Jump When Ready (7 page)

Will kept driving, changing lanes and picking up speed.
He still wouldn’t look at Bethany.

Bethany had to know something was wrong, but some other
part of her brain must have kept telling her there had to be a logical answer.
After all, Will was her friend, a person she trusted. But Will had told her
lies—he’d set a trap. How could Bethany face that?

Bethany turned to Karen. “I thought we were going to your
car.”

Finally, Karen looked at Bethany. “Don’t worry,” she
said. Which made no sense.

“Bethany, you need to get out of this car!” I screamed
the words but I don’t know if she heard me. Either way, I’m sure she already
knew that much.

I looked at the highway signs. I’d seen them so many times
but they meant nothing. What was I-95? What was 64? When it came right down to
it, I didn’t even know where the roads went. That had always been for my
parents to know.

“What are you doing?” Bethany said. “Forget it, take me
home.” She was trying not to cry but she wasn’t quite pulling it off. When Will
still didn’t answer, Bethany got her phone from her pocket, her hands shaking
as she started to dial.

Karen reached over and grabbed the phone. “I wouldn’t,”
she said. “We’re just running an errand. Then we’ll take you home. Don’t
worry.”

What else could Bethany do but hope those words were
true? It wasn’t like she had a choice. She looked out the window, still trying
not to cry. But she was still crying.

It took a while, maybe ten minutes, before Bethany’s head
fell forward. She jerked upright and looked around, fighting to remain
conscious. Then her eyes slowly closed again and her head fell. The same thing
kept happening as Bethany kept opening her eyes and looking around, each time
shorter than the last, until finally her chin remained against her chest and
her eyes stayed closed. After that, she remained passed out, slumped against
the door of the car.

“Bethany, wake up! Wake up!” I kept yelling the same
thing over and over but she couldn’t hear me. How could she possibly fall
asleep? At the same time, she’d been dozing off since they left Starbucks.
Suddenly, I realized what was happening. When Will had gotten the drinks—he
must have drugged her. Even though it all seemed insane, that was the only possible
explanation.

I sat there freaking out, not sure what to do. I couldn’t
grab the wheel and steer the car off the road. I couldn’t hit anyone. I
couldn’t even dial Bethany’s cell phone. I was just a ghost—a helpless, useless
ghost.

After a few more minutes, Karen reached from the back
seat and nudged Bethany’s shoulder. She waited, then did it again, a little
harder. Bethany remained slumped forward, her eyes closed as she breathed
evenly in and out.

“Well, that was easy,” Karen said.

