CHAPTER FIVE -- THE DIRECTION YOUR AFTERLIFE IS HEADED

  1

  Inside a cozy apartment filled with shelves of knickknacks, knitted quilts and numerous photos of grandchildren, the front doorknob jiggled. After a few moments, door opened to reveal Dodd standing in the entry way, putting away his extensive collection of skeleton keys. Ross and Dodd entered the home and shut the door.

  Dodd removed his shoes and set them on a flowery welcome mat by the door. “Take off your shoes. New carpet.”

  Ross looked at Dodd with incredulity before removing his shoes and setting them by the door. “We're breaking into someone's house to end their life and you're worried about the new carpet?”

  They entered the bedroom to find a thin, elderly woman, Mrs. Tate, finishing her meal in bed. Mrs. Tate's caretaker, Wendy, was a young woman with a calm, compassionate demeanor. Wendy wiped Mrs. Tate’s mouth. Both women were unaware of Ross and Dodd's presence.

  Mrs. Tate smiled. “Thank you, Wendy. It was delicious.”

  “I'm glad you liked it. Now you rest and I'll run a bath for you,” Wendy said.

  Ross whispered, “She’s about to die?”

  “Yes. And you don't need to whisper,” Dodd replied.

  As Wendy turned to leave, Ross instinctively moved out of her way. Dodd remained where he stood, Wendy stepped around the reaper as she exited.

  “What happens next?” Ross asked.

  Dodd checked his watch. “We wait. The death isn't fated to occur for another nineteen minutes.”

  “Death is on a precise timetable?”

  “It's all predetermined. Who, when, where, how? We just carry it out. It’s like being a postal worker. We don’t write out the bills or bad news you receive in the mail; we just deliver them.”

  Ross sadly watched as Mrs. Tate dozed off. “She kind of looks like my grandma.”

  Dodd eyed Ross. “Would you prefer to wait in the car? You don't have to be here.”

  “No, I'll stay.”

  “Let’s go wait in the living room.” Dodd said as he walked out. Ross followed.

  The two men entered the living room. Dodd sat down and perused a newspaper while Ross anxiously paced. After a few moments, the phone rang loudly, startling Ross.

  Wendy rushed into the room with a full laundry basket and answered the phone. “Hello?”

  The young woman listened for a few seconds. “I’m sorry, she’s sleeping now.” She paused as the caller spoke. “She's doing great, she's a real fighter.”

  Ross asked, “How much time is left?”

  Dodd didn’t look up from the newspaper. “Won't be long now.”

  Ross returned to Mrs. Tate’s bedroom and watched as the elderly woman slept peacefully. He looked at a framed photo of her seated with a dozen grandchildren and muttered, “This sucks.”

  Inside the living room, Wendy was still on the phone. She sat on the armrest of the chair that Dodd was in, completely unaware of his presence as he perused the newspaper's obituaries.

  Wendy spoke into the phone, “I'm running her bath now and I think I left the water on. I better go. I'll tell her you called. Bye.” Wendy hung up and hurried to the bathroom.

  Dodd removed his socks and rolled his pants up past his ankles.

  Inside Mrs. Tate’s bedroom, Ross stood beside the bed, watching the sleeping woman. “I'm sorry about this. You seem like a nice lady and it looks like you have a big, loving family. I'm sure they'll miss you. Don't be afraid. I’m sure it'll be quick and painless.”

  Ross sighed loudly. “This really sucks.” With a solemn glance at Mrs. Tate, he left the room.

  Ross walked down the hall past the bathroom door and stopped when he felt the squishy sensation of wet carpet. Peering into the bathroom, he saw water pooling on the tiled floor.

  He yelled towards the living room, “Dodd, she left the water running. Should we turn it off?”

  Hurrying into the bathroom, Ross splashed through the inch-deep puddle to discover the bathtub's running water overflowing the sides of the tub.

  Ross was horrified to find Wendy face down in the bathtub. Her upper body was mostly submerged and her legs dangled over the side. A red cloud formed in the water around her head.

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  “The caretaker is drowning! She must have slipped and hit her head!”

  Ross instinctively reached for Wendy, but before he could grab her, Dodd’s voice stopped him.

  “Leave her alone,” Dodd ordered.

  Ross turned to find Dodd standing in the doorway barefoot with his pants rolled up. “I don't care if I get shocked when I touch her.”

  “You can't help her.”

  Confused, Ross argued, “But she'll drown.”

  “Yes, she will,” Dodd stated flatly.

