Beyond Death (3 page)

He opened his eyes and grabbed her. After a long, lingering kiss they came up for air and Jay could see that Claire wasn’t happy about leaving.

‘I’ve got to work too, darling. Shall I make you a coffee before you go?’

God, he was such a catch. ‘No thanks, babes, I’m fine. Go back to sleep for a bit and I’ll see you tonight.’ They kissed one last time. Jay smiled and turned over. He was sleeping by the time Claire closed the door.

Although it was stupid o’clock in the morning she walked to the taxi with a spring in her step, looking forward to the weekend and making plans with Jay for the rest of their lives together.

‘Hello, love.’ said Ron when she jumped off the bottom two steps and fell into the back seat of the taxi.

‘Bloody hell. Take it easy girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t want you injured on my shift.’

She laughed as they pulled out onto the road. Despite the city being awake all night it was relatively quiet on the roads at this time in the morning. Claire looked at her watch wondering how long she should wait before calling her brothers to tell them how it went. She’d call her parents later on tonight when she knew her father would be home rather than speaking to him at work. The good news might cheer her mother up as she’d sounded a bit down just lately.

Ron looked in the mirror and thought his fare looked extremely pleased with herself.

‘I can see somebody’s had a good night, love. Care to…’

‘Effing hell,’ screamed Claire and Ron mounted the empty kerb, managing to dodge the car speeding in their direction, too far on the wrong side of the road.

‘Bloody lunatic!’ he shouted, honking his horn at the same time but it was over in a flash, the other vehicle long gone. His quick thinking had saved them from a head-on collision and Claire took a deep breath.

‘Oh my God. I could have been killed on the same night my boyfriend proposed to me. That would have been…’ She stopped to consider and smiled as Ron looked at her in the mirror.

‘Shit, Ron. That’s what that would’ve been. Great driving by the way.’

He acknowledged with a smile. ‘Congratulations. When’s the big day then? Oh, hang on.’ Ron’s mobile started ringing and he leaned over to pick it up off the passenger seat, keeping one eye on the road. The phone fell to the floor.

‘Shit.’ The roads were pretty quiet so Ron kept his right hand on the steering wheel as he fumbled on the floor with his left. If somebody was calling him at this time in the morning it must be pretty important so he had to answer it.

Claire saw the lights getting nearer and nearer. ‘They’re changing, Ron. Slow down. Slow down!’

Dave’s filter light was on green and he’d manoeuvred half of his big truck through the right turn when he saw the taxi heading towards him.
Must have good brakes
was his first thought before he realized that there was no way the car would stop at the lights and impact was inevitable. There was nowhere Dave could go and nothing he could do. His world turned to slow motion and he touched the cross that he always wore on his silver chain. The impact came and jolted the big truck but Dave managed to bring it to a halt and he said a silent prayer before jumping down from his cab and running to the gruesome scene.

*****

At 5.17 am Claire’s twin brothers Tony and Jim awoke simultaneously in the flat they shared. Jim left his sleeping girlfriend Fiona in their bed, picked up his phone from the bedside cabinet and switched on its light. He slipped on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt and quietly left the room. Something awful had happened to his sister. The light was already on in the kitchen and Tony was standing there, looking at his own phone when Jim entered.

‘I’ve texted Tash. No reply,’ said Tony. Neither thought it strange that they were both awake at the same time, worried about their sister, and didn’t need to communicate their worries to each other.

‘I’m going to phone her.’

Deep down they both knew that their sister was gone but neither was ready to accept the inevitable.

Chapter 2

Claire surveyed the scene below her. Somehow she seemed to be up in the air, looking down at people in white coats in some sort of clinical environment.

‘Where am I and what’s going on?’ She couldn’t see anybody else and was surprised to hear Ron’s voice.

‘You don’t know do you? I’m so sorry, love.’

‘Where are you? Ron?’

Before he had a chance to answer Claire saw movement below and took another look. A package had been placed on a slab and one of the white coats unzipped the package and with the assistance of another, lifted a body out of the bag.

Claire was surprised but still didn’t get it. ‘Oh look, Ron. She looks a bit like me.’

