Chapter I – Death

Joe overdosed on cold medicine and pain medication. It was terrible, made worse by the fact that he could have been revived had the timing been different. His parents had gone for a weekend alone.  At the time he’d not been suicidal at all.  Things were looking up for him. He’d gotten a job and had received fairly good grades fall semester at college.

 That is another thing which still chafes his non-existent hide: busting his ass for those grades fall semester only to die over the holiday break. Before Christmas even.

Since it was over the holidays and he had fallen asleep with a death metal cd in his computer, everyone assumed he’d meant to do it.  His parents blamed themselves for leaving him alone actually he hadn’t minded at all. He had a cold or maybe the flu (he was achy). Went to the cabinet and over-medicated.  He literally woke up dead the next morning.  Pissed off and sad too.  It’s like breaking an Aunt’s expensive vase.  It’s done, it’s too late and the suffering begins.

After seeing his Dad’s reaction (the cops told him first), Joe closed his eyes and sent himself to a beautiful beach, all expenses paid (ha-ha) for a month. He’d been very lonely though.  He didn’t know how to interact with others like himself, he just haunted halls of nice hotels and beaches and piers. He even spent time in tourist traps watching sea-shows and wondering why neon fashions can’t be popular everywhere, instead of only at the beach.

Soon, he’d missed being near his family and friends, no matter how sad they were and he’d also missed his boring hometown.  So he went back home. He found an empty house that was for sale and starting hanging around it. He could listen in or watch what was going on at any time, anywhere from the house, even TV with his parents. He could also go hang around his old house to be with them but, of course, they didn't know he was there. In his lonesomeness he had discovered that he couldn’t play x-box anymore or at least he hadn’t figured out how, yet. That would’ve simplified things a great deal.

From what he saw, his parents weren’t doing very well.  They were barely speaking to each other, much less other people. He thought quite a bit about ways to manipulate the situation to help, but he was afraid of the consequences too. He was bad to use his mind to flip the tv to channels with commercials about depression or public service announcements about psychological care but they weren’t paying very much attention. It was like they were both in depressive trances.  He spent as much time as he could near them, but sometimes he had to distract himself. He was, after all, the dead one. They were still alive and could do things and see people. They had each other, whether they were taking advantage of it or not, and he was alone.

II - Her

There were very few houses in the new neighborhood where Joe had taken up residence that were occupied. Two houses down, on the opposite side of the street was a Tudor-style split level that had a family with four kids living in it.  Joe had known the eldest daughter, Angeline, since they had been in third grade together.  She’d pinched him once for stealing a note she was trying to pass to her friend Carly. He had opened the note and read it. It was all about a crush she had on Robert Baker.  Instead of Carly, Joe had passed it to Robert. After class in the hall, a red-faced and livid Angeline had cornered him and took the skin of his forearm and twisted it in the grasp of her long pale fingers. Looking back, from his ghostly state, Joe realized he couldn’t even feel the memory of the pain. The bruise had lasted two weeks it seemed like, and he’d had to wear long sleeves rather than let the story of how that girl put a bruise on him get out. After that incident he decided she was kind of tough and he usually tried to steer very clear of her.

Now though, it was very interesting to Joe to see how she was living her life. She was going to the university in the city and working at a sports bar. She was dating a guy, who dropped her off well after midnight, two or three times a week. Sometimes it was closer to dawn than midnight when she came home.

The black Saturn would pull up to the curb, pause for several minutes then Angeline would saunter up the concrete drive-way and disappear into the garage. It never failed that as soon as she had gone inside, the car would screech off, make a u-turn at the end of the cul-de-sac and speed off into the distance.

III  - Life’s a Party

“Hey girlie! What are you doing tonight?” Angeline’s phone rang the second she stepped out of the science building, headed toward the bus stop.  It was Carly.

“Uh. Homework? I have to map out a peptide.”

“What? Never mind. Map it this afternoon and tonight come to a party with me.”

“Can I bring Shane?”

“Maybe. Doesn’t he have to work or something?”

“I’ll see. Why ? Don’t you want him to come?”

“I guess. He’s just… not that good for you.”

“Whatever.”

“Go home. Map your popsicle. Call me.”

“I’ll try.”

Joe usually didn’t listen to phone conversations, much less phone conversations between girls, he was climbing the walls though.  Okay, he was more accurately going through walls - pacing through them. He was never this bored in his life. His entire life.

And he didn’t like that Shane guy either. He got a strange feeling whenever Angeline was out with him.  He wouldn’t watch the dates anymore, not after the first one he’s spied in on.  He had thought it would be more romantic than a movie and was wrong.