened that day. All he could remember was a force pushing him off
his feet and the building burning around him. Eventually they made their way
out the office through the hole in the building and found themselves out on the
plaza.
“Sheesh,
someone tries to blow you up and you don’t care who did it?” asked Frank.
Rob eyed the
date on a newspaper stand. “Crap, it’s today?”
“What’s
today?” asked Frank.
Rob took a
second to get his bearings and began to head south for ten minutes before Frank
chimed in again.
“Hey, how long
is this gonna take? We almost there?” asked Frank.
Rob stopped
for a second and realized the hopelessness of his situation, “I need to get to
my parents’ home, but at this rate it’ll be too late.”
“Walking won’t do you much good if you’re in a hurry. Does a bus run near their house?”
“We can use
the bus?”
“Yeah, and at
least now, we don’t have to pay fare, or put up with the smell.”
***
“So,
we’re just gonna hang around here until later tonight?”
Rob
and Frank had found themselves in front of The Tabula Rasa, a bar that Rob had
frequented with friends, alive and now again in life after death.
“Then
good thing I brought this along,” as Frank pulled out a small brown paper bag
with a flask in it.
“You
know they can’t see you, plus you can’t get drunk anyways.”
“Doesn’t stop me from having fun,” Frank laughed, as they waited for some patrons to open the door so they could slip in.
Rob
couldn’t make heads-or-tails of Frank after all these years: why after passing
away at eighty he wanted to see himself as a youthful twenty-something year old,
or how someone so short could lie his way into fighting Germans in France at
sixteen. Even at twenty-something Frank didn’t seem to look the part.
Rob
and Frank occupied some seats by a wall with a large collection of pictures. It
was only a few years ago that Rob made this one of their destinations every
year. A few pictures featured Rob and some friends, but the ones that drew his
gaze were of ones together with a blonde.
“So
Rob, I know sometimes we don’t see each other too often, but just so you know,
Rita’s always getting on me about inviting you over for dinner.” Frank took a
sip from his flask.
Rob
had always wondered why they continued to eat anymore since it wasn’t
necessary. And then Frank would always reply with something about how Rita’s
cooking would make him feel otherwise. Rob kept staring intently at the photos
of better days spent at the Tabula Rasa. Frank could never stop talking about
Rita, before and after her arrival. Maybe one of these days he would happy as
Frank was with Rita.
“Yeah,
sure Frank, if it gets Rita off your back,” but Rob very well knew he didn’t
mean to ever follow up on it.
***
“Good
thing my dad never listened to me about leaving the back door open during the
summer.”
“What
are we looking for? Didn’t we go over the fact you can’t bring anything back.
Hell, you won’t even tell me why we’re here in the first place!” exclaimed Frank.
Rob
was well aware of the limitations of being dead. They passed his parents in the
living room. It had only been two weeks since the incident; they looked as depressed
as any parents would be after losing their only child. For now, he showed Frank
to his childhood bedroom.
Inside
his room were relics of his childhood neatly arranged everywhere. Rob fiddled
with the handle on his desk drawer. Inside it was a ring box and some scribbled
notes. Frank peered over Rob’s shoulder and instantly understood the
single-mindedness of Rob since they came down to Earth. He could make out one word
out for Rob’s handwriting: “Lisa.”
“So this Lisa must’ve been a pretty special gal,” said Frank.
Rob
gestured at the pictures on the wall to their left. All of them were pictures
of him and Lisa in their teenage years.
“That
long? That really sucks. I would move Heaven and Earth if I could tell my Rita
how I felt –”
“It’s
her birthday today. I was going to propose today,” Rob blurted out.
Rob
told Frank all about his plan for today, how he was going to do it in front of
all their friends and family. The ring he had bought weeks ago, but then was
looking for the right moment. The piece of paper he left detailed all their
antics throughout the years with Lisa. He kept telling her he wouldn’t ever
dare try to propose to her like that if (or when) it came to that, but that was
part of the surprise. Dead or not, he told Frank, at this point he just wanted
Lisa to know.
“The
ring, the note – that’s all that matters. Screw being dead. I just want her to
know how I felt. But how do I get it to her? It’s going to be a bit obvious
with a floating ring box going down the street. Didn’t you say that’s how it
works?”
“Speaking
of moving Heaven and Earth – just before you interrupted me …”
Frank
apologized in advance and began making a ruckus, grabbing some old books and
dropping them. He also knocked some of Rob’s old toys off their stands until
voices from downstairs came to investigate.
“Quickly
Rob! Leave the note and the ring on the desk and crack open the window!”
Rob’s
parents entered the room, staring at the mess caused by would-be intruders. Rob
had left the ring box open, causing the midday sun to catch on the ring,
catching his mother’s attention. She and his father examined the note, then
instantly knew the task ahead of them. “We have to tell her.”
***
Rob
and Frank had arrived a few hours before even Lisa would be home. Five years ago
she had moved into a new house with her husband, Timothy. She also had a
now-six year-old, Stephanie. Rob and Frank hopped the fence and spent the
remaining hours waiting.
At
this point of the day, like every year, Rob felt as if he had no right to be
here. By now, it must’ve been a long time since he had been in her thoughts.
She had a new life now, and so did he, in a manner of speaking. In a strange
bit of coincidence, this year, Frank arrived at the same idea. Except Frank
wasn’t above keeping it to himself.
“I never even
thought of it like that,” Rob lied through his teeth. This was all he had.
There was no appropriate response to make it seem as he was doing anything any
sane person would do. He remembered something Frank told him about people who spent
most of their time reliving past memories rather than making new ones:
“Buncha
cowards, I tell ya. Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you should spend the
rest of forever moping about how good your life used to be.”
For now and
for as long as he could, Rob pledged to himself these yearly visits. The façade
was wearing thin, however; this was nothing more than a sad attempt to relive
old memories in the present. Frank didn’t need to know he spent most of his time
alone with reliving memories with the Lisa he remembered.
***
Rob watched as
his parents lined up in front of the apartment door. His father did the
knocking.
“Joanna,
Hank … how I can help you?” Her voice activated pangs of better days in Rob’s
heart.
“Can
we come in, Lisa?” asked his mother.
Lisa
showed them inside, with Rob and Frank flanking the parents behind the couch.
This time, his mother did the talking.
“Lisa, we’ve
known you for so long, so it’s only right you hear this from us,” she reached
into her pocket and pulled out the note, “Rob had written this.”
Lisa carefully
read the note and instantly began to well up with tears. Rob had written about
so many of their moments and memories together since high school. She began to
read it aloud halfway through and Rob began to tear up as well.
“There was one
more thing, Lisa…” as his mother pulled out the ring box and showed it to her.
Lisa began to cry uncontrollably as all that emotion swept over her. Both of
Rob’s parents embraced her as she cried. Rob wanted to join in, but all he
could do was cry as Frank held him back.
***
Rob stood opposite
to Lisa as her guests started presenting their gifts. Next up was a card from
her daughter and husband. In that moment, Rob noticed that the Lisa in front of
her had changed much more than he realized. Not just physically, but everything
about her was so different from the woman he knew all those years ago. But that
notion entered his thoughts just as quickly as he purged it.
In a moment of
brutal honesty, Frank chimed in, “Rob, one of these days you’re gonna have to
let her go.”
Rob nodded his
head in response, but as he looked up at Lisa again, all he saw was the girl he
wanted to see.
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