Will nodded. “Yeah, it really was.”

~~~

They stopped just once, at a rest area. It was fully dark
now and they parked far from the other cars and any lights. No one saw as they
got out and moved Bethany to the back of the van. It only took a few seconds.
Will strapped a gag onto Bethany’s mouth. He put her in handcuffs and threw a
blanket over her.

I ran at him and screamed, “Get your hands off my
sister!” I tried to push him away. I tried to punch him. Nothing I did made any
difference—a gnat would have been noticed more. When they drove off again, I
knelt next to Bethany in back. “I’m right here!” I kept saying. “I’m right
here!”

I could only hope she heard me.

I’m not sure how long they drove after that. More than an
hour, definitely. Maybe two. All I could do was read the road signs and try to
notice as much as possible. But when they left the highway and started driving
country roads, there was nothing to see except the lights of passing cars. The
van started to climb and then kept climbing. After that, there were no other
cars at all.

Eventually, they drove onto what felt like a logging
road, the van jostling and bumping. All I could see in the headlights were
trees, their branches creating a tunnel. Finally, we pulled up in front of a
cabin. Will cut the engine and headlights, plunging us into total darkness.

I passed through the side of the van and looked around
but there was nothing to see except the dark shapes of trees. I heard crickets
and cicadas by the millions, chirping and humming. I saw no lights in the
distance. I heard no cars.

Will and Karen got out and opened the back. The interior
light came on, seeming incredibly bright.

Will leaned over Bethany. “Okay, wakey, wakey! We’re
here!” He waited a moment, then turned to Karen. “She’s still out cold.”

“How much did you give her?”

“That was a pretty strong dose,” he said. “For obvious
reasons. But she should be coming around by now.”

“What does she weigh, a hundred pounds?”

“True, she’s smaller than I imagined. Let’s lift her
out.”

They got Bethany to her feet and stood her up. At first,
she started to sag but then she straightened, gaining her footing. Her eyes
shot open and she shook her head, trying to make her muffled voice heard
through the gag. Bethany pulled away and started to run but didn’t get far
before she tripped. In her drugged state, her wrists bound, she fell hard.

Will clicked on a flashlight and walked to where Bethany
lay on the ground crying. I waited for something bad to happen, for him to hit
her or jerk her to her feet.

Instead, he crouched next to her. “It’s okay,” he said.
“It’s not like you’re thinking. We’re not going to hurt you. Understand?”

Bethany looked up at him. For a moment, she remained
still. Then she nodded.

“Can you get to your feet? Sorry, stupid question. You’re
in handcuffs. Will you allow us to help you up?”

Tears streamed down Bethany’s face. She nodded again.

Will and Karen took hold of Bethany’s arms and lifted her
up.

“I know it’s dark out here,” Will said. “But there’s a
cabin just over there. We should go inside now.”

Bethany shook her head and started to back away again.

“There’s nowhere to run out here, Bethany,” Will said.
“You’d never make it. There are cliffs, mountain lions, all kind of dangers.
Either way, we’re going inside, but we’d rather not drag you in if we don’t
have to.”

Bethany didn’t walk forward but she didn’t run either.

“Good,” Will said. “Let’s get inside.”

Slowly, they guided Bethany where they wanted her to go.

Will turned on the lights and it surprised me to see that
it was just a mountain cabin. Nature paintings, couches, a table and chairs in
the kitchen area. The kind of place your family might rent for vacation. I’d
imagined something horrible but it wasn’t that way at all. My mind kept
spinning, trying to make sense of things.

“Karen’s going to take off the gag now. Is that okay?”
Will didn’t wait for an answer. He nodded to Karen, who walked behind Bethany
and undid the clasps.

Bethany spat the thing out and the rubber ball fell to
the floor, trailing plastic straps. She inhaled deeply, then started coughing.

“Sorry, wasn’t sure if we’d need that while we were
driving,” Will said. “Are you all right? Do you need to sit down?”

Bethany was still swaying like she was groggy. “Yes, I’d
like to sit down.” Her voice was rough and dry.

Will gestured to the kitchen table, then followed Bethany
and sat across from her. Karen came over with a plate of fruit—grapes,
strawberries and blackberries. She set down glasses of water. I waited for her
to remove the handcuffs from Bethany’s wrists, but that didn’t happen.

Will chose a strawberry, then slid the plate closer to
Bethany. “Just so you know, we’re not barbarians. Are you hungry? Do you need
to use the bathroom?”

Bethany cleared her throat. “What’s going on? Who the
hell are you? I mean, who are you really?”

“You might as well call us Will and Karen. Those are as
good as any other names. Besides, you already think of me that way. Why change
that now?”

Bethany kept blinking and shaking her head like she was
still trying to wake herself up. “Why did you take me here? What do you want?”

Will chose a blackberry this time. “These really are
good. You should have one,” he said. “We want what everyone wants. Can you
guess?”

Bethany frowned, confused. “Money?”

Will shrugged. “Good guess.”

Bethany stared across the table at him. I knew what she
was thinking since I was thinking the same thing. “But we don’t have money! Not
like that. I mean, we’re not poor or anything but—”

“Sometimes people have surprising resources,” Will said.
“But let’s not go into that right now. Let me tell you how it’s going to be. If
you make things easy, we will too. If you don’t, we won’t. Is that clear?”

“But you just finished telling me you’re not—”

“Simple question. Yes or no?” Will’s voice rose and his
eyes hardened. “Do you understand?”

The change in him had an effect on Bethany. She started
to tear up again. “When do I get to go home?”

Will exhaled slowly, like he was annoyed but trying to be
