something, and although Suki couldn't hear it, she read the lips. We love you, Harry. Don't be afraid. We'll meet again in Heaven.
Suki suddenly looked at her watch. Five minutes to midnight. She grabbed Bob by the elbow and jerked him towards the elevator. "Come on. We need to hurry."
As soon as they got to the room, she ran to the balcony and opened the sliding glass window. She stepped to the rail and looked beneath her. With two minutes to go, each balcony held a man or woman standing in front of the railing. She looked up and saw the same. Theirs was the only balcony without people eager for redemption.
Maven stood two floors above her. The woman had confided in them that she had inoperable cancer. This was really her only chance for a sure thing. Maven released a hand from the rail, waved and smiled with nervous anticipation. Suki waved back.
Someone screamed, "Uno minuta."
Suki spun. "Bob, we have to do something."
"Do what?" he said.
"I don't know. But I can't stand here and have twenty-one people leap to their deaths."
"I don't know what we can do," he said, frowning.
"We have to do something," she said, rushing up and grabbing his shirt collar with both hands. "These people aren't going to Heaven. They don't go anywhere."
"What do you mean?"
"When I was swimming earlier, I heard them."
"You heard them?"
"I heard the souls. They spoke to me. They're trapped in the Jesus Pool, Bob. All of them, trapped forever."
"Ridiculous," he said. "How could they talk to you?"
"I don't know but they—"
Church bells interrupted them as the clock struck midnight, signaling a new day— Christmas Day. A scream was followed quickly by a sickly splat. "Jump for Jesus," shrieked Maven. Suki spun just as Maven passed her balcony. Suki ran towards the railing, Bob right beside her.
Maven lay sprawled in Jesus' arms. Several others lay beside her, their blood beginning to run together and collect on the bottom of the pool. The man named Harry didn't leap far enough. His head hit the edge of the pool. His body flopped, and then rolled, his smashed head coming to rest near Maven's feet.
A scream came from above. Suki and Bob barely jerked their heads back inside before two bodies passed them – a man and a woman diving head-first, embracing each other all the way down. When Suki heard their impact, she thought that she was going to be sick. She didn't even want to look anymore.
She watched as Bob looked up, then down as his gaze followed a descending man with a perfect swan dive form. Then Bob did something that absolutely stunned her. He laughed.
Turning around he pointed back over his shoulder. "Suki, get over here. You're missing it."
She gaped as he turned around to watch some more suicides. Remembering when she first met him as he ran up and helped her in the alley off Sunset, he'd had that same look on his face. Like a fanatic entertained by the event, he'd been more than a little wild-eyed as he'd tried to calm her down. She'd missed it then, but not now. And the realization sent the contents of her stomach into her throat.
Her emotions sizzled. Part of her wanted to run. Part of her wanted to scream. Another part wanted to make Bob stop. He'd been an anvil around her neck since she'd decided to drive home drunk that night. She'd never loved him. He'd taken advantage of her and had held her heart hostage.
And for what? Besides Bob, only she knew about her mistake.
Her karma was so screwed up that she'd spend several lifetimes making up for it. She ran up to Bob, reached down and gripped his ankles, then simultaneously pushed him forward as his Fubu sneakers lifted off the floor.
If there was a Heaven this was his only chance.
If this was his Hell, he deserved it.
Suki didn't even look as he collided in mid-air with a wheel chair descending from the twenty-second floor. She didn't do Heaven and she didn't do Christmas, but she promised herself that she'd return sometime next year and take a dip in the Jesus Pool, if nothing more than to listen to Maven and maybe chat with Bob.
She sat down in a chair facing the open balcony window and listened to the screams of the dying and the wails of the witnesses. She didn't move until dawn.
***
Story Notes: I saw a picture once of a swimming pool with a picture of