  A look of realization dawned on Ross’s face. “She's supposed to drown?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about the old woman?”

  Dodd drew his Scythe pistol and checked his watch. “We're not here for her. Not today.”

  Ross sadly stared at the hazy red cloud around Wendy's submerged head. “So, what now?”

  “We wait one more minute. That's when she's supposed to die.”

  “Why not do it now, what's a minute?” Ross asked as they watched the woman drown.

  “No. That's not how it's done. Don't worry, she's not suffering,” Dodd said as he activated his Scythe pistol. “You were a paramedic. This can't be the first death you've witnessed.”

  “I still am a paramedic. And no, it's not my first death. But it is the first time I just watched.”

  After checking his pocket watch, Dodd aimed his Scythe pistol at Wendy and fired. A white beam discharged from the device and struck Wendy, covering her in a warm glow. A golden ball of light flew out of Wendy's body and entered the prism on Dodd's pistol. After deactivating his Scythe pistol and holstering it, Dodd turned to leave.

  “So that's it? She's dead now and we just leave her here like this?” Ross inquired.

  “No, we're taking her with us. It's only the empty shell that we're leaving behind.”

  2

  Morton stood at the railing of a large pier. After making sure no passersby were watching, he hurled Toth's broken Scythe pistol into the bay. He waited long enough to ensure the reaper’s weapon sunk beneath the placid blue waters before he hurried away.

  3

  In a small diner, none of the employees nor the customers noticed Dodd as he helped himself to a fresh pot of coffee from behind the counter and brought it to the table he and Ross were at.

  “One bad thing about being a reaper. Everything's self-serve,” Dodd stated as he refilled their cups. “And all food tastes bland.” Both men emptied several packets of sugar into their coffees.

  “That must be because your taste buds are dead, too. At least you don't have to worry about diabetes anymore,” Ross said. “If we find my soul and bring me back to life, how do I explain my disappearance? Do I just say I went on a weeklong drinking binge?”

  “We'd set up a cover story that you got hit by a car while out walking. Dr. Dee would create fake medical records and some injuries on you so it seemed you were misidentified and just awoke from a coma in the hospital.”

  Ross considered the plan and smirked, impressed. “That just might work.”

  Dodd drew his Scythe pistol and activated it. After glancing at his watch, he fired his weapon at an old man who seemed to have nodded off in the corner booth. The white beam flowed from the Scythe pistol and hit the slouched gentleman, covering him with a bright light. A yellow ray poured out of the man’s body and sailed back to Dodd's weapon.

  As Dodd deactivated and holstered his Scythe, he noticed Ross's dismayed expression. “This is a working lunch,” he explained and nodded to the expired gentleman. “Congestive heart failure.”

  Ross slurped his coffee. “A lot of that going around.”

  4

  Ronoba entered a burned-out section of an abandoned building. Disgusted, she daintily plugged her nose as she walked to where several homeless people were sleeping. After consulting a sheet of paper, she squinted in the dim light as she searched the faces of the dozing figures. She spotted an elderly homeless man asleep in the corner and said, “There you are.”

  As Ronoba pulled her Scythe pistol from her beaded purse, the man lying on the floor behind her stopped pretending to be asleep.

  The man stealthily removed a knit cap that was pulled down over his face to reveal Morton dressed as a homeless person. Staring at Ronoba with his red-tinted glasses, he grinned.

  Morton leapt to his feet and struck Ronoba in the back of the head with a heavy wooden plank.

  Surprised by the sudden attack, Ronoba staggered away while cradling her head. Morton followed through with another powerful blow that dropped her to the floor. Ronoba sprawled out unconscious and bleeding black fluid from the grievous wounds to her skull.

  Across the room, the noise of the assault awakened a homeless woman. She sleepily peered over and witnessed what appeared to be Morton furiously smashing a board against the floor, with no sign of Ronoba. The old woman shook her head and went back to sleep.

  5

  Ross and Dodd entered the reaper station’s deposit room; a tiny area located beneath the stairs that contained a small table with paper and pencils.

  Dodd ejected the soul storage cell from his Scythe pistol. “We end the shift by dispatching the souls we reaped to the afterlife.” He scribbled some information down on a slip of paper.

  “This must be some super-mystical thing that I'm about to witness. Where do the souls get sent?”

