Page 11 of All Your Tomorrows

Sympathy returned to Sue’s eyes. “She hasn’t been in a good place since the accident as I’m sure you can imagine.”

I nodded.

“If you come back around ten on Monday, Mr. Fletcher will be at work and Mrs. Fletcher will be at her weekly therapist appointment.” She smiled as if we shared a secret.

“How about Melanie?”

“She’ll be in class. I reckon she wouldn’t appreciate a pretty girl like yourself sitting with her boyfriend.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

“See you then,” she said before making her way inside the house.

I turned to Kyler, but he’d disappeared. I spun around, looking for him by my car, but he wasn’t

there. I looked down the street first to the right and then left, but he wasn’t there. Had he disappeared for good? Had he learned what he needed to learn from me? I’d never seen the spirit of someone who was still alive. Did my ability to see him mean that there was really no hope left for him?

I walked down the driveway toward my car. I opened my door and was about to slip into my seat when I spotted him standing stark still on the side of the house staring into a first-floor window. “Kyler,” I whisper-yelled.

He didn’t budge.

Now that he was able to get close to his home, he probably didn’t want to leave. But could I really leave him there? I sighed and closed my door. I walked along the sidewalk until I reached the far end of their property, then cut a sharp right and speed-walked to Kyler hoping no one saw me. Mrs. Fletcher was definitely going to call the police if she spotted me there. “Hey,” I said as I stepped up beside him.

He didn’t say a word, just stared into the window. The blinds had been raised so there was an unobstructed view of the room inside. There was a hospital bed in the center of the room with Kyler in it, attached to a ventilator, tubes, an IV, and other machines. An empty chair sat beside his bed.

“Oh,” I said, just as shocked to be seeing him that way as he was.

“This is why I’m still here,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said, though he may not have been asking.

“Do you think it means I’m really dead and they just don’t know it?” he asked.

“That machine right there, the one showing your heart rate, means part of you is still alive.”

“Then why am I hereandthere?”

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe I need to enter my body. Isn’t that how it’s done in the movies?” He reached out his hand and placed it against the window. The glass stopped it. “Fuuuuuck. What do I do now? Just hang out here until I die?”

My eyes shot around. A neighbor climbed on a ladder hanging Christmas lights two houses down. It was just a matter of time before he became suspicious of me staring into the Fletchers’ window. “I need to go before someone sees me,” I said to Kyler. “You stay.”

He turned to me and wrapped his arms around me. I stilled, surprised by the gestureandthe feel of him holding me so closely. His arms were safe and strong—and not really real. But, if I was being honest, they were the most real thing I’d felt from a guy in a long time.

“Thank you, Nora. I never would’ve known if you didn’t bring me here.” He released me and stepped back, burying his hands in his pockets.

“I’ll be back on Monday. If you’re unable to get in between now and then, hopefully, you’ll be able to get inside with me.”

He nodded.

“I’ll see ya then,” I said before turning and heading toward my car. With each step, a pit grew in my stomach. I’d never helped someone like this. I’d relayed messages, but I’d never been so involved—so invested—in their life.

And, never before had a spirit been alive.

CHAPTER 4

“I can’t believe it.”

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