Short Story #6 — SPIRIT IN THE SKY (1200 words)
*All stories are protected under the © Seal of the Copyright Office of the United States. April 27, 2023 and May 01, 2023
Three young, united, and adventurous brothers try to top all their previous daring tricks, but this time, they could get separated for real after their latest risky move. Now, someone must choose between life and death.
SPIRIT IN THE SKY
If we were doing sixty, the train was probably doing fifty-five. The highway was parallel to the tracks, but we were gaining speed because we needed to reach the curve up ahead to cross to the other side before the long train arrived at the crossing. It seemed like we were going to beat it. We were getting closer. At that point, we had a better chance if I accelerated than if I tried to use the brakes or chicken out. I pushed the pedal, but the engine took a second to receive the gas. That second could be critical.
My brother Ralph always dared me to do that, and I was stupid enough to listen. On the other hand, Anthony was always eager to reach another adrenaline high. Their screams and cheers increased as if trying to neutralize the infernal engine noise. But nothing could eliminate the loud train whistle.
We were just three teens trying to have some fun. I was sixteen.
I was sleeping on the couch when someone knocked at the door. I didn’t want to get up, but whoever was at the door was annoyingly persistent. When I opened it, nobody was on the other side. I was pissed but happy simultaneously because I could go back to sleep. The moment I sat down, they knocked again. I hurried to the door this time, but again, nobody was there. Then, I stood alert, ready to jump and catch the funny guy interrupting my dreams. Even if it were one of my brothers, I would kick his sorry ass.
That’s when I noticed they were knocking on another door. The closet door in front of the couch, across the room. What the hell?
I wasn’t mad anymore. That was a great joke, after all. I bet it was my younger brother Anthony. Ralph wasn’t so inventive as to pull such an intelligent prank. But I still wanted to kick somebody’s ass.
I smiled when I opened the closet door, but nobody was there. What the hell? I heard someone knocking from the inside. How could they do that? Then I noticed a note taped to the shelf. It said, “You need to go to the cemetery. We’ll meet you there.” Ralph and Anthony signed it.
My brothers and I had always been close. We rarely spent an entire day apart.
At school, bullies were never welcome in our presence, and all the students knew it. We were always chasing bad kids. But now that I think about it, we were probably the bullies.
My brothers knew how much I loved cemeteries. When we were kids, I begged them to join me at the cemetery every year on the Day of the Dead, even though we didn’t have anyone to visit. The first time we smoked weed, we were there. I remember it was a foggy night, and just before midnight, Ralph said, “Shh, did you guys hear that?” We turned around, and a second later, we fled like mad ghosts, laughing hysterically.
When Grandma died, at the end of the funeral ceremony, Anthony secretly gave Ralph and me a thumbs-up sign. We knew what he meant. From then on, we had a valid excuse to go to the cemetery. We visited Grandma more often than when she was alive.
*****
It was dark when I arrived at the cemetery. We always liked the mausoleum with the black marble surface. It had four thick Roman columns and a statue of a child angel. I went straight to that tomb, but they weren’t there. I kept looking for them until I found two mounds of fresh dirt belonging to two recent arrivals. My brothers were there, but they looked transparent and foggy.
That’s when I remembered what had happened. We had not made it to the other side of the railroad crossing.
The shock and pain had been so great my memory had blocked the accident.
“I miss you, brother,” Anthony told me right away. “We were supposed to be together all our lives. We said we’d never be apart. We even made a pact, remember? We said, ‘We’ll kill the first one who dies.’ But now, we can’t be with you anymore. Hey, but you can come with us. You have to, brother. We can’t leave without you.”
Ralph was sobbing softly. “We didn’t make it, bro. Well, you did, but not us. We don’t know what’s happening, but we’ll soon have to leave this place. I’m sure we’re not in limbo or purgatory.”
“What’s the solution? How can I join you? Do I have to commit . . . ?” I replied, but I had to stop before pronouncing that ominous word.
I knew my life would be miserable without them. I also knew that if I missed that chance, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
“We should dig another hole for you next to our graves. Then, you can lie down at the bottom while we fill it back,” said Anthony. Ralph got on his knees and started digging with both hands. Soon, finding no better solution, we were all on our knees digging in the soft dirt.
I wasn’t sure that was a bright idea, but I didn’t complain because I felt responsible for their deaths, and I knew I couldn’t continue living with so much guilt.
As we kept digging, Ralph started to tell a story.
“I had been waiting for that moment for a long time. I had that condom for at least three weeks. When my girlfriend finally said yes, I felt lucky. Most of my friends had done it months before I did. I was about to lose my virginity and had never been so nervous. She didn’t want me to see her naked, so we did it in the dark. When I was trying to put the condom on, I dropped it and couldn’t find it. I looked for it under the bed and all around. When I started panicking, I noticed I had it on one of my fingers.”
All three of us laughed until we cried, even though we had heard that story many times before.
Then, Anthony told a story I had never heard before.
“When I saw that heart pendant at the mall, I knew it was the perfect gift for Mom. The day before Mother’s Day, I pawned Dad’s wristwatch to buy Mom’s pendant. I remember I couldn’t sleep the following night, thinking about what to steal to buy Dad’s watch back.”
Just before I began my tale, the silhouette of a man appeared. He had a flashlight in one hand and a shovel in the other. He said, “What the hell are you doing? You grave robbers, sons of bitches!”
Not even a second passed when I felt the shovel hitting the side of my head. I fell on my back semiconscious, but I could see the gravedigger trying to beat my brothers, too. Swinging the shovel left and right in vain and saying, “What the hell?” Until he realized that my brothers were the spirits of the two young men he had recently buried. And he ran away faster than the train that killed my brothers.
The following day, three mounds of fresh dirt were beside each other.
But we weren’t there anymore.
The End
Edmundo Barraza
*All stories are protected under the © Seal of the Copyright Office of the United States. April 27, 2023 and May 01, 2023
Written in Visalia, CA. Nov-14-2012
Posted on Blogger Feb- 15-2017
Posted on WordPress Aug-26-2019 Reposted Mar-10-2023
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