patient. “Good, a simple question. I’ll give you a straight answer. When we get
what we want. Got it?”

Even though he hadn’t come close to answering the
question, Bethany nodded.

“Okay. Now, drink your water.”

Bethany’s eyes locked on the glass Karen had left in
front of her.

“You’re totally right,” Will said. “It’s a sedative. Nitrazepam,
just so you know. You might have heard of it referred to as Alodorm. Easy stuff
to come by, actually. Then there’s its cousin, Xanax. Not nearly as strong but
good for anxiety and the like. We might just mix up a few of those, depending.”

Bethany shook her head. “Whatever it is, I don’t want it.
It makes me feel like I can’t breathe.”

Will thought for a moment, then shrugged. “You were just
scared. Now, drink. Remember what I said, hard or easy.”

I couldn’t just sit there listening any more. Even though
I knew it wouldn’t matter, I ran at him again. To hit, to scream, to make the
bastard know I was there seeing all of it. But suddenly I started getting
dragged backwards. Slowly at first, then faster. I looked behind me, expecting
to see Karen or someone even though it made no sense. I called out, “Bethany!”
for no reason. She couldn’t help me and I couldn’t help her.

I rose into the air against my will, uselessly fighting
against whatever had hold of me. I lifted through the ceiling. Within seconds,
I was back in the darkness. I saw the light of the cabin window below but it
disappeared quickly as I was pulled through the sky. I saw the lights of a town
in the distance. At one point, I shot directly through a jet passing far above
the earth, for one second hearing and smelling the passengers worn out from
travel. I was accelerating so fast now that everything became a blur, even the
stars above.

Then I saw nothing but darkness while I shot through
space.

River Rat Can
Speak

I felt the light against my eyes but kept them closed, both
out of fear and confusion. I had no idea where I might be or how long I might
have been there. It felt as if everything had simply stopped and gone quiet.

Then someone asked me a question. “What happened to you?”

I opened my eyes to see that I was sitting by a pond on a
sunny day. I knew where I was immediately, although I hadn’t thought of the
place in years. The pond had been close to the first house we’d owned and John
and Bethany used to take me there when I was just a little kid.

Nikki looked down at me. “What’s got you so freaked out?
You look like crap.”

At any other time, I might have laughed. Leave it to
Nikki to be blunt. But everything that had just happened came rushing back at
me. It was almost like the opposite of waking up—like what I’d just experienced
with Bethany was real but now I was inside a dream.

I jumped to my feet. “Listen, my sister’s been kidnapped!
By two people—they took her someplace, to this cabin somewhere. I don’t know
what to do!” I was back in that reality, my pulse racing.

I expected Nikki’s eyes to widen, for her to gasp or act
alarmed. Instead, she nodded calmly. “What do you mean ‘do’?” she said. “Don’t
get me wrong. I feel terrible about what’s happened. But there isn’t anything
you can do.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve got to help her
somehow!”

Nikki looked me in the eye. “I’m sorry.”

I stared back at her. “That’s it? You’re
sorry
?”

Nikki turned away and looked out at the pond. “This is a
nice place. I guess it must make you feel happy or something.”

How could she possibly change the subject like that?
“Yeah, sure. It’s a happy memory, I guess.”

Nikki’s eyes grew sad and suddenly she seemed far away. A
few moments passed before she spoke again. “That’s what I thought. And, really,
that’s all anyone back on Earth is too now. Like you are to them. I’m sorry,
Henry, but we’re all just memories now. That’s why we’re not supposed to keep
going back. Believe me, I’ve been down this road and it only gets worse.”

I waited for Nikki to say more, but she picked up a stone
and flung it out at the water. It skipped a few times, then splashed, leaving
ripples. Maybe she didn’t want to talk about that road she’d been down but I
wasn’t about to accept that I was nothing more than a memory. At least not yet,
not now.

I bent down and plucked a stone from the ground. It felt
cold and real. “There’s got to be some way to help,” I said. “Bethany heard me
before, so maybe my parents can too. Or my brother. I don’t know.”

Nikki turned to face me. “What do you mean, she heard
you? She couldn’t have.”

“She did! I know she heard me talking to her just before
it happened. I even made her laugh with some old family stuff only she’d know
about. She tried talking back to me too. She asked if I was there with her.”

Nikki stared at me strangely. I wasn’t sure if she didn’t
believe me or what the deal was. “You’re not joking, are you? Are you lying to
yourself?”

“No! It really happened, I swear.”

A few seconds passed while Nikki seemed to be thinking
about things. Then she said, “Have you tried this with any other living people?
Can anyone else hear you?”

I thought back to when I’d been with my family. “Not
really. I just figured no one could. Then I started talking to Bethany when she
was driving and she totally heard me.”

Again, a few moments passed before Nikki spoke. “Hard to
be sure what this means,” she said. “Sure, sometimes there are people on the
other side who can sense us. But it’s really rare. The odds of it being your
own sister is like one in a million. I suppose it could possibly mean…” She let
her words trail off.

“What?” I tossed my stone into the pond. Maybe the pond
was just a memory but the stone still splashed. It was as real here as we were.
Here, thoughts became real. If we could shape this reality, I wasn’t about to
give up hoping that I could somehow affect the other.

Nikki didn’t answer my question. Instead, she watched the
ripples spread across the water and I got the feeling she was lost in a memory
of her own. I reached out and touched her arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

It took a moment before Nikki answered. “Sure, yeah. I’m
fine. But, listen, I think we should talk to Martha.”

