CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
"I can feel them touch me," Angus told Betty. "Does that mean I'm healing?"
"Maybe, but it could also mean you're getting used to focusing on things differently. You're feeling both your spirit and your physical being. Either way, it's a good sign. I think in a day or two, I'm going to try and let go of you. See if you stay with your physical body."
Fear flowed through Angus. "You can't. What if it doesn't work?"
"Then I'll grab hold of you again. We'll know instantly if you try and leave your body. If your cord starts to break again, I'll just grab it and hold it together like I did before. Can you hear them talk?"
"Faintly. Not well enough to follow a conversation. I can identify some voices. Like I know that was Franks. Lance is always around. I bet he's refusing to leave me."
Betty laughed. "You're right. He hasn't left the hospital since you got here. You've heard your mom and dad?"
"Yeah, Mom more than Dad, but that's not a surprise. Mom's got to be freaking out wondering where you are."
"She'll understand as soon as I can release you. I'll explain everything to her. She'll forgive me."
"Of course, she will. You saved my life.
" Angus stared at Betty. It had taken time for him to learn how to use his spiritual eyes to see her, but now that he could, he was amazed by her.
She held a human form for him to see, but sometimes she'd forget and fade into a ball of energy with swirling colors he assumed were like an aura.
He wondered what his own energy ball looked like but felt foolish asking.
"Do you know how much time has gone by?"
"No, time is hard to figure out in the spirit world. We don't look at time the way you do in human form. When we're around you, we have to pay attention to clocks, or we lose track of time all together. We'd forget it even existed if we didn't keep in contact with the living."
"Isn't that the wrong way to say things? I mean, you're still living, just in a different form. Lance and Mom say they talk to the dead, but you're not really dead, just changed into another form." This whole experience had him thinking about things he'd never thought about before.
"That is true. There is no real death. At least none that I know of.
I don't know what comes next. Once I cross into the light I guess I'll learn more, but it's only the human body that dies.
Not the person who was inside that body.
I wish more people knew that. Maybe then they wouldn't take death as hard as some do. " Betty started to hum a tune.
"I'm going to miss your singing when I wake up," Angus admitted.
"I'll still be humming and singing even if you can't hear it. Used to sing you to sleep at night. I always imagined you could sense me there in some way."
"I don't know. There were times when I was sick, I was sure you were with me, but other times I didn't think you were around when you probably were. I was scared to death when Jared and I smoked a cigarette in my room. Thought for sure you'd go tell Mom."
Betty laughed. "Wouldn't have gotten you in trouble for that.
Your Mom and Dad were probably smoking a joint in their room at the same time.
I tried to give you your privacy. Your mom would ask me to spy on you, but I never felt it was right.
A boy needs his privacy. I told your mother that just because she had the advantage of having a ghost in the house didn't mean I was willing to be her spy.
She had to raise you just like any other parent did, without my help.
Not saying I never spied on you, but most of the time I resisted unless I thought you were really up to no good. "
"I was never up to no good." Angus laughed.
"Not as much as some boys, but you were far from innocent."
"There's a part of me that doesn't want to wake up and lose you," Angus admitted.
"Oh, my boy, I'll still be with you. Just because you can't see or hear me doesn't mean I'm gone. Lance will always speak for me. I hate this happened to you, but I do admit I've enjoyed being able to talk directly to you." She started to hum again.
Angus listened, relaxing to the sound, and trying to cement the memory of the tune in his mind so he could remember it once he woke.
He was a lucky man to have Betty in his life, and even though he'd known it long before his injury, he now understood just how special she was.
Without her, he would have died. He owed her his life, but in saving him, he'd lose her again until death really did come for him, hopefully many years from now.