Ron appeared next to her. At least, she thought it was Ron. He had an aura of Ron about him but didn’t seem to be in his physical form somehow. Something very strange was going on and she needed to get it sorted. At this rate she’d be late for work and that would scupper her chances of an early Friday finish.

Then it clicked.

‘I’m having a dream,’ she said to herself. ‘I’ve nodded off in the taxi and because of that little fright I’m dreaming that I’m dead.’

Then it really did click.

‘Oh my God. Am I dead? Ron, where are you?’

Ron heard the panic in Claire’s voice and realized she’d worked it out. Poor girl. She’d had her whole life ahead of her and he’d ruined it because of his demanding mobile phone.

‘I’m so sorry, Claire. Really, really sorry.’

‘Sorry,’ shouted Claire. ‘Bloody sorry! Sorry doesn’t cut it buster. Wait ‘til I get my hands on you I’ll effing kill you!’

‘Err, I hate to be the one to point this out, love,’ said Ron, ‘but I think you’ll find you’re a bit late for that.’ He heard Claire’s scream and decided to leave her to it.

*****

He didn’t know how it happened but the scene below him changed and he could see right into his house. Ron was gutted that he wouldn’t be around to look after Val and to give her the holiday of her dreams for their 25
^th
wedding anniversary. He was relieved that he had plenty of life insurance and hoped the policies would pay out even though his negligence had caused the accident. Ron looked down and could see her hugging herself and crying. He started wailing when it dawned on him that he’d never hold her again, play verbal table tennis or be around to look after her in their old age. Their daughter Libby walked into the bedroom and Val and Libby hugged. They tried to console each other but were too distraught to offer much comfort.

‘It’s all my fault,’ said Val between sobs. ‘If I’d been a better wife your father would still be alive.’ Libby shook her head and carried on hugging her mother.

Ron wondered why Val was blaming herself as he watched his wife and daughter try to comfort each other. He sensed the presence behind him and without turning to look he knew it was Claire.

‘Why does your wife think she’s to blame?’ asked Claire and he couldn’t tell whether she’d calmed down since their last discussion or whether she was going easy on him because he was upset.

‘Who knows? Maybe it’s because we were going through a rough patch.’ Ron felt tears and was surprised he could still cry when dead.

Claire wanted to put an arm around him but not yet used to her current state, wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Ron felt the warmth of her hug without the physicality of it.

‘Thanks, love,’ he said, ‘and I really am sorry about the, you know. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, let me know.’

Claire laughed but it wasn’t funny. ‘I can’t think of anything aside from rewinding time and not causing me to die,’ she said.

‘Point taken. Look,’ said Ron, needing to change the subject and indicating the change in the scene below. ‘You have visitors. Must be there to identify you before your post mortem. Coming for a look?’

Claire knew it would be very emotional but couldn’t stop herself. They moved nearer and watched events unfold, just like me and Tash would do on a Monday night in watching all the soaps, she thought.

*****

Jay refused to believe it. Claire’s twin brothers had picked him up and they had collected Tash on their way to the mortuary. Her parents were travelling down from Yorkshire and would meet them there. The twins sat quietly in the front, Tony driving and Jim looking out of the window. It was obvious that they’d been crying but now they seemed to have turned inward and every time Jay spoke they merely grunted or gave one word answers, refusing or unwilling to get into a conversation. In contrast Tash was sitting next to Jay, balling her eyes out. He knew that all this was one big misunderstanding and that the body at the morgue would be that of a complete stranger, not his Claire.

They arrived and parked up. He took a deep breath and headed towards the main entrance in a hurry, not looking forward to the task but keen to establish that it had all been one big mix-up. A story they would share with their kids in years to come. Jay wanted to go into the room alone so the others agreed to wait outside.

Tony and Jim stood next to each other and Tony put a hand on Jay’s forearm before he entered.

‘Claire’s gone.’

Annoyed, Jay shrugged him off and walked towards the door.

Claire watched him enter the room and wanted to be there with him. Not sure how it had happened, she was now next to him, crying and explaining that she loved him and that it wasn’t her fault she’d left. Jay stopped before he reached the trolley and shivered. He sensed her presence and knew instantly. The cold truth hit him like a bucket of iced water. As quickly as he’d sensed her presence it disappeared and his agony was too much for words. He let out a primal scream and collapsed to the floor.

