Short Stories: Long Way Around the Short End. James Hill

me the look a teacher gives a student who just isn’t getting it. “He’s moving to a new phase in this life, and he wants me to come with him, to show him around, and to see if we can have what we had in real life. I told Jody I’ve met someone and wanted to run it by you first.”

      She waits for my reaction. I don’t show much of one because, for some reason, I have already figured a love affair between two worlds could not be maintained—one that’s way past long distance.

      Maybe I can come back.

      “I can’t tell you what to do, Amy. Only you know what’s best for the rest of your journey.”

      “Oh, John…John,” she whispers in a lower, sexier voice. “Decisions can be difficult even in this life.”

      She takes my face in both her hands, my cheeks warmed by her inner glow. “I know if I leave here, I’m going to miss you.” I take one of her hands and hold it lightly, knowing that if I grip it any firmer, my hand will just pass through.

      “I feel I’m the interloper here, Amy. You and Jody are reunited in this world now. Maybe it wasn’t meant for two beings from other worlds to intermingle.”

      She looks me solemnly in the eyes. “You love me so much you try to make my decision easier.”

      I kiss her lips for the final time. “I will miss you too.”

      She blinks her eyes and her robe flashes away from her beautiful body. “Would you like to love me one more time?”

      “I don’t think that will help either of us,” I tell her. We kiss our last kiss. I pick up my flashlight and leave the haunted house for the final time.

      * * * * *

      Several days have passed, and a blue light doesn’t appear at night anymore. And I don’t sit by my bedroom window anymore. But I do think of Amy quite often, wondering how things are going with her.

      I am a young man, reasonably attractive, and have money; finding female companionship has never been an issue. I could go back to the single bars or resume chatting online, but I decide to put those things behind me. Amy could return. Once a spirit has had you in the sack, you can try, but you can’t go back.