Page 26 of Fruitbat

“I’m a medium. —I’ve seen spirits all my life. I didn’t realize you didn't know, at first.“ His eyes drop to the floor. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

I search the ceiling for clarity as my mind twists in a tornado of confused emotion.

“You’re the first to ever be . . .’’ Danny pauses, his forehead wrinkling, “this present? I’m not sure how to explain it.”

“Danny, I don’t . . .”

“I know.”

His touch tingles my skin again. “How?” I wave my hands over his, lying on my thigh.

“I figured banging my head has jarred something? I don’t know?”

“You’re alive?” My heart sinks. “But I’m a ghost?”

Danny nods with sadness in his eyes.

“Do I just exist like this now?”

18

Danny

5:38 am

I shrug, unsure what to tell him. I can’t explain what’s happening myself. Spirits wander into my life all the time. I’m a lightning rod to their energy, but it’s never been like this. I’ve seen and spoken to them since I was a toddler. My mom did, and so did hers. Banging my head, has to have something to do with this broadened new clarity?

He’s as tactile as I am. I’ve never touched a spirit before, I assumed I couldn’t, but maybe it’s been part of my gift all along? They don’t all appear this vivid, but he’s definitely the most vivid ever.

Si rises off the bed and stands in the center of the floor, holding his head in both hands. The moonlight shimmers off his naked back but there’s no shadow cast on the wall behind him. Have I just been imagining his physical tangibility?

The sky is turning slate blue over the horizon, I’ll need to report back to work before shift change.

Fuck, that damn TV.

I knew he would realize sooner than later . . . I should have been the one to tell him. I’ve dropped that bomb on lingering souls dozens of times, but he felt different. He’s familiar in this beautifully mystical way.

“Si?” I approach with caution.

He turns back with watery eyes.

I wrap myself around him. His voltage surges through me and I can feel every ounce of his despair in my cells. The world is spinning and I don’t know how to stop it.

He melts into my arms. “Why am I only meeting you now?”

I wondered the same thing.

“What a shitty way to die.” He snorts, “John Doe?”

I peel back and swipe his glossy cheeks with my thumbs.

He stares into me with his bright apatite eyes and his pensive smile turns down.

“What happens to me now?”

“I don’t know.”

The spirits usually just leave and I never see them again.He can’t leave.

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