~~~

“How do we know she’s even here?” I asked, when Nikki
knocked on Martha’s door.

“She’s always here, if you need her.”

“What if you don’t?”

“Then she’s not here, idiot. Aren’t some things obvious
to you yet?”

For some strange reason, it felt comforting to see Nikki
back to being her usual sarcastic self. Nikki was just good at being Nikki.

As promised, Martha opened her door and smiled at the two
of us. “Hey, guys. How’s it going?”

Nikki shot me a look like I’d just ruined her day. “River
Rat has an issue.”

Until that moment, I hadn’t realized Curtis’ nickname for
me had caught on.

“I see,” Martha said. “Please come in.”

We stepped into a space I couldn’t have possibly
imagined, a room the size of a house with gleaming wood floors and windows that
reached the ceiling. Outside, I saw the snowcapped peaks of giant mountains
where clouds drifted by, reflecting sunlight. Large snowy white eagles, unlike
anything I’d ever seen even photographed on earth, rode currents of air, their
wings spread.

“Can I get you anything?” Martha said.

“Do you have any root beer?” Nikki said.

“Sure.”

“How about a cappuccino, Red Bull or Fuze? Or maybe a
chocolate milkshake?”

Martha smiled. “Of course.”

“Mountain Dew?”

Martha played along. “Just ran out.”

“Then that’s what I’ll have.”

Martha laughed and looked at me. “Having fun getting to
know Nikki?”

“I think so,” I said.

Nikki punched me in the arm, pretty hard.

“I mean, yes. She’s very, um, different.” The funny thing
was that I could now feel Nikki smacking me. Before, when she’d thrown that
cone at my head, I hadn’t felt it. I wondered if this might be another one of
those “between lives” deals. Maybe our reality sort of adjusted as we got to
know each other better.

Martha, I saw, was trying not to laugh. “Good, glad to
see you’re getting along. Grab a seat and I’ll be right back.”

Suddenly, I felt like slapping myself for having just been
goofing around. What the hell was wrong with me? Something about this place
made our old world seem less real. Like, just as suddenly, that other realm
could become the dream and this the reality. I told myself I was going to need
to stay focused.

Nikki and I took a seat on one of Martha’s white leather
sofas. Martha came back a moment later with cans of Mountain Dew and a bottle
of water for herself. She placed the drinks down on her glass table and sat
across from us.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Martha’s expression told me she
was ready to take our visit seriously.

As I told Martha about what had happened, she listened
calmly, pretty much as Nikki had before. She seemed concerned, definitely, but
more about me than Bethany. She kept asking how I’d felt, how I’d reacted and
if I was okay—almost as if what had happened on the other side barely mattered
except for how it had affected me. When I finished, she finally asked, “Do you
feel Bethany’s life is in danger?”

I gripped the arm of the sofa, my fingers digging into
the leather. “Yes! I don’t know what those two people are about. They could be
total psychos for all I know.”

Martha sipped her water and set it back down again. “I
just need to be sure about what you’re feeling. You do realize that if Bethany
dies, she doesn’t actually die. Not like you’re used to thinking.”

The strange thing was that until Martha said it that way,
it hadn’t once occurred to me. The worst that might happen would be Bethany
ending up here with us. Or at least someplace like this.

I relaxed just a little. “I understand, but…”

Martha kept her eyes on mine. When I didn’t say anything
more, she asked, “But what?”

“Look, I know I drowned and now I’m okay,” I said. “Nikki
died too but here she is sitting right next to me. I get that. But I still care
about what happens to my sister, even if she’ll end up being fine and between
lives or whatever. I care about my brother too. And what about my parents? They
can’t take it. Not enough time has passed for them to take another hit like
this! I’ve got to do whatever I can. I just have to.”

Martha glanced at Nikki.

“I already warned him,” Nikki said, apparently
understanding words that hadn’t been spoken.

