Have Spacecat, Will Travel: And Other Tails by John Hartness (best color ebook reader .txt) 📗

and transfer to Columbia after two years. I had a plan. For the first damn time in my life, things were about to come together for me. Then Jody came in, and I got all freaked out, and I was driving too fast, and smoking, and I dropped the cherry off my cigarette in my lap and it started burning me, and I was trying to put it out, and I was still crying, and…next thing I knew I was here. I was here, and the only damn thing left of me was a white painted cross and some damn fake flowers!”

She pointed over to a little hill right at the edge of the woods, and sure enough, there was a faded wooden cross, just a couple of broke off tomato stakes nailed together and stuck in the ground, with a tiny bouquet of silk flowers laying at the bottom of it.

“So you figured out you could go back to the club…” I prompted.

“Yeah,” she said. “I was mad. Hell, I stayed mad. But I got especially mad when I saw men I knew had families, and should be at home with them, and sometimes, well…I’d just stand in the road and concentrate real hard, right in front of where their car would be, and they’d see me. They didn’t all run off the road. I don’t even know if that’s what I wanted them to do, but…some of them did. Some of them did, and I didn’t stop. It felt…righteous. Like I was punishing somebody for what they did to me.”

I didn’t say nothing, just looked her in the face. After a long pause, the fire in her gaze sputtered and went out, and she dropped her eyes. “They didn’t do nothing to me, did they?”

“No, honey. They didn’t.”

“Them men didn’t deserve to die, did they?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. It ain’t on me to decide who lives and who dies.”

“Or me, I reckon?” The tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks as we looked at each other.

“I reckon not, honey.” I wished I could hug her, but I knew that would be futile. We sat there together for a few minutes, her crying quietly and me just watching, feeling bad for her suffering but also for the families of the men she killed, and all kinds of conflicted about that.

“What happens now?” she asked me after a long sniffle and a wipe of her face with her sleeve. For some reason I always find it funny to think about ghosts having snot.

“I don’t know, darling. Do you still feel tied to this spot, or do you feel like you can move on?”

“Where would I go? Do I go to Heaven, or…the other place?”

“I can’t answer that, Chastity. I ain’t never died, and none of the people I talk to have ever been either place. I only get to see folks before they go wherever it is they’re heading.”

“Well, I ain’t mad no more. I just…feel bad for hurting those men, and their families. I was so mad about what they were doing to their families that I couldn’t see that I caused them folks more pain than anything. Maybe I deserve to go to Hell?”

“I think there’s probably forgiveness for people that are truly sorry for the pain they caused. I hope so, anyway. Otherwise there’s going to be a lot of people needing air conditioning in the Afterlife.” I gave her a little smile, which she returned as a wan, fleeting thing.

“I guess…I guess it’s time for me to go find out,” she said, standing up and looking over to her left. “Are you here to take me on to the other side?”

I followed her gaze and was stunned to see Pete Smalls standing there, wreathed in white light. He gave Chastity a gentle smile and held out a hand. “I am, sweetheart. I am.”

“You look familiar,” the girl said. “Do I know you?”

“We’ve met once,” Pete said, looking at me. “Real briefly. I didn’t know why at the time, but now I understand it. Yes, I’m here to take you home.”

Pete smiled at me, and I wondered what kind of encounter he had between the time he left us at Pole Cats and now. Something sure changed about him. The sadness, the fear, the confusion were all gone. He just held out his hand to Chastity, love and kindness wrapped around him like a nimbus of light, and when she twined her fingers with his, they were gone.

I sat there for a long moment before I got up and walked to the car. Willis looked up at me, a gentle smile on his face. “You get it all taken care of?”

“Yeah, I think,” I said. “Chastity passed on, and you won’t believe who showed up to escort her along. Pete Smalls.”

“Who?” Willis said, no recognition at all on his face.

“Peter Smalls. You remember, the man who died in the wreck last night. The man who left Pole Cats and drove down into the holler not two miles from where we’re sitting?”

Willis just stared at me for a long moment, then said, “Lila Grace, are you feeling alright? There were no wrecks last night. No fatalities in Union County of any kind. It was just a quiet Sunday night. Now there’s been plenty of fatal accidents along this stretch of 49. It’s one of the most dangerous sections of road in the state, but nothing in the past month.”

My head spun. What the hell was going on? “Then what are we doing out here on the side of the road at eleven in the morning? Why did I just talk to a ghost who’s been killing men for the past two years? How did I know any of this?”

“Darling, I have no idea,” Willis said. “We went to the movies last night. I took you home, we had a couple drinks, and I went back to my place because I had to iron my shirt for this