It's a Wonderful Death - Sarah J. Schmitt Page 0,7
I can say. Sandy’s life seems like a dream.
“All through dinner I kept trying to get him to spill his secret, but he didn’t crack. Not even a little. I thought he might have heard back from our realtor on a couple storefronts we were interested in. When we finished eating, James really wanted to walk along the trail that runs next to the water. It was freezing but I would go anywhere with him. It was just one more adventure. I don’t think we were more than a few feet away from the parking lot when he dropped down on one knee. The snowflakes made his hair almost completely white and I thought ‘this is what he’ll look like when he’s seventy.’ That’s when I got it. My heart leapt into my throat.”
“Wow. It’s so romantic.”
She smiles but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes, which are now filling with sadness. “The moon was shining overhead and the sparkle of the diamond and the stars blended together. I don’t even know if I gave him the chance to actually ask me to marry him. All I remember is saying yes over and over. And then he jumped up and pulled me close. His kisses melted on my lips. I had never been so happy. That’s when I saw them.”
Her voice trickles off and she seems to be at a loss for words. Finally, in a whisper, she says, “The headlights. The car must have hit a patch of black ice or something. All I knew is it was coming straight for us. I watched it jump the curb and crash through the bushes. I tried to push James out of the way but I wasn’t fast enough. The car knocked him down before it ran over him on its way toward the lake.”
I’m unable to keep from staring at her scar. “What happened to you?”
Sensing my gaze, her hand raises self-consciously to her face. “I flew over the hood and through the windshield. Believe it or not, it wasn’t the head injury that killed me. When the car went into the lake, I was pinned under it.”
I expect her to cry again but Sandy chuckles a low, sad laugh. “It was like being in a movie. I still remember flying through the air. I felt weightless and couldn’t stop looking at the moon. But then the glass shattered and the pain was unbearable. It was like a thousand fire ants biting every inch of me. And then it stopped. Just like that. The last thing I remember was the muffled sound of the ambulance and the shimmer of the lights dancing across the surface of the water.”
My hand flies to my mouth to hold back a gasp. I fail miserably. “I’m so sorry,” I finally say.
She flashes me a sad smile. “You want to know the funny part. I was a swimmer. I held three freestyle records on my college team. I could hold my breath longer than anyone else. And in the end, it was death by drowning. Personally, I blame the collapsed lung.”
“That’s not funny,” I say. “It’s tragic.”
She ignores me. “They pronounced me dead at the hospital, but I was gone long before that. The Grim Reaper met me on the shore of the lake. He tried to rush me away from the scene but I had to see if James was okay.”
“What happened to him?” I ask in a whisper. “Did he die?”
“Do you think I would be hanging around this place if he did?” she snaps.
I sit back in surprise. “No. Probably not.”
“Sorry,” she says. “To answer your question, no. He’s not dead. But he’s not alive either.”
I give her a questioning look. “How is that possible?”
She slumps down in her chair. “His stupid parents have him hooked up to all kinds of machines, but the only thing they’re doing is keeping him from coming here to be with me.” There’s a wildness in her eyes, like her mind is bordering on insanity and now I can see why souls shut off their emotions when they die. “What they need to do is let him go.”
Again, the front desk calls her name. “How often does that happen?” I say to her.
“What?” she asks, and I can tell by the blank stare she has no idea what I’m talking about.
“They keep calling for you. How often do they do that?”
“Every few minutes for the last nine months, sixteen days, and ten hours,” she ticks off.