Martha took a minute to consider things, then said,
“Okay, Henry. I know there’s no way of stopping you. And I’ll help you in any
way I can. But you have to know from the start that your chances are slim. More
than likely, Nikki is right and you’ll find that you have no impact on events
in the other realm.”

Martha waited, so I nodded. I understood what she was
telling me. I was basically powerless to do anything, no matter how hard I
tried. On Earth, I couldn’t change the course of a floating dandelion seed,
never mind help my sister.

“These kinds of attempts at involvement can also have
harmful effects,” Martha said. “You have to know this.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

Martha looked me in the eye, her expression serious. “You
say that now, but you’re used to thinking short-term. In your life, you most
likely thought of a year as being a long time. Ten years would have been a
stretch for your imagination. Fifty years was essentially unimaginable. What
you’re gambling with now involves a much longer time.”

I couldn’t deny it. The truth was I’d never thought much
past a year or two at best, never mind anything like fifty.

“I hate to be this blunt,” Martha said. “After all, you
just got here and you’re still acclimating. But the fact is, because of the way
you Transitioned you’re already stuck for a while. Don’t get me wrong.
Occasionally there are exceptions, but people—young people, especially—who left
their last life under traumatic circumstances tend to take quite some time to
move on again.”

That was something that had crossed my mind a few times.
How long did we remain between lives? How long had the others been here?

Martha seemed to read my thoughts. “Your friends haven’t
been here all that long in the scheme of things. However, what you need to know
is that for every moment we go back we stay here that much longer. It’s not a
punishment, it’s an effect. By going back, you’re telling the Universe you’re
not ready to move on. As a result, you get what you asked for. Most of the
time, this isn’t really a problem. In fact, most of the time it’s completely
natural.”

Martha stopped and waited. I got the feeling she wanted
to be sure I was paying attention.

“But some of the time?” I said.

“Some of the time, souls get trapped. They care too much
about their last life. They become so involved with those they left behind, or
with whatever happened to them, that they can’t find a way to leave again. Do
you understand what I’m telling you?”

I thought about all those stories I’d heard—about haunted
places where souls wandered the same halls, fields or roads for hundreds of
years. “You’re saying you really become a ghost?”

“Yes,” Martha said. “Sometimes it’s forever. Some souls
just never come to terms with the fact that there’s no way for them to exist in
their old life again. And they can’t ever get past failing to be seen, or
heard, by whoever they were hoping to get through to. They just can’t accept
that it’s hardly ever possible for that to happen.”

Nikki cleared her throat. “Sorry, Martha. There’s
something I probably should have mentioned before.”

Martha turned to Nikki. “What’s that?”

Nikki jabbed a thumb in my direction. “River Rat said his
sister could hear him. I think we may have a Speaker on our hands. Not sure,
just putting it out there.”

So, that’s what Nikki had been getting at before back at
the pond. Maybe I was a Speaker, whatever that meant. But while Nikki had
seemed surprised at that possibility, Martha didn’t. Then again, as far as I
knew, Martha always remained calm and collected.

 “I see,” Martha said. “That could change things
somewhat, but not necessarily for the better.” She brought her attention from
Nikki to me again. “As we just discussed, getting too involved with those in
the other realm can have negative consequences. And as you may have learned
from watching Curtis, it can be far from pleasant for those on the other side
when they interact with us.”

I felt my face grow warm. Until then, I hadn’t realized
Martha even knew about my little adventure with Curtis. Thankfully, she didn’t
look pissed off like the others had when they’d discovered what we’d been up
to.

Jamie had explained some things to me on the day that
Curtis and I crossed over. He’d told me that what Curtis and I had done was
called Poltergeisting. It wasn’t okay. You should never do anything now that
you wouldn’t have done when you were still in your life. He’d also explained
that Curtis was what they called a Manipulator, someone who can control
physical objects in the other realm. Apparently, having that kind of ability
was extremely rare.

I was about to ask Martha about how all of it worked when
she looked up at the ceiling as if hearing something. Nikki and I waited,
glancing at each other while Martha continued to listen to whatever it was we
couldn’t hear.

After a few moments, Martha got up. She smiled at the two
of us but it showed in her eyes that something was bothering her. “I’m sorry,”
she said. “I’m needed elsewhere. But I can see that you’ve made up your mind.
Please don’t hesitate if I can help in any way.”