  “The Great Beyond,” Dodd replied. “That’s all we're told.” He dropped the soul cell and the paper into a plastic cylinder. He sealed the container and inserted it into a clear tube that ran up the wall and into the ceiling. After closing the tube’s hatch, he pressed a button on the wall. The pneumatic tube hissed and the container moved up several feet in the clear pipe before stopping.

  Dodd grabbed a broom. “Sometimes it gets stuck,” he explained as he banged on the plastic pipe until the container loosened and flew up the tube.

  “And that's it?” Ross asked incredulously.

  “Yes. Now we get an empty soul cell from the office supply closet.”

  6

  Morton sat in his dingy apartment, picking splinters from his hands. When his front door opened and shut on its own, he eagerly donned his glasses and faced the seemingly empty room.

  The disembodied voice inquired, “How did it go?”

  “I smashed that thing's head flat,” Morton gloated.

  “Excellent. Did you get injured?”

  “Not bad.” Morton held up his hands, bloody and scraped raw. “The stairs were ready to collapse like you said. But it took a lot of work to make it look like they came down on their own.”

  “Your work will not be in vain. They will be convinced it was another unfortunate accident. Have you heard from your old acquaintance?” The otherworldly voice inquired.

  “His group is interested in our offer. I will see them tomorrow,” Morton replied.

  7

  Ross and Dodd entered the reaper station’s break room, a drab area with an old fridge and a worn-out couch. Dodd punched his time card in the dusty work clock.

  “We don't have guest accommodations, so you'll just have to stay with me until we can get you back to your life,” Dodd said.

  “Thanks. Hopefully it’ll only be for one night,” Ross replied.

  Dr. Dee entered sobbing and grabbed her coat from the rack.

  “Are you okay, Dr. Dee?” Dodd inquired with concern.

  Dr. Dee sniffled back some tears and shook her head. It took her a moment to compose herself before she could speak. “There was another terrible accident. Ronoba is no longer with us.”

  8

  Ross, Dodd and Dr. Dee walked through an alley to where Graves and other reapers picked through a large pile of broken boards outside the abandoned building where Morton attacked Ronoba. The remnants of a collapsed wooden stairway dangled from the side of the old structure.

  Dr. Dee approached a body lying on the ground beneath a dark-stained sheet. She pulled back the oil-slicked covering to reveal Ronoba’s battered body. Distraught, she began her examination.

  Dodd asked, “What happened?”

  “Ronoba had a client here. It looks like she was going up these rickety stairs and they gave away. The whole thing collapsed on top of her, crushing her.” Graves pointed to the stairway wreckage splattered with Ronoba's dark blood. “These stairs were recently damaged in a fire and were listed in her case file as a potential hazard.”

  “Then why did she take these stairs?” Dodd wondered.

  Graves responded, “That's what I'd like to know. She should've avoided them.”

  “This doesn't make any sense. I'd like to check it out,” Dodd stated.

  Graves shook her head. “That’s not a good idea. Sappert told the chief about seeing you in the park. I can't believe you were looking into the Toth incident after the chief told you it was over.”

  Ross interjected, “We went there because I wanted to visit the place where I died.”

  Graves looked at Ross and Dodd with amused disbelief. “That's a good partner you've got there, Dodd. He’s already covering for you. He learns quickly. Faster than I ever did.”

  Ross adopted an earnest expression. “No, it's really my fault we were there, not his.”

  She gestured for Ross to stop. “Easy, kid. I work for the big man, but I'm still one of you guys.”

  Dodd nodded in agreement. “That is true. You're fairly human for being in upper management.”

  “The chief was livid when he heard about you disobeying him. You should get out of here before he sees you mucking about here,” Graves warned.

  As if on cue, Chief Skulton exited the abandoned building with Sappert following closely behind. He spotted Dodd and scowled as he strode over to them.

  Dodd tried to blunt Skulton’s ire, “Chief, I already know I shouldn't have gone to the park.”

  Refusing to be placated, Skulton growled at Dodd, “It's lucky for you I'm short two reapers now. You best get out of my sight before I make it three.”

  “Did you find Ronoba’s Scythe pistol?” Dodd asked.

  “It was next to her body. Sappert is conducting the investigation. You are not to involve yourself,” Skulton admonished. “If you interfere with it, you and I will be having a little chat about the direction your afterlife is headed. It will not be pleasant for you.”

  With a final warning glance, Skulton joined Dr. Dee, questioning her as she examined Ronoba's battered corpse. After a victorious smirk at Dodd, Sappert followed the chief.

  Graves gently shoved Dodd and Ross away, “Just go home. I'll call you later.”