Tony and Jim burst through the door closely followed by the mortuary staff. The twins gently lifted Jay and sat him down on a chair. Seeing the cover on her body still undisturbed they looked at each other and Jim nodded.

‘Did you look, Jay?’ said Tony and Jay lifted his head and looked at her brothers. All colour had drained from his face but the twins were too anxious for information about their sister to worry about him.

‘I didn’t need to look,’ he shook his head and folded his arms around his middle, pushing them into his stomach, trying unsuccessfully to stop the pain. ‘She was in the room with me.’

Jim nodded his head and the twins looked at each other in silent understanding but knowing that Claire had now left the room. They walked over to the trolley slowly, in perfect sync, and the mortuary attendant would later tell his colleagues how weird the whole experience had been from the comments of the dead girl’s fiancé to her identical twin brothers who seemed able to mind read.

They’d been warned that the person on the trolley had suffered severe trauma and knew that Claire was under the cover but nothing could prepare them for the shock of seeing their sister’s lifeless and broken body.

Claire was once again looking at the scene from above and had no idea how she’d travelled between the two places. She looked down at her mangled shell and was devastated by the sight. Devoid of life, her face was bruised and pale with a wide gash under her chin. The boys had slowly moved more of the sheet in morbid fascination, although they’d been advised not to, and Claire’s legs sat at unnatural angles, obviously broken. She didn’t want to watch any more but she felt drawn to the scene below her like a passing driver rubber-necking a road accident. She laughed bitterly to herself at the likeness. That was exactly what she was, a road accident, taken before her time and now only able to watch those she loved live life to the full instead of living it with them.

Her parents arrived shortly after. Claire barely recognized her mother who had aged considerably since she last saw her. They both wanted to see their daughter’s body but the twins advised against it.

‘You don’t want this to be the final memory of her,’ said Jim, trying his best not to break down in front of everyone. The twins had vowed to be strong for the sake of their parents but were finding it difficult, especially as Tash hadn’t stopped bawling and the noise was beginning to grate on everyone’s nerves.

Graham, Claire’s father, reached for his wife’s hand but Marion ignored him and instead nodded to the mortuary attendant.

‘This way please,’ said the man in the white coat and walked through the door ahead of them. Marion took a deep breath as the cover was removed to expose her daughter’s face. Her worst nightmares were confirmed. She looked at the broken body of her daughter. This was all wrong thought Marion wondering why nature had been reversed. Parents weren’t meant to outlive their offspring.

‘I’ve lost my daughter.’ Marion muttered.

‘Me too.’ Graham tried to hold her but Marion was inconsolable and refused the contact.

‘My only girl, my baby.’ She shuddered then sobs wracked her whole body.

He tried again but his wife refused his attempts at physical contact. Graham stood with his arms by his side and his chin resting on his chest, staring at the face of his little princess. For once in his life he didn’t know what to do. How could it be that his daughter had been taken away from them all on what should have been one of the happiest nights of her life? And why wouldn’t Marion let them comfort each other? He stopped thinking and looked at what used to be his daughter. He allowed the numbness to take over, in an attempt to mask the great big hole that he felt spreading throughout his entire body.

Outside in the waiting area Tash was still crying and Jay sitting down hugging himself. Tony entered the room and told his parents it was time to leave. They both followed him out like zombies on a cheap B Movie and Jay stood up as they came out. No words were exchanged between Jay and Claire’s parents. They didn’t know each other very well and Jay felt unable to offer Marion any physical comfort as she walked directly to the exit, still ignoring her husband and everyone else around her. Graham gripped the top of Jay’s right arm and the two men looked at each other in painful understanding of what they’d lost. Graham pulled Jay into his arms and gave him a tight bear hug. Even under the circumstances the twins were amazed as their father was a typical old-fashioned Yorkshire man who very rarely showed any emotion. The men separated and tears slowly trickled down Jay’s face. Having watched his wife shuffle out of the door and seeing the distraught youngsters in the room something clicked inside Graham. He came out of his trance and went onto autopilot. He held Jay at arms length and looked into his eyes.