Me & Death Read Online Free Page A

hurt. When he banged into the wall, my head hurt.
    Baby Jim lay in a heap on the dusty linoleum. Cassie ran downstairs with a smile like broken glass. She bent low over him.
    Now you don’t work, Jim!
she said.
You don’t work, and Mommy will throw you out, like the video when it didn’t work. Then there will only be me
.
    She did a dance, swinging her rake-handle body back and forth. Her long dark hair swished around her head.
Only me!
She sang.
Only me
.
    I tugged on Denise’s bare arm. “Why does Cassie hate Jim so much?”
    She shook her head.
    The lump was in my chest again, bigger than ever. “He – I – the baby liked her. He gave her hugs, and she …”
    Denise looked even sadder than usual. “Yes, I know.”
    Cassie kept dancing. It was hard to watch.
    “Why don’t I remember this?” I said. “Am I too young?”
    Denise and I floated downward. Dust motes jumped and swirled below us, golden in the late-afternoon light.
    “You do remember, Jim,” she said. “That’s why we’re here. If you didn’t remember it, it couldn’t haunt you.”
    She pointed to the baby, crying feebly. “See, you’re awake.”
    I heard a bumping sound at the front door. A key fumbling in the lock. Cassie heard it too. She broke off her dance and ran upstairs. When she reached me and Denise, she stopped for a moment. We blocked her path, floating side by side, a little above floor level. Her bright blue eyes were full of fear.
    “She can’t see us,” said Denise.
    It seemed like she was aware of us, though. She raced past me with her head down.
    Ma half stumbled through the door, looking way younger than she does now. Scary to think what twelve years can do.
    Sorry I’m late!
she called.
I only stepped out for a moment, but this man kept buying me drinks
.
    The closer she came, the smaller and farther away she got. Baby Jim was falling asleep. The scene got smaller and dimmer, and then I was back on the treadmill in the games room of the Jordan Arms, staring at a blank TV screen, and panting like I’d just run a marathon.

CHAPTER 7
    W aking from a nightmare is a relief. But this was like waking from one dream into another. I was still a long way from my bed at home. My legs shook. I got off the treadmill like an old man climbing out of a roller coaster. I made it to a chair and sat down. I couldn’t get the images out of my head: the baby with the toothless smile, and the sister who hated him, and the mother who wasn’t there.
    “How do you feel, Jim?” asked Denise.
    “I don’t know.”
    “You must feel wretched. I know I would. There was so much sadness in that brief scene. So much that you lost.”
    “Are you talking about my ankle?” I said.
    “No.”
    “ ’Cause I’ve had a bad ankle as long as I can remember. I didn’t know I twisted it falling down those stairs. My ankle turned over when I was crossing Roncy just now. That’s why I fell.”
    She sighed deeply.
    “You lost more than your ankle on the stairs, Jim.”
    I thought back to what Tadeusz had told me.
You’ll see people you need to treat better
, he said. Who was he talking about? Cassie? Ma? I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand at all.
    Denise suggested we go across the hall and get a drink. I said sure. I didn’t want to look at any more TV just now.
    The vending machines crouched side by side like football linemen. I wanted a Coke and a chocolate bar, but the only drink in the soft-drink machine was ginger ale, and the candy machine was out of everything except Junior Mints.
    Denise got a coffee for herself and showed me how to swipe my day pass to get my snack.
    She took a sip and sighed. “Coffee’s always too cold here,” she said.
    I wondered why a ghost would want coffee at all, whatever the temperature.
    One of the fluorescent lights was off – it flickered and buzzed overhead. Irritating. We went back into the hall. I ate a mint. It was chocolate-coated, and I’d eat dog food if it was chocolate-coated – but it