Ghost Rising

I remember hearing the distinct resonance of what sounded like a thousand bees buzzing outside my door. Curiosity, when awakened at the wrong time, with no forethought for what may be the outcome of an action, can be a terrible thing. My casual inquisitiveness, which left me wondering what the oddly disturbing noise could possibly be, was to become my unfortunate undoing.

Upon opening my front door, I beheld a medium sized brown cardboard box resting atop my black and gold welcome mat. Strange, I thought, for I had no recollection of having ordered any commodity which required delivery to my front doorsteps. I looked around in great earnest up the street and down, but saw not a soul within close proximity to my home. Peering up at the sky as a last resort however, I saw what appeared to be the shape of a man-made drone streaking across the sky. The distinct black and grey object glistened like silver specks being kissed my the sunlight, as it lifted itself higher and higher into the iridescent blue sky. I took a closer look at the markings on the neat somewhat suspicious box and saw my name and address:

Novella Bonzye

1867B Blythe Greens

Concordia Land, Upper Concordia

66666

Everything about this box screamed mystery, with maybe a little hint of danger playfully intertwined. I was intrigued. What I should have been in hindsight, was completely and utterly terrified.

There was no return address, no postmark. Just a clean, spotless brown box with my name on it.

Curiosity had, by then, taken an awful hold on my mind, I had to know what the object contained. Was it from my work partners, a surprise gift for all of my hard work. Or better yet, from a secret paramour, for I deeply desired that it be from someone who could stir some fire somewhere deep inside my cold frozen heart. I lived alone, and I was tired of being lonely, all the eligible suitors had held no interest for me. Had my brain not been in a fog, and my senses in turmoil, I would have given my decision to open the infernal box a moment of sane, intelligent and critical thought. Nevertheless, I picked it up, while taking another furtive glance in all directions, closed my door hurriedly, and placed the box upon the living room table.

My half full glass of wine was sitting next to the package, bringing it up to my lips absently, I took a sip and gingerly placed it back down. I stood frowning at the box for a while, looked around at my sparsely furnished, droll apartment, and decided then to allow my desire for something, anything, to spring to action and salve my accursed feeling of ennui. I retrieved my box cutter from the rather pricey ceramic hand-crafted decorative dish garishly displayed on the sideboard, sliced the tape from the middle of the innocent looking box, and proceeded to pry it open.

That is when I heard the ping of an unseen cellphone........ Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Then came a loud noise as if from the bowels of hell, and I felt myself flying, I was alive, but not alive, my limbs were no longer attached to my body, my eyes felt like a million pins and needles were being shot through their lens, fire consumed my inner being. I tried to scream, but I was no longer capable of sound, clutching futilely at the air, I tried to save myself, I was, by this time, inescapably beyond mortal help.

Death had me bound, inexorably, without any recourse of any miracle or of an escape.....................Only I did not then realize it within that moment.

I stood still within the swirling dust, amidst the broken things, broken self, wanton waste, distorted mirrors and eerily jagged walls. Electricity sparked like fireworks spawned in hell for the devil's delight, and everything seemed hanging at weird angles against gravity. After the dust had receded, and I was able to discern actual objects, I saw myself, or what looked like myself, stuck somehow in midair, my body positioned as if I had somehow been shot out of a canon and was flying backwards, arms extended, reaching for something tangible, something to grasp and cling to for comfort and support. The look of horror and unadulterated terror upon my face filled me with a hopeless sense of doom and dread. I looked down at myself standing there, reached down my hands to smooth my attire, reached up my hands to touch my face. I was somehow ephemeral, fading in and out, ghostly and unreal.

As if from far away, I heard the distant sounds of voices, disembodied and filled with concern. Through the gaping holes in the wall I saw them, people converging on the site of mayhem and murder. Police sirens could be heard approaching in the distance. I was unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say, will they be questioning me.

I am here, but I am also there!

The men in uniform came in. They were not looking at me, instead they stared in horror at the other me, can they not see ME? I walked over to let them know what has happened.

"Officer, officer". I repeated. Nothing. I reached out to touch his hand, tentatively, so as not to alarm him. Still nothing. That is when he turned and walked right through me.

Terror gripped my entire body and squeezed with all it's might. I could no longer breathe!

