Bein' Dead Ain't No Excuse by Penny Burwell Ewing

Author:Penny Burwell Ewing [Ewing, Penny Burwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, fantasy
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2018-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

All I Have to do is Dream

I opened my eyes to a surreal world, and it took a moment or two before I realized that I was floating above my body, which was all too still for my liking, in a hospital bed. From my position near the ceiling, I had a bird’s eye view of the hospital room and nursing staff monitoring various machines and tubes attached to my body. The quiet of the room was broken only by the beeping heart monitor, and the whoosh, pause, whoosh of the ventilator.

A little freaked out by the scene below, I glanced down at my transparent hands and bare feet. “I must be dreaming.”

“I warned you to stay out of Heaven’s plans,” Scarlett spoke up from her perch on the overhead light fixture by the bed. “This is the price of interference.”

“So I’m dead?”

“Not yet, but soon.” She joined me on the ceiling. “I have it on good authority that your accommodations in Purgatory are being readied as we speak.”

I fingered a thin, silver string attached to my side just below my heart. It twanged as I stroked the smooth surface. “What’s this?”

“Your lifeline.”

“I believe I’m going to need more of an explanation, Scarlett.”

“It keeps you attached to your body.”

“Whatever for if I’m destined to die?”

“Your spirit and body must stay attached until Saint Peter pulls the plug.”

I zipped down to stand beside the bed and saw the thin, silver line attached directly to my body’s heart. A nurse adjusting one of the machines passed through me as if I were a breath of air. I shivered as I encountered her living energy. It stung like a bee sting, and I zipped back up to rejoin Scarlett.

“How long do I have?” I watched the nurse add another IV bag to the others.

“God only knows.”

“Will I get to tell my family goodbye?”

“Since you broke the rules, I’m pretty confident the answer is no.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“Yeah, well, we rule-breakers get a bad rap.”

“I did it for a good purpose,” I reasoned. “Shouldn’t I get points for that?”

“You’ll find out at your trial, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

A waft of antiseptic tickled my nose. “I hope my stay isn’t very long. It stinks in here.”

“I wouldn’t be so anxious to leave if I were you,” Scarlett said gravely. “Bein’ dead ain’t all I’ve cracked it up to be. It’s all work and no play.”

I gave her the once-over. “What are you doing here? I thought you had to be on your way to Scotland?”

“I told you there’d be consequences for my interference. The Boss grounded me when that snitch Sonya Jones reported back to headquarters.”

“Grounded? What does that mean?”

“It means I’m stuck here with you until my probation hearing for bailing out on my duties in Scotland. Damn. I knew I should’ve skipped the wedding.”

The sound of hushed voices halted our conversation, and I was surprised to see my parents walk up to the bed. Daddy reached for my hand, and Mama smoothed back a long lock of hair that had fallen across my face.

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