Just Like Heaven (4 page)

“
Nina
!” a man screamed from right behind her.

She stopped, jolted by the shriek of horror, and turned around to discover why someone would shout
at her
.
In doing so, she noticed that she no longer
walked along
the sidewalk but had unknowingly entered the street.

Nick ran towards her, one arm outstretched, those beautiful, soulful eyes still intense but
now
more worried than
anguish
ed. Then sh
e he
ard the wail of a car horn. A moment later,
Nick slam
med into her,
knocking
them both
off her feet.

As her shoulders and legs slammed into the ground
, she felt searing pain shoot
through her body as the brakes of a vehicle squealed
on
top of her. S
he opened her eyes and saw the
tire
of a truck
to her right. But even closer than that, she caught a glimpse of Nick’s sketch clutched in her hand.

She tried to focus on it, to determine why she felt it was so important to
see
the image, but before she could make sense of the artwork, her eyelids
bega
n to fall
. And no matter how hard she tried to pry them
back
open, they kept slipping farther down until darkness claimed her.

CHAPTER TWO

Nick glanced around, but h
is surroundings didn’t
resemble
the street on which he’d tried saving Nina from gett
ing smashed by a red Ford F-150. B
lue
skies with the occasional
cloud
floated overhead, scattering
vibrant light that looked brighter than the sun but without a central source.

And he felt neither warm nor cold. In fact, he felt
lighter
and more graceful
than at any point in his life. Nick
checked his arms and legs.
He didn’t see any cuts, bruises, or mangled bones. It appeared that he’d escaped the accident unscathed.
He still wore the same
clothes, but
his skin appeared effervescent, as though someone had placed a lit candle inside his chest, which spread a soft light throughout his body.

“
Well, hello,” said a
man with a Brit
ish accent.

Nick
whirle
d
around
to face a
slim
man
i
n his early seventies
with a
white
mustache and
a tuft of hair under his lower lip. He
wore a
white suit,
black tie
, and white dress shoes
, reminding Nick of Colonel Sanders, the founder of
Kentucky Fried Chicken
.
“
Wh
o
the hell
are you?
”

“Hell?” The man chuckled, a booming reverberation that shook his
shoulders and
chest.
“
Far from it
.”

Lookin
g at him askance, Nick took a step back,
surprised to find tha
t, like himself, this man’s bodily structure and clothes appeared almost translucent.
“What’s going on here
, Colonel
? W
here am I?
”

Failing to
get the fast food r
eference, the man’s
jovial expression turned sour.
“I’m afraid you got caught up in an accident. It’s completely understandable that you’d be disoriented. And please call me
Roland
.”

“
I remember the accident pe
rfectly fine. But I’m not on that
street anymore, so w
here am I?
In a coma? No,
”
he said to himself. “That might mean
a loss of brain activity, so I wouldn’t know what’s going on. So…this has to be a dream. That’s it. I’m in the hospital recuperating, and I’m dreaming.” He sighed. “Phew. I was worried there for a second.”

Nick
glanced at a giant Greco-Roman building supported by enormous pillars, while similar structures flanked it on either side. Dozens of men and women, wearing
various clothing fashions and styles from not only different decades but different centuries walked along wide
brick-layered
pathways, smiling and laughing, seemingly without a care in the world.
He pointed at a dark-haired man wearing a toga and clogs while the redheaded woman with her arm linked with his wore an outfit that a flapper would have worn in the 1920’s. Disbelieving his eyes, he closed them and shook his head, trying to clear away whatever drugs the
hospital staff had
probably
given him.

“
There’s
plenty of time for explanations,” Roland said.
“
But
it comes as no surprise
that you don’t remember me.
It’s been quite a while since we last saw each other – at least for you anyway. For me, it felt like only moments ago.
”

“Remember you? I don’t even know you.”

“Where’s Nina,” Nick asked, scanning the area. He ignored
a freak wearing Egyptian clothing like she’d just stepped out of a history book, a man in a
plaid
business suit
from the 1960’s, and a kid
wearing cargo pants and a t-shirt
who used his skateboard to weave
his way past
those
strolling by
. Behind him,
a few teenagers were decked out in full Goth regalia: ratty
black t-shirts, black fingernails,
spiky hair, and
chains hanging from their black leather pants.
To their right, a
pack of cyclists rode by,
their heads held high, in contrast to those who rode for long distances.
Even more astonis
hing, these bikers smiled at Nick
as they passed, excusing themselves while
waving and
saying hello to
Roland
.

