The Dead Scout's Handbook of Afterlife Survival

Chapter Four: The Calm Before the Storm

At the age of thirteen, Cayden received a letter with the return address of a home in Greybull, Wyoming. Despite chicken scratch marking the delivery address, it reached the right mailbox. Inside was as follows:

I do not know where Cayden lives, and I sent this letter to all 87 Francine Caldwells that I found. If you are not Cayden, don't read anymore, this is private!

Hi Cayden! It's Charlie. I hope you still want to be friends. I miss hearing from you and talking about our Scout meetings. I don't go to Scouts now and I would have quit earlier, but you were still there. I started playing video games, and it's way more fun than the outdoors. We can go on adventures and do that stuff together. You don't have to get all sweaty and kids don't tease you if you don't do things as fast. I will send you infurmation if I get anything back from you. I don't want my video game tag out there for people to see. You never know what people can do with secret infurmation like that.

Sinserely,

Charlie Amos

PS I met a GIRL on the video game, or at least, I think it is a girl. You can meet her if you play with us!

With that, Cayden plunged into the world of online gaming, dragging Sarah down the rabbit hole with him. They enjoyed themselves, grew together, and made one heck of a team.

In addition to this, Cayden always wanted a dog, but they took too much responsibility for a child, his mother would say. Having changed her mind after his 14th birthday, she graciously granted Cayden a pet in the form of a newborn half-brother. Cayden discovered that children required more responsibility than dogs; he picked up the slack in infant rearing as his mom reverted to her incorporeal form.

The Cawfee man carried some demons as well. One day, one possessed him. His mother didn't expect it; Cayden wished he could have said the same. With Charlie and his gaming girlfriend listening in, the cawfee man--smelling of booze and sounding of rage--attacked both Cayden and his mother, striking each with a creative array of household objects. He whirled on Cayden's wailing half-brother and lifted the crib to hurl it across the room. Suddenly, his face blanched, his legs buckled, and he collapsed without so much as a single utterance or another beat of his heart. Unable to excavate much remorse, Cayden's mother rarely spoke of the Cawfee Man, though she appreciated the insurance company's letter she received shortly thereafter.

Even after calm settled over the Caldwell household again, within Cayden lingered a deep frustration befitting a plant uprooted from a park and compressed into a city sidewalk crack. Cayden sealed this frustration under a thick veneer of feigned evenness. Yet, despite spending his days holed away indoors, Cayden's life meant something again. He had friends, he had a girlfriend, and they climbed the online rankings of every game they played. A growing imaginary badge collection expanded beyond a single imaginary vest, so he made an imaginary wardrobe for all his accomplishments. He was proud of himself, regardless of what others said of talents restricted to the digital world. And with a sibling to grow with, for the first time since his father disappeared, someone else might be proud of him too.

*****************************

During the chaos of mass egress, the translucent monster ceaselessly dug at Cayden. Sarah and Cayden discussed and reassured each other at length about the event. It seemed to help, though Sarah hadn't seen whatever lurked outside the plane, and Cayden wasn't about to bother her with that until they roused from their post-adrenaline lethargy.