Heaven Painted as a Poker Chip Read online

  Again they dropped into silence before Tommy looked out at the sun coming up over the lake. “Dad is in Spokane, along with one of my sisters. They will be up here later today. So we need to get out of here.”

  “Don’t want to be here when they arrive?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s the last thing I want to do.”

  He wasn’t sure if he could handle seeing how much he had hurt his father by dying. He needed to leave them to grieve on their own.

  “Let’s go to my place,” she said. “Since the city is leasing it to me, no one will bother with it or my stuff for a few days I bet. We can decide what we are doing next there.”

  He nodded. “We have a few hours here to let things dry out again first.”

  She nodded. “And if you can find a ghost pack, you can take some clothes as well.”

  He had to switch the topic from thinking about his father and family. “Are you hungry?”

  She looked puzzled. “I just might be.”

  Then, as she said that, she said, “Damn it, now I have to pee as well.”

  He laughed. “Now I do as well.”

  “Guess things turn on slowly in this ghost world,” she said as she started down the hall.

  “Second door on the left,” he said. “Closed one. Hope I left the lid up.”

  “I can go in the sink just fine if I have to,” she said, smiling at him as she headed down the hall.

  He headed for the bathroom off his bedroom. He knew for certain he had left the lid up there.

  Strange things ghosts had to worry about. He could go through doors, get people to confess to crimes, but couldn’t lift a toilet seat lid.

  This ghost world was going to be interesting, he had no doubt.

  THIRTEEN

  HE HAD HIS head in the fridge, through the fridge door, actually, when she came back to the kitchen. He couldn’t see a thing because the light was off in there, but it frosted his face quickly.

  “That looks really strange,” she said.

  He managed in the dark, from memory, to grab a couple of apples and pull them out. At least ghost apples. He was fairly certain their original real-world partners were still in the fridge.

  He held one up for her and she nodded and took it. She bit into hers first, then smiled. “Wow, that’s good.”

  “How is this possible?” he asked, staring at the apple and then biting into it as well, getting juice on his chin. Jewel was right, it tasted wonderful. Better than any apple he had remembered.

  “Seems that most everything has a ghost component,” she said.

  “Including us, it seems,” he said.

  “Yeah, does seem that way.”

  “Bottle of water?” he asked as she took another bite of the apple.

  She nodded, so he stuck his arm back through the fridge door and grabbed a couple of bottles of water. Ghost water again. He handed one to her, then opened and drank out of the other.

  Tasted just like water.

  She looked at him and frowned. “How long do you want to stay here?”

  The image of his father flashed into his mind. Knowing his father, he would have gotten the news in the middle of the night. He would have called Carol, Tommy’s youngest sister, and the two of them would have headed this way within an hour.

  More than likely they got the call last night while Tommy and Jewel were still on the mountain road. Tommy knew well that the drive from his father’s place to here was five hours, so they might be getting here in a couple of hours.

  “We need to be getting out of here,” he said.

  Jewel nodded and took one more bite from her apple.

  He set his bottle of water and half-eaten apple down on the counter.

  “Let’s get dressed, see if we can find you a coat and hat and gloves for the walk to your place.”

  “Mind if I just keep this shirt on?” she asked, smiling at him. “It’s toasty.”

  “I’m disappointed I won’t get to see you nude again,” he said, “but sure.”

  She laughed. “I’ll flash you for good measure.”

  “Promises, promises.

  As they packed clothes for him, and found her a coat, she did as promised, which made him smile.

  Twenty minutes, with a very light bag of ghost clothes over his shoulder, they headed out.

  Jewel had put on her still-damp pants and shoes, borrowing dry socks from him as well. She had on his blue ski parka that draped on her, a matching ski hat, and gloves that made her hands look huge. But at least she would be warmer in the two-mile walk they had to do right through town.

  He had on dry jeans, with two more pair packed in the bag. And a bunch of socks and underwear and shirts, plus an extra pair of shoes. He had no idea where they were headed, but better to take what he needed at the moment.

  The rain had stopped and the clouds were now high, with occasional sun breaks. It was still cold, but it looked like the day might turn out decent weather.

  On the way into town, as they walked along the road, not really talking, he looked up and saw his father’s white Jeep headed toward them. His father loved that older Jeep Cherokee and drove it more than he drove his Lexus.

  He could feel his stomach twist up into a knot.

  He took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and that calmed him a little.

  “My father and sister,” he said to Jewel.

  They both stood to one side of the gravel road as the Jeep drove past.

  Tommy saw that his father had the look of grim determination, as was normal for his father in tough situations. His sister looked like she had been crying.

  As the Jeep passed them and went on toward the lake home, Tommy said out loud, “Good-bye Dad. Sis.”

  Jewel reached over and took his hand and squeezed it gently.

  They stared at the departing Jeep until it vanished around a corner on the gravel road.

  Together, they then turned and kept walking.

  He had no idea where they were ultimately going, but he knew now that part of his life that was his family and friends and job was done.

  They walked on, not talking, their footsteps silent on the gravel.

