Among the Living

Chapter Ten

I creep down stairs into the garage to see if there is any clues on how I died. Standing in the doorway, my eyes fall upon my guitar. I stand there staring at it for a while. Then, I start spacing out. That is when I have another ravishing memory. When I first got my guitar. It was Christmas morning of the year 2004. I was nine years old. I remember this day perfectly. It was the best day of my life. I was sitting in front of the Christmas tree. We open presents one at a time. Oldest to youngest. We were all down to our last gift. My father just got new tools. Next went my mother who got new pans. Colton was next after my mother since he is older than me by five minutes. He got a new weight lifting set. Then finally it was my turn. I tear off the wrapping paper slowly scared to know what I would get because knowing my parents or my father at least; they would get me a gift similar to Colton’s. “Go on honey tear it open!” my mother exclaimed with a mischievous look in her eyes. I obey her order and tear the paper off. To my surprise it wasn’t weights or anything similar to it. It was a guitar; a brand new guitar. The guitar was black and white. I pluck each string. My smile grows wider and wider. “Do you like it Alex?”

“Like it? I love it! This is the best present I have ever gotten!”

“Well I have one more present for you.”

“Really?”

“These might come in handy.” She hands me a package of multicolored guitar picks.

“Wow!”

“Oh and one more thing.”

“There’s more?” my father asks clearly disgusted

“Why does Alex get more presents than any of us?” Colton asks just as disgusted and a little hurt

“Hush Colton. And yes George if you don’t mind.” She shoots both of them a dirty look. “Starting this Tuesday you will be attending guitar lessons at the music store.”

“For real?” A huge smile appears on my face

“No for fake.” My mother says just then my smile disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared “I’m just kidding.”

A sigh escapes my lips. But my smile reappears. “At first I thought you weren’t joking. Now this has truly been the best Christmas ever!”

I blink a few times, and I’m still staring at my guitar. A smile comes across my face. This time a real smile.

***

I exit the garage by going through the side door. I make my way over to the new neighbors’ house. I carefully go up the stairs not making any sound. I hear piano music and I follow it. Behind the closed door where the piano music was coming from was not at all what I expected. Instead of seeing the hippie girl, I see the boy who dresses like a gangster-who is known as Jeff or Jeffrey-is bench pressing about 200 pounds to piano music. Piano music, seriously!? No one I know bench presses to piano music. Colton usually listens to rap when he works out. My friend-well my only friend- Jack Dawson he worked out to the Backstreet Boys or *N Sync. Maybe piano music helps him relax. Who knows? I back out of the room still in awe that someone works out to piano music. It’s unbelievable. I enter the next room over and finally see who I am looking for. Mattie. She was sleeping in a blue sleeping bag; head rested on a pink pillow her chestnut brown hair fanned out, her arm was over her head. I sit down and wrap my arms around my legs and stare at her. She resembled my first girlfriend that I had. She was palish and had chestnut brown hair. That’s where the resemblances stopped. That girl just used me to get to Colton. If they are still together, I wouldn’t know.

Finally she woke up. She blinked twice then looked at me clearly startled. “Who the hell are you? What the hell are you doing in my house?”

“Sorry. I’m Alexander Winter but you can call me Alex everyone does. I live next door.”

“I’m Mattie-”

“Wait!? You can see and hear me?”

“Gee thanks for interrupting; and yes I can.”

“Well you might not believe me when I say this but, I’m dead.”

“You don’t say. I can communicate and see the dead. I always have.”

“But how can you tell I am dead?”

“Uh, it's kinda hard to explain but you look more faded than people who are alive.”

“How come you can see and hear me but no one else can?”

“Have you read the Harry Potter series?”

“Yeah but what’s that got to do with it?”

“Well in Harry Potter you can only see the thestrals if you have seen death. That’s kind of like that with real life too. If you saw someone die then you can see and speak to the dead. I mean that’s what I believe anyway. I haven’t heard of anyone else being a medium so to be honest I’m not sure how that works.”

“That’s interesting. Wait today’s Friday aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“I start on Monday.”

“A little advice. Stay away from my brother his name is Colton. He will bully you if he gets the chance.”

“I don’t know who the f**k that is but okay.”

“Oh I almost forgot! Do you think you can help me with something?”

“Hm…Maybe. It depends. But I will try.”

“I have two questions that I don’t know the answer to.”

“Well…”

“Okay. Question one; how come I didn’t know I was dead? Question two; how did I die?”

“The first question is easy you didn’t know you were dead because you didn’t know that you died. Does that make sense?”

“No.”

“I don’t know how else to put it. You didn’t know that you died. Therefore, you didn’t even know that you were dead.”

“I sort of understand.”

“As for the second question I can’t really answer it because I wasn’t there and I don’t really know you.”

“Can you help me figure it out?”

“Sure. I guess I can help when I’m not busy with school work and stuff.”