Young Writers Society

It had been awhile since Fan had been in ‘Souls-Are-Us’, to the point of where he could never remember the proper name. Even if he had, it was always funnier to call it other things and watch Lily get flustered with him.

Souls-Are-Us was a kind of sleazy place.

Everyone recognized it as being such. No one really ever felt like admitting that it was true, either out of not caring about the issue or really caring about their own life.

Lily went off to whatever part of the store, knowing exactly what kind of soul she wanted to buy. Before she left, she had commented to him, “I might as well do the BOGO offer, never know when you’re going to need another soul.”

Fan was left alone to wander and meander throughout the store, and glancing through his copy of the flyer, found that they really did have cheese puffs on sale. Making sure that he had not left his wallet in the car, Fan then set off to purchase some cheese puffs, knowing that his love for the snack item would thankfully never ruin his figure.

He walked down one of the aisles, noting that the stock boy had a nice butt and then thought of Peter, and sighed about things. At least the cheese puffs were on sale. He collected up a few bags and then waited around near the cash registers for Lily.

Soon she turned up with a few glass boxes, which got passed to Fan as she looked for her rewards card. Their cashier wore a small name tag that said, “Brigid K.” Fan thought about the name for a second but was interrupted when Lily had already sparked up a conversation.

“How’re you enjoying your retirement in sunny Florida?”

“It’s certainly a different climate and this is rather different from my last job, you know, the one at that nursery.”

“I don’t know how you could stand working with children for so long.”

Fan stepped away from their conversation, tuning it out as he looked through a wall of keychains. Some were just pink with little doves and others were black with crude sayings that he didn’t even want to think about. He was pulled back into the conversation by the mention of cheese puffs.

“Is there a reason you’re in need of 15 bags of cheese puffs, dearie?”

“They’re his.”

Lily leaned in with a slight whisper and added, “He has a slight addiction but I’ve never been able to get him off it.”

The cashier sighed, shook her head.

“I’ve known quite a few who were the same way, but their problems usually drove them to death.”

Fan glanced at his watch a couple more times while the ladies continued, hoping Lily would notice him.

“Um Lily, I hate to interrupt your socializing, but we only have 5 more minutes.”

“Oh of course. How much was the total?”

“Souls are free on reaper status so the 15 bags of cheese puffs come out to 8 dollars and 3 cents.”

Fan wanted to bicker and say that the price should be $8.02 but a glare from Lily convinced him just to cough up the extra penny.

As they walked out to the car he questioned, “Who was she?”

“An old friend, from my old life.”

“The one where you were a nun?”

“No, the one where I was a priest. Yes, the one where I was a nun. God almighty, I should take away your cheese puffs just for that level of stupidity.”

“I didn’t know. And if your goddamn cat ruined the upholstery in my car, someone is gonna have to pay.”

“Felix wouldn’t do anything.”

“How have you already named him?”

Before she could give an answer, Fan had set off again and was now trying to make the trip in even faster time, hoping that if Frank remained in the back row, perhaps they would have a few extra minutes to spare.

The carriage slowed down and lily jumped out before it ever stopped, taking the glass case and running into the back of the church. Knowing that she had the situation under control, he took the time to carefully tie up the horses, and broke out a new bag of the “Extra Cheesy Super Fantastic Cheese Puffs”.

Twenty minutes later, the front doors of the church swung open and banged against the railing. Thirty seconds later, there was a thud and a series of screams as Frank McMillan fell to the steps outside of the church, clutching his hand to his chest. There was a call for a doctor and for 911, but Fan knew by looking at the scene, that there was no way of saving Frank.

A spirit floated up from the body and went inside the church, passing through the room and collected bits of the shattered soul. When its job was complete, the form of Frank rested in front of Lily and Fan.

“Guess it’s time for me to go now.”

Lily was starting to write up her report and nudged Fan to make conversation.

“So, Frank, is that your partner out there?”

“Yeah, I know, give me the lecture on sins.”

“I don’t believe in all that. Must be breaking you up right now to leave.”

“It is but I get the whole, ‘It’s your timething.’ I worked for SCS for fifty years.”

“There’s another option. You can be a ghost if you wanted to.”

Lily glanced up from her notebook with the glare that clearly said no, but Fan gestured towards the rafters and the lack of ghosts around.

It was true, they had just done some spring cleaning and gotten rid of all the restless spirits that were causing issues in the church. The church was down to three spirits now, including Fan and Lily, which wasn’t enough for a proper haunting but it wasn’t like they were hoping for someone to die.

Frank’s body was still lying on the steps, at some point they had stopped trying to save him and now a heartbroken and tearful man looked over his body. It was always the loved ones that tempted people to stick around, thinking that if they could just stay around, maybe they could make it easier for the people left alone.

Frank decided to be one of those people.

“If I did stay, is there anything I should know beforehand?”

Now it was to Lily.

“You have to sign some legal documents and help with upkeep in certain places, but we do have a couple of positions open for peaceful spirits. We usually only get restless ones, so you’re an unusual case for us.”

Three legal documents later and the body had been moved off the steps, and the crowd was moving along. Father Alvarez came back inside the church and walked right by the four spirits lurking in the aisle.

“So, what now?”

“We don’t work again till 2 or 3 pm tomorrow, so Sunday is spent however Lily wants.”

Lily took another flower from the plant in the corner below the glass representation of Mary. Then she straightened her glasses and leather jacket and said to Fan, “Let’s go out to lunch someplace.”

They walked out together to the horse-drawn hearse, where Frank (like every other person who had just seen the ‘car’ for the first time), said “Holy crap, what’s that?” And then added, “A hearse. That’s pretty funny, ain’t it?”

This time they drove slowly, out of concern for Frank and the lack of time concerns. No one noticed the ghost carriage rolling down the road. This was the standard and this was just another Sunday.