  FOURTEEN

  JEWEL DIDN’T KNOW what to say to Tommy after they passed his father. So she just walked with him, hand-in-hand toward town, letting him stay in his own thoughts.

  He needed to know she was there if he wanted to talk, even though they really didn’t know each other very well. She did understand family. And right now, even though he was the one that was dead, it felt like he was losing them instead.

  This all was flipping strange, of that there was no doubt.

  She knew one thing for sure. She loved being with him and was growing to care for him more and more with every second.

  When they finally reached the big church on the edge of the small town, she looked at it and felt nothing.

  “You’d think we’d want to go in there,” she said, breaking their silence and indicating the church.

  “Not much of a believer,” he said, shrugging.

  “Yeah, me either,” she said. “And all this that is happening to us is making me wonder even more.”

  “Yeah, this kind of stuff would do that to anyone,” he said, shaking his head.

  They walked up past the now closed bars and toward her office, their steps almost matching, which was unusual for her. Her longer legs and height usually meant she walked faster than anyone around her.

  She liked that he matched her step-for-step and it felt comfortable.

  Nothing seemed out of place or different in the small town, which sort of surprised her, for some reason. There were a few people out and about, but not many, even though it was after ten in the morning now.

  Shouldn’t they all be in the streets upset at her and Tommy’s death?

  She knew that was silly, but dying seemed important to her.

  “Going to miss that little place?” he asked, indicating her office
ahead.

  “Wasn’t here long enough to grow fond of it,” she said. She honestly didn’t feel even the slightest need to go inside. There was nothing in there for her or that she needed.

  Ahead of them, a man sat against the wall of Bernie’s General Store on a part of the pavement that had stayed dry in the night’s rain. The guy had put a newspaper under him.

  Jewel didn’t recognize him, but that didn’t surprise her from her little time in town. The guy had on a dark suit and light shirt, with a fashionable tie of some sort. He had matching patent leather shoes. She hadn’t seen shoes like that since she watched part of an old golf tournament from 1970.

  The guy sitting on the sidewalk was way, way underdressed for being in Buffalo Jump, Montana, in this cold.

  He was looking down at the sidewalk, his blonde hair perfectly styled and in place. Jewel had no idea what he was doing sitting out here. The day would warm up to maybe fifty eventually, but it was far from that at the moment.

  As they approached, staying to the outside of the sidewalk to go around him, he glanced up and then smiled, clearly happy to see them.

  “Hey, Doc, Deputy. I was hoping you two would be show up before I froze my tush off.”

  The guy pushed himself to his feet, smiling as Jewel and Tommy just stopped in their tracks, stunned. She couldn’t believe he had talked to them.

  The guy brushed off his suit, making sure it was in perfect condition. Who wore dark suits and patent leather shoes in Montana?

  “You can see us?” Tommy asked a half second before Jewel could get the same words out of her mouth.

  The guy laughed. “Of course I can. I’m a ghost like you two. He extended his hand. “I’m K. J. Moore, originally of Los Angeles, now of San Francisco.”

  Tommy shook his hand, looking stunned and Jewel did next, noting the guy had a weak, but firm grip, as if she was shaking another woman’s hand.

  K.J. looked to be about their age, not more than thirty, that was for sure, and was fairly short, maybe five-three, if that. His eyes were dark brown and his smile seemed genuine.

  “So are you from here?” she asked as she let go of his hand. “You die around here?”

  He glanced at the small town of Buffalo Jump and then shook his head. “Not a chance,” he said. “This is really the back-end of nowhere here. I died in Los Angeles in 1951. Too ugly to talk about, but since you asked, I was caught by the wrong people kissing another man.” He waved away the idea and said, “Ancient history.”

  She opened her mouth, then shut it because she honestly had nothing to say. This ghost had said he died sixty-five years before.

  “Tell me,” K.J. said, looking around, “where do the buffalo jump around here? Never seen anything like that.”

  “That’s just a name from history,” Jewel said. “At least I think it is?” She turned to Tommy. “Do buffalo jump around here.”

  Tommy just shook his head and focused on K.J. “So what are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you two, of course,” K.J. said, again smiling as he pulled back on his glove. “My job to brief you and get you started.”

  “Brief us on what?” Tommy asked.

  “Oh, why you are ghosts and not headed on to the next world,” he said. “But can we go someplace warmer? I’m not used to this kind of cold. Not like this in San Francisco, let me tell you. This is just brutal.”

  “We’re headed to my rental place,” she said, pointing ahead down the highway past the mini-mart. “That’s about a half mile walk.”

  K.J. frowned. “Too far for me in this cold and that gravel road might just ruin my ankles. How about your office, Doc? It’s warm? Right?”

  “It should be,” she said, nodding, feeling stunned that she was talking with this man. She wasn’t sure why she was stunned, but she felt stunned.

  She glanced at Tommy and he was looking just puzzled and a little amused.

  “Great,” K.J. said, turning and heading toward her office. He walked through the closed front door without seeming to give it a second thought.

  Jewel looked at Tommy and laughed.

