Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Accident

The first thing I heard when I opened the door was Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon echoing from the kitchen where I had set my phone to charge. I quickly placed the grocery bags on the dining table, then dashed over to the phone and picked it up. "What's up Billy?"

Forrest we've got a collision down here on Second," Billy answered as the sirens blared in the background. "We've got six dead here. I know it's your day off bro, but I need you down here. They need you here."

I gritted my teeth and suppressed my urge to hang up. "Nancy has the car so it's going to take me ten minutes to get down there/"

My ears picked up the sigh of relief that escaped Billy's lips. "Thanks man. I'll buy you a beer later."

"Don't bother," I said while heading out the door. "Just get me out of there before seven. It's our anniversary."

II

I arrived at the collision and it was exactly as Billy described it to me before I had hung up.
Three feet away from a fire engine and police car, a red sports car was tipped upside down with the front end smashed up against a street sign. Another car similar in design was caught between a Chevy Silverado and a black Honda jeep that was now sporting a shattered windshield, a result from its passenger flying through it. I looked in front of the jeep and saw a dry red-brown sport where the passenger's blood must have pooled up.

I looked over at the other side of the street, seeing a blue Thunderbird that had been T-boned by another Silverado.

"Thank God you are here," I heard Billy shut as he ran towards me. My eyes looked at his black blazer and mocha colored khakis that were a shade darker than his skin. "Billy Blemmers, is that a new sports car?"

"The wife bought it for me," he replied as he ran his fingers through his curly black hair. "You aren't the only one with plans. I'm playing with the city orchestra this evening."

I was suddenly less mad at Billy. He has a bachelors degree in Music and he is a really good saxophone player. Him playing with the city has always been a dream of his.

"What do you and Nancy have planned for tonight?" he asked as we walk through a think layer of smoke coming from the Jeep's engine. Her name came to my mind. Sylvia Field.

"Just dinner and a movie, nothing to fancy," I said with a smile. We stopped in front of the upside down sports car. When I crouched down, I immediately spotted the body of a small red haired girl wearing a blue softball jersey. Her torso was twisted in the middle so I couldn't see what number she was, or for that matter what team she played for.

"Her team had just won the District Championship," Billy informed me in a soft voice. "They were hit by a drunk driver in a Prius."

I also knew the driver's name. Ryan Lambert, Regional Vice President of a financial company. "Don't worry Billy, someone will break into his house and he'll bite the bullet, literally. Sylvia's family should be around here."

Billy shook his head. "The mother is talking with police but we can't find her baby sister."

"I know where she is," a high pitched voice said from behind the two of us. Billy and I turned to find the little girl standing there, her jersey layered with spots of blood and a rip on her shoulder.

I was somewhat surprised by the girl's calm nature. "Sylvia, do you know where your baby sister is?"

Sylvia nodded, but then noticed her corpse's arm danging from the seat. "I was just in that car..."

"I'm afraid you still are," I answered as I walked over to her. Sylvia stepped back, shocked by the sight of her body. She let out a shiver as a burly police officer passed right through her and continued walking along the crime scene. "That man..."

"He can't see you dear," I said quickly, putting my arm around her. "Only a select few of us, like myself and Mr. Blemmers, the man walking around the scene."

"What is he doing?" she asked.

"He's making sure that the souls of the people who died do not go wandering off," I replied. We watched Billy speak with the young couple who had been in the Thunderbird. I glanced at the word Knights embossed on the lower left part of her jersey. Below it was the number 23.

"What position do you play Sylvia?" I asked her, trying to make it easier on her.

"Catcher," she answered, looking at her mother whose face was covered in tears and scratches.

"Let's see if we can find your baby sister," I said to Sylvia as I led her away.

"But my mother..."

"We will go to her after we find your baby sister," I said quickly, knowing that is must have pained her not to be able to interact with her mother.

We walked about a half a block where we heard the wailing of a baby fill the air.

"That's her," Sylvia said as we followed the sound. We ended up stopping at a bush where a pale skinned blond haired woman in a long silk nightgown, was holding a baby girl in her arms.

"Don't cry little one," the woman said as we approached her. It took me a moment to realize the woman was Jewell. "Forrest, I didn't know you would be here."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Billy called me in." I stretched out my arms as Jewell handed me the baby. "Thank you Jewell."

Jewell told me to say hello to Nancy for her, then walked away, singing a Temptations tune that matched the rhythm of her walking. As we began walking, Sylvia looked up at me and asked," How do you know her?"

"We are colleagues together, as is Mr. Blemmers," I began while bouncing Bethany gently in my arms. When I saw the look on her face, I added," Jewell and I are Grim Reapers. Our duty is to make sure that people who die, their souls don't wander and get lost, but also to make sure that the people who aren't suppose to die, stay alive."

"Is Mr. Blemmers also a Grim Reaper?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Mr. Blemmers has a similar job. He has to escort souls to the after life."

"So if a soul gets lost, then do they become ghosts?" she asked.

Before I could answer, her mother ran towards me, arms stretched out, thanking God she was safe and asking me where I had found her. Pretending to be a police officer, I said one of the officers found her. She thanked me and walked away. I glanced down at Sylvia's face and could tell her she had tried touching her mother, but only passed through.

I bent down and patted her shoulder. "You'll be with them soon, provided you don't decide that you want to go through reincarnation."

I was glad she ignored the last part of that sentence for I think it would have brought on more questions. Instead, she pointed to the gold ring on my right hand. "Are you married?"

"Today is our sixth year anniversary," I said with a prideful smile.

She gave me a surprised stare. "But I thought the Grim Reaper was a skeleton in a black cloak, like on Halloween."

I smiled once again, tempted to make a bad joke about how I left my cloak at home. "Sylvia, some reapers and angels are dead spirits, but sometimes the Boss lets us live a mortal life. I think he does this to teach us to appreciate mortality and to understand what it is like like human beings. Does this make any sense?"

I would never know Sylvia's answer, for Billy had just walked over to us and told Sylvia that it was time for her to move on. I think she had just reached the part of death where she was ready to go. A look of curiosity washed over her face as she gave me a hug, then took Billy by the hand and followed him.

After watching Billy and Sylvia leave, I wandered around the turbulence some more and found no more souls that needed to be escorted.

When the police assured me they had things under control, I headed home, ready to tell Nancy what happened.

Nancy is a Grim Reaper too. She probably would have been here at the scene, but she started her maternity leave a week ago.

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