Strange Perceptions Read Free Page B

you can’t think about anything except the noise.”
    “Freaky.”
    “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go back to when the pizza got here so we can plan out what to do.” He closed his eyes and disappeared.
    I closed my eyes, thought of the pizza arriving, felt a quick whoosh in my head, opened my eyes and was in the same room but earlier. Jeremy was already there. Live us opened the pizza box. Rover the Cat watched them open it.
    “How come,” I said, “we don’t see our ghost selves back here. We were here earlier.”
    “Doesn’t work like that, kid.” I turned, Marty stood right behind me.
    Marty nodded at Jeremy. “Percival.”
    “Yo dude,” Jeremy said. “Call me Jeremy.”
    “Percival,” Marty said, emphasizing the word. “Why don’t you run along. I need to have a chat with our friend here.”
    “Who died and left you king?” Jeremy asked.
    Marty’s teeth clenched tight on his cigar. “You did.” He smacked Jeremy in the chest with an open palm, like he had with me earlier, and Jeremy disappeared.
    Marty shook his head. “That guy is trouble, Reo. You ought to steer clear of him.”
    “Naw,” I said. “Jeremy’s a good guy. Just rebels against authority.”
    Marty snorted. “You could say that. I talked to Welton, that’s Percival’s transition liaison. He says Percival’s got a bad attitude. Can’t get him to do anything.”
    I didn’t know what to say. Jeremy played by his own rules.
    “Okay kid, I got to make this quick. What’s your purpose? That’s your big question now. Am I right?”
    “Well?”
    “Good. So here it is. You don’t have a purpose. You’re dead. Good one, huh?” He laughed.
    Seemed to me Marty wasn’t much help. “I have a question.”
    “Shoot.”
    “I have a friend. Who’s alive and?”
    “Oh no kid. You aren’t friends with the living. That’s a no-no.”
    “Something bad is going to happen to her. This other guy, also alive, is going to hurt her.”
    “Doesn’t matter. You don’t interfere with the living. It’s against the rules. Right now, you should consider this a big vacation and go back and relive the high points of your life.”
    “But?”
    “No buts, kid. Nothing good ever comes when you get involved with the living. Trust me on this.”
    “How can you interfere with the living? I mean they can’t hear me, they don’t see me. I can’t touch them. I can’t even touch myself.”
    “You can’t interfere. No sense trying,” Marty said.
    I didn’t believe him. If ghosts couldn’t interfere with the living then why did there need to be a rule against it?
    Marty studied my face, brow wrinkled. He started to say something, but then didn’t. Finally, he spoke. “I gotta run, kid. Don’t mess with the living.” He disappeared.
    Music from the Romones, “Blitzkrieg Bop,” filled the room again.
    I looked at live me and live Jeremy scrolling through music on the iPod and something occurred to me. I remembered having a small chill in this room when I was alive. Small enough it didn’t register consciously. I reached out and touched my live shoulder, my fingers sank in, disappearing. I jerked my hand back. Live me’s shoulder twitched.
    When alive, did ghost me from the future cause the twitch and chill just then? Or had I touched my live body’s shoulder at that precise moment because I knew the chill was going to happen? I didn’t know what to think.
    Jeremy appeared. “Is Osh-Gosh gone?”
    “Marty?”
    “Yeah, what’s up with his overalls? Sheesh.”
    “He just left.”
    “The dude is a major tool. Not as bad as the guy they saddled me with though. My guy was like Elton John on training wheels.”
    Sometimes Jeremy said bizarre things nobody but him understood.
    “Any ideas on Ivy?” I asked.
    “Yeah. Here’s the deal. It’s going to be tough. You’ll have to do most the work. It was hard enough for me sticking around at the hospital, waiting for you. There’s no way I’ll be able to do what needs to be