I AM DEAD! I know it now for sure. But why, who would do this horrible thing. Surely I must find out the truth. But how. I must find a way to get the answers somehow, I must not fade away.

Who am I?

My name, as mentioned earlier is Novella Bonzye, mid fortyish, love the outdoors and will work for as long as it takes to finish a puzzle or solve a riddle or mystery. So, you see, I will not rest until I have solved this final mystery and go to my final repose.

We should all stop dreaming of ways to make our nosy neighbors move away or disappear. I know I prayed hard to get rid of mine. Yet, those prying eyes are the heaven-sent reason for the clue that started my journey into solving the nightmare that was the reason for my demise. Without closure, how could I be prepared for entering the portal to my final rest in the time beyond time.

Minnefer had been sitting by her window, one gets so used to her being there that she had become a fixture, an ornament of decoration always silently watching the world go by her window. She was not really that old, just lonely I guess. Maybe I should have ben kinder to her, not be so wrapped up in myself, filled with such a selfish desire to succeed that I never looked closer at those who needed just a little bit of kindness. We would all wave to her, though she never waved back. She had seen the drone, also some letters and numbers on the underbelly, the woman had a keen eye and observed everything. Thank the stars for that. In my now intangible form, I was able to go anywhere, see anything and listen in to the cops interrogating and questioning everyone. Most people saw and heard nothing until the actual explosion.

The mechanical contraption, after delivering its evil payload, had long disappeared from the sky.

The letters and numbers that Minnefer had seen made no sense. I worked at the very high-end Interior Decoration firm of Dekker, Bonzye and Grift, we catered only to the rich and famous, government offices and celebrities. I was not the most popular among the group of two men and a lone female. My voice tended to be overshadowed by these two men so I had to work twice as hard to stand and make my voice heard. But I had discovered their dirty little secret. Maybe they had discovered my plans to expose their evil, or maybe in the malevolence of their hearts they wanted more riches and power. I was the one who started the firm, I had no intention of allowing them to wrestle control from me any more than they had already schemed and stolen. Had not my tireless, sacrificed youthful years precluded me from having to start all over again. They had made deals with devils, and they must be stopped.

The neighbor saw the DBG-427, numbers matching our alphabetical placing, an inside joke for identifying our unique trademark. It would not have mattered if I saw the symbol, I would soon after be dead. No one would know what I had seen. BUT they had grossly underestimated the willpower of a wronged soul in the thereafter. My will was strong and I would not rest until the little world of DBG-427 was completely and utterly destroyed.

Being a ghost in real, rather unreal life, is not like seen in the movies. I tried for a while to move through time, move through walls and zap myself to where I desired to be. Maybe that will happen eventually, but I did not have that sort of time to wait and practice. The authorities were no longer of any help to me, I was on my own. I tried walking, I lived in the uptown suburbs of Concordia, the offices were downtown in the business district. Maybe I could float, that did not work either.

By the way, there are many ghosts living among you humans. I have met quite a few within the one day that I tried to function on my own in the world of the dead. They eventually advised me to just wait until an Uber or limo mentioned going downtown, then just hop in for the ride. It was unlikely that anyone with a private vehicle would be shouting about where they were heading. I took the advice and stood waiting for a while. Manyy cars came and went. Night came with a vengeance, rain pelleted the streets and sent everyone scurrying indoors.

A large SUV pulled up and four children tore out of their house and noisily piled in.

"How long will it take to get downtown mom"? Asked a dark-haired boy.

I quickly ran over.

"Never you mind that, just buckle up, and stop annoying your brother". The mother replied.

"Ugh, kids. I was never fond of them". I said aloud

"Who said that". Asked the father. The kids all shrugged.

I climbed into the middle between the two youngest, and the little girl turned to look enquiringly at me.

"Mommy, mommy, there is a lady sitting beside me". She said, picking at her nose.

"Dhara is fibbing again, I don't see any lady". Said her brother.

"Be quiet now children, I have to concentrate". The father said, ignoring the child's statement. The three older children became lost in phones and games while the smallest one kept staring silently at me. I stared straight ahead, dying (excuse the pun) to finally get to our destination. It took forever, but we arrived at the theatre where they were apparently headed. I waited for the parents to retrieve the younger children. My patience wore thin, and I tried to step over the boy. My hand went through the seat in front of me. Cautiously I tried the other hand, I eased my entire body through the child, who said "yuck", no one noticed. I got through the door and out of the car. Apparently, I can now walk right through walls, it only takes a small amount of effort on my part.

