"So … how did you die?"
"What?! I'm not dead." The look of horror on her face sparked an attack of the guilts. Sometimes I could be horribly blunt and obnoxious. Wiping my hand across my forehead, I tried to formulate an apology. The sound of her laughter snapped my attention back to her. I swung my arm out, swiping right through the back of her head, my hand touching nothing but air. How unsatisfying.
"You should’ve seen the look on your face."
Well, at least she looked satisfied. A small smile tugged up the corners of my mouth.
"You looked like your mother just told you off for putting ice cream in the toaster."
My smile dropped. “Who the hell told you that?” The reference to my mother knocked on the Horrible Memories Vault I stored in a dark corner. I double checked the locks to fortify the door.
“Your dad.”
I must’ve missed a lock because the door creaked, threatening to open. I wiped my hand across my brow again and kept running, ignoring my companion.
"Sorry. It's hard for me to talk about and I always make jokes when I'm uncomfortable or upset," she shrugged apologetically. "It was an accident. Car versus tree. Mother Nature wins every time!" She flashed her teeth in a wide smile. Her macabre sense of humour was back with a vengeance.
"Lee, that's my brother, blames himself for what happened to me. Before you ask, no he wasn't even in the car."
A kookaburra made its garbled wake-up call. Oh, thank God. Another living thing was out in this molasses. Maybe it was all in my head. I looked up to see if I could spot him.
“You can’t keep ignoring me forever. I can play this game longer than you can. I have an eternity, and I will never give up.”
I studied her face. She was serious. Determination tightened her features, narrowing and flattening them. She looked fierce, in fact. My heart sank a little. I knew I should help her. My instinct was to help despite my best efforts to shuck that part of me. I actually wanted to. I mean, I didn’t have to keep my big secret from her, right? She was the secret. Or part of it. I’d become accustomed to her presence on the fringes. It had been a week since I’d last seen her, and I’d missed her.
The light broke through in a patch of misty purple on the horizon. It drained the aura of foreboding, replacing it with a beginning. I felt my body relax. Letitia was the first ‘person’ I had the urge to get to know in a long time. Even though she wanted something from me, just like everyone else, I felt like she was also trying to help me.
My only friends are my grandmother and a dead girl. The realisation slapped the smile off my face. Fucking pathetic. I had turned into a sad, cranky, lonely bitch. I was just like Flick.
Fuck!
I stumbled to a halt, breathing heavily with my fists clenched at my sides. A vision of my future flashed in my mind. I saw a crossroads. One road was empty, but for a dense, dark fog. The other was chaotic, but full of light, colour, and swirls of energy.
“Okay,” I whispered while inspecting my shoes. When she didn’t respond, I looked up. Her smile had widened, her green eyes lit up. She was radiating joy and relief. For a brief moment, I basked in it, feeling like I’d done something right. Then she just disappeared. Poof! Gone. What the hell? I spun in circles, looking all around for her before I realised what I must look like.
Turning to go back towards Granny’s, a man caught my attention. He stood frozen on his driveway wearing his bathrobe, with a steaming mug in one hand and a newspaper in the other. His eyebrows puckered in the middle, mouth gritted in panic. The look on his face told me that he felt the psycho woman may be a problem. I put on a crazy face and shouted, “BOO!” The belly laugh tumbled free as he jumped and scurried off inside to safety. The smile on my face accompanied me all the way back, pushing away the fog. If I wasn’t careful, this could become a habit.
Ronnie
I covertly shook my head at all the Ned Kelly wannabes, as I walked to the eatery on campus. Since when did suspenders become fashion for men under eighty? One guy caught me looking, and hooked his thumbs under the colourful straps holding up his skinny jeans, giving them a snap. He grinned and rocked back on his heels while stroking his beard. Pfft, hipsters. My eyes rolled on their own accord. I kept walking before he garnered the courage to approach the ice queen.
Yeah, I know what you call me.
Even with modern technology, the notice board outside the bookshop was still a popular way for people to list all their crap for sale, or lost items. After my run this morning, I spent over an hour scouring the online listings for rooms to rent. My brain was slowly turning necrotic from looking at bloody ads. I’m twenty-five, have a full-time job, and I still can’t afford to get my own place. My lips flattened to mimic my brow as I scanned the notice board. Three notices today. Slim pickings. One notice said, ‘Call Sam if you like to party’ in scribbled handwriting, with a fringe of tear-off phone numbers along the bottom. The entire thing was barely legible. It had me itching for a red pen. Well, Sam, your threes look like eights and you can’t spell apartment.
The second notice advertised a unit for rent. An entire unit for ninety percent of my current
