Life After Death: A Story of Love, Loss, and Living by Jamie Hitchcock

Author:Jamie Hitchcock [Hitchcock, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-23T05:00:00+00:00

*19*

Nathan and Cece stood barefoot on a platform. White mist whirled languidly around them, slowly billowing off the edge of the dock. Nathan looked around suspiciously but couldn’t distinguish any landmarks. He turned the other way. On his left, a pillar rose sharply out of the mist. A rope dangled loosely from an eyelet in the top of the piling. Where are we? He thought. How did we get here?

Cece stared at him blankly.

He couldn’t remember what they were doing before this moment and had no idea what he was supposed to do now.

Cece walked past him toward the post, then grabbed the rope and began pulling.

“What are you doing?” asked Nathan. She didn’t answer. For lack of any other direction, he walked over to face her and began pulling the rope too. He could hear a faint twinkling sound that grew gradually louder, carried across the water.

“What are we doing?” he inquired again.

Before she could reply, Nathan saw a dark silhouette floating in the distance. With each stroke, the object drifted gently closer until it bumped softly into the wooden dock where they stood. In its wake, tiny glistening lights swirled under the surface of the black water, a galaxy of constellations dancing in the current.

Confused, Nathan tried again. “Cece, what is this place?” His voice was shallow and small, muffled in the fog.

Cece bent mechanically to steady the vessel. She motioned for him to get in.

Nathan didn’t move. “Where are we going?” he persisted.

“Home,” she finally spoke.

“Home? Well, where are we now?” Nathan surveyed the scene again. The dock looked eerily similar to the one at his parent’s house. Weren’t they already home?

She motioned again. “It’s time to go.”

Nathan turned back toward land, or at least, where the land should have been. The wharf continued a ways before disappearing into the mist. Straining his eyes against the blanket of white, he thought he saw a shore, but he couldn’t be sure.

“We need to go,” Cece urged, her gaze fixed on the craft.

That didn’t feel right to him, not yet. He still had so many questions. Nathan spun back to the boat and peered inside. A white knit blanket lay crumped under the seat. His eyes widened as they turned to Cece.

“Where’s the baby?” he asked fearfully.

Cece spoke calmly. “He’s coming.”

A soft cry carried through the cloud, coming from the shoreline. Nathan grasped her hand and pulled her toward the sound.

“He’s over there!” he shouted. “We need to get him.”

Cece didn’t budge.

“C’mon Cece, we need to help him.”

Her hand slipped from his grip. “It’s time to go,” she repeated coolly. “The baby is coming.”

Nathan was horrified by the scene. Clearly their baby was on the shore, and Cece was trying to leave without it.

“I’m not going!” he said firmly. “Our baby is over there, and I won’t leave him.”

“We can go together,” she urged.

Nathan collected what little confidence he had. Again, he firmly declined. “No, I need to go get him.”

Cece looked pained, just for a moment, before her features smoothed back into tranquility.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.