The theatre was not far from the office, I hurriedly walked the few blocks and entered the building. Bill, the security guard was on duty in the lobby. The building housed many different businesses, some were 24 hours access. I was no longer a concern to him, so I proceeded to the elevator and waited for someone to enter. No one did. Jada who worked night shift in the computer lab decided to go to the bathroom. I followed her. Maybe I could inhabit her body, I needed to access the computer in our offices anyway.

She was standing in front of the mirror and I simply walked up and stepped into her body. It tickled a bit, and felt like invasion of a foreign object.

"What the hell"? Jada shouted, about to scream. Instead the words "Be quiet please"! Was what came out, before she had the chance. I stepped back out, calmed her down, we had always got along and I decided to tell her the whole story, and ask for her help.

"What is happening, my God, help me". She squeaked.

One of Jada's favorite movies is Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg's role of ghostly vessel.

"It is me, Novella, don't be afraid"!

"What, where are you"? She moved to the stalls and looked under a few.

"Listen, Jada. Today someone sent a bomb to my home, it exploded, and I died. I am standing by your right side now". She flailed her arms, trying to touch me. I explained what I wanted from her.

"You mean you want to Whoopi me, and take over my body"?

"Yes, it would be much faster for me to work on the computer, seeing as I am invisible to all, except snot nosed little girls"? I mused

Jada stood for a moment in thought, trying to process speaking to a real-life ghost.

"So you died today, and you want to use my body to access the computer files"?

"Yes. I am sorry to ask this of you, but I have no choice".

"Well, I have always wanted a possession, girl let's do it. I am on a break, so we have maybe forty or so minutes. This better not be creepy".

I shot right in, without waiting for her to change her mind. "Damn, you could have warned me, this feels wrong in so many ways".

I turned to go out the door, we had to stop a minute to co-ordinate our steps. We headed to the elevator and found our floor. Hurrying to the office, I entered the code and went to my computer terminal. Jada was really quiet, I guess it was taking her a while to assimilate the weirdness of what was happening.

My hands flew across the keyboard. I found that all the files that were obvious had been erased. But I had been the tech savvy one. Those two had no idea what to look for, and had overlooked the hidden files with the damning information. I uploaded the information to my friend Vashti who worked for the FBI. I wondered if she already knew that I was dead.

I wrote two notes which each read "Even in death I still got you. N". They were taped unto each door. It would be the first clue that it was all over. The only thing left was to erase any sign that Jada had entered the office. For that we would have to get Bill away from his desk. We sent him on a wild goose chase, and I quickly accessed and erased the images of her going to the upper floor.

Back in her office I separated from her body, for which she was relieved.

"I never want to do that again. But, I'm glad that I could help. It is strange but I can now see you, maybe because you were a part of me. I am so sorry for what they did to you. At least now they will be punished. Did they really do all that bad stuff"?

"Yes, they were working with some powerful people, a lot of people will be going down for this, they ruined a lot of lives, even eliminated people and stole their businesses in the name of profit, both here and abroad, there is a lot more, but the authorities will unearth it as they dig deeper, I don't want you caught up in this".

I stayed with Jada until morning. She stayed with me until the authorities came, they came in droves, the offices were turned inside out. Tom and Jeff were brought out humiliated in handcuffs. I saw Vashti, and was glad that she had been the one to expose the farce of a private club of corrupt men.

I could finally rest now.

A bright road was lit in front of me. The path was clear, birds sang and animals, foxes, lions, horses and rabbits stood waiting for me. I hugged Jada, suddenly I could touch her, for just a brief moment I was whole again, then it passed.

"Thank you my friend. I will rest peacefully now". I turned and stepped into the light. Peace and comfort enveloped me. The sleek white horse bowed her neck inviting me to mount upon her back.

I floated, of course, now I can float, I did so effortlessly, and sat upon the horse's back. I do so love horses, maybe that is why I was greeted by one.

It is done. I am at peace. Now, we ride.

N.A.