  “Maybe we can get some answers, now,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Wouldn’t that be nice,” she said, still laughing.

  With that, she moved toward her office door, closed her eyes, and went through the door.

  Tommy was right behind her.

  FIFTEEN

  K.J. WAS STANDING inside and as they came through the door he smiled at them. “Going to need to learn how to walk through doors with your eyes open. Never really know what’s on the other side.”

  “We will,” Tommy said, looking around at Jewel’s small office. “We haven’t been dead that long, remember?”

  “Ah, that’s true,” K.J. said.

  They were in a waiting room with five wooden chairs, a coat tree, and some old magazines on scarred wooden end tables. Tommy was surprised that the room was smaller than a normal bedroom, smaller than he remembered, but at least it was warm.

  He had been in here only once before to bring a sick woman, but that was a year before Jewel had arrived and two doctors before her. The place didn’t look any different from the previous doctors, so clearly Jewel hadn’t settled in enough to put her touches on the office.

  “My office is bigger and likely warmer,” Jewel said, leading the way through an open side door and into a larger room with a large wooden desk dominating one side. There was an old metal gooseneck lamp on the desk, a clipboard, and a penholder. Nothing else but a calendar blotter on the big desktop.

  “You really hadn’t moved in, had you?” Tommy asked.

  “Didn’t seem much point in changing anything during the winter,” Jewel said, shrugging off her coat and hanging it on a coat tree, even though it was a ghost coat.

  Three chairs faced the desk, so she went around and sat behind her desk, rolling up the sleeves of the big red and brown flannel shirt of Tommy’s that she was wearing. She looked great in that shirt as far as he was concerned. She looked better without any clothes, but he hoped that would come later.

  Tommy sat in one chair facing her.

  K.J. sat in the other chair, looking very official in his business suit.

  “How long had you been out there waiting for us?” Jewel asked before Tommy could think of a first question out of the hundreds he had.

  “An hour, but a long cold hour,” K.J. said. “Not sure I could get used to this kind of cold ever.”

  “It gets worse,” Tommy said. “This is spring.”

  K.J. just shook his head and made a production out of shivering.

  “So start from the beginning and tell us what all this is about,” Tommy said, turning slightly in the chair so he could see K.J.’s face better.

  The guy clearly was from a different climate and world. His skin was smooth and his nails polished red, which Tommy hadn’t seen on a man in this part of the world. He was short and frail and sat in the wooden chair across from Jewel like a kid in a principal’s office, his posture perfect, his smile bright.

  “You died in that horrid wreck,” K.J. said.

  “We know that,” Jewel said.

  “Did you cause the wreck?” Tommy asked and saw Jewel sort of jerk back at the idea.

  K.J. just shook his head and covered his mouth in fake horror as if appalled at the idea. “Oh, my, no. Everyone has a time and you both had run smack into your time, no big tree pun intended.”

  Jewel didn’t smile at the bad attempt at humor. Tommy nodded that K.J. should just continue.

  “But since your time had come, and you were together, my bosses decided you both, as a team, would be good candidates to join our ranks.”

  Tommy felt stunned.

  “What ranks? What team? What bosses?” Jewel asked.

  K.J. held up his hand, smiling. “You wanted me to start from the beginning, so let me start.”

  She nodded, and Tommy made himself take a deep breath.

  “For longer than any of u
s can imagine,” K.J. said, “there has been an organization called A Ghost of a Chance. Ghost for short.”

  Jewel started to say something, but K.J. held up his hand for her to stop and she did.

  “Ghost is an offshoot of a much larger universe you will come to understand in time,” K.J. said. “But our official mandate is to help set things right that are going to go wrong. We fight for a future that is peaceful. I understand that before I got here this morning, you already stopped a serial killer from killing again.”

  “We did,” Tommy said, stunned that he knew.

  “That’s the kind of thing we do, and much more.”

  Tommy liked the sound of that, but asked his first question instead of making a comment. “So does everyone that dies become part of your organization?”

  K.J. laughed really hard at that and his laugh sounded more like a young girl’s laugh than a man’s laugh. Tommy and Jewel watched him laugh for a moment until he finally gathered himself enough to answer.

  “Oh, my, no,” he said, trying to catch his breath because to him something seemed very funny. “My bosses only recruit who they think are the best candidates. The rest catch the white tunnel express and move on, thankfully. We wouldn’t want them all hanging around, now would we?”

  “You know what’s on the other side of that white tunnel?” Jewel asked.

  Tommy was about to ask that same question exactly.

  K.J. shook his head. “Not a clue. It’s a pretty closely guarded secret by everyone who does know. The standard answer everyone gets when they ask is that you’ll know when you take the white tunnel yourself.”

  “So how long are we going to be in this ghost state?” Tommy asked.

  “As long as you want to keep working for Ghost,” he said. “There are agents I know who have been here since the time of Atlantis and before. It’s a pretty darned good job, to be honest. Rewarding when you get to help someone. No real expenses, no costs, great sex. So, not a lot of us want to move on.”

  Tommy rocked back, not even knowing what to ask next. And the entire Atlantis reference just had him confused.