In fact, ever
ywhere Nick looked, people smiled or laughed
.
Just as unusual
, every person, except for
Roland
, appeared young, healthy, beautiful (even the Goth kids), and vibrant.
He’d had enough of this
perverse land where everyone looked happy and at ease. Even though their expressions looked genuine, everything
else
looked unnatural – from the fluorescent light
in the sky
and the perfect weather
to the faint light e
manating inside every person that
walked by. It put him in a
rotten mood, setting off a fuse of anger
through him. 

Nick
rushed
Roland
, grabbed him by the lapels,
and jerked him f
o
r
ward
. “What’s going on here? Where am I? In some prison somewhere? Give me
some
answers.”

All around him, those who walked by came to an abrupt halt, shocked. They covered their mouths in horror, eyes bulging wide.

Their unexpected behavior whipped Nick into near panic-mode. He loosened his grip on
Roland
. These automatons
and their freakish
environment frightened him more than if he’d inadvertently stepped into a crack house. Not that he had any experience with drugs or the victims who abused them, but the analogy seemed appropriate for this bizarre world.

“Thrashing old men now, are we?” asked
Roland
in a grim voice.

His words broke through Nick’s confused state, and without even thinking, he
released
the older gentleman.

Roland
adjusted his suit and turned around to face the crowd
, all of whom
that had stopped. “
No need for concern. It seems Nicholas
needs to
reacquaint himself
again. He came to an abrupt end. I’m
sure some of you can sympathize.
”

With those remarks, every person acted in a cohesive unit: their smiles and good humor returned and they resumed
traveling along the
path.
A few women looked
empathetic
, while
some of the men nodded at him as
comprehension cr
ossed their faces. They continued on their way, no longer
appearing
apprehensive
.

Nick
put his hands on
either side of his
temples
to avoid look
ing
at
these str
ange people.
He turned back to Roland.
“Please tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s really quite simple, Nicholas
. You
’re dead
!”

*
             
             
             
*
             
             
             
*

 
Through dusky smoke that swirled around her feet on up to her abdomen, punctured by a
bright
light straight ahead and above her, Nina felt a wave of euphoria sweep over her. It felt like pure, unadulterated love blended with
complete understanding and undiminished jo
y. As the smoke parted,
dark figures, some taller than others,
approached her at a slow but steady pace.

Her heart pounded with the most exhilarating excitement she had ever experienced. Only now did she realize that a smile parted her lips, and as the curtain of smoke lifted and a brilli
ant radiance shined down on her, s
he heard a dog bark. Then another. And finally a third.

Through the haze, she spotted a golden retriever, a yellow lab, and a German shepherd race toward her, followed by a group of cats that matched their canine companions with great speed. They stopped by her legs, surr
ounding her, their tails wagging. The dogs looked
up at her with
glorious smiles, panting. T
heir feline friends filled in the spaces between them, brushing against
Nina’s
ankles, their tails sway
ing in the air. Although some
dogs and cats didn’t get
along
,
this
assemblage
not only enjoyed one another’s company, they basked in it.

Nina knelt down and put her arms around the dogs, accepting frenzied kisses across her cheeks and neck. Giggling at the outpouring of affection, she fell down and the dogs and cats enveloped her, whining and purring, hoping to feel a stroke of her hands or a hug. Still laughing, Nina recognized each of these animals, even though she couldn’t quite remember their names, and their devotion made her want to cry with happiness. But where she might have cried in the past, this time, tears didn’t enter her eyes.

She kissed the dogs’ heads and petted their coats, while also giving due considera
tion to the cats by picking
up
one after another. She
cradl
ed
them to her chest, while lett
ing her hands slope across the
backs of the others befo
re encircling their tails and
releasing them.

Spotting the
crowd continuing towards her, Nina got to her feet
, glad to see
their smiling faces
as they
greeted her with warmth and unbridled enthusiasm.
Like the pets around her, she
didn’t remember
any of the individuals
by name
.
But they all seemed familiar, like she’d spent a significant time with each of them and considered them all close friends. And while this feeling seemed outlandish
,
when she let the sensation settle inside her, it fe
lt not only normal but expected, so s
he decided to trust
it
.

A
Chinese
woman with
long, braided hair that lay across her left shoulder
opened her arms and Nina, without even doubting that they shared a profound co
nnection, embraced her and
watched al
l of the loved ones around her
reaching out to touch
her hands, hair,
face
, or shoulders