The Dead Scout's Handbook of Afterlife Survival

Chapter 36: Jessica Hess

The town hall's clock-tower illuminated the cool, black air as Cayden trudged forward, his mind burdened. Two boots, he assumed belonging to him, scraped up the marble steps, through the glass entrance, and into the darkened left hallway. On the right, light shone from the only open doorway, labeled 'Mayor's Assistant', so he ambled in.

A young, ebony skinned woman with light brown hair and a faintly roman nose lay in her chair, arms folded over her chest, snoring loudly. Papers piled high on her desk, adjacent to a six-foot, pink-sand hourglass. Cayden knocked, and the assistant shot up, wiped her nose on her sleeve and straightened her hair. "Hi, pleased to help you!"

"Hey, sorry, I need keys for a Caldwell."

"Oh sure, sure! You uh, you did say Cayden Caldwell?" Cayden nodded deliberately and her eyes widened as she shuffled through her drawers. "I gotta find that key to open the drawer to the keys. Where'd I put that stupid janglemebobber?"

Crinkling wrappers, jangling coins and rattling pens echoed off the walls and down the empty hallway as the lady thumbed through folders and cabinets. "Hold on a sec!" she said as she lifted a massive pile of junk from a shelf. She placed it on top of the desk carefully to prevent an avalanche, ripping through more of the drawers, digging amongst stacks of papers and pens and adding them to Mt. Garbage. Her movements became frantic and Cayden smiled at a string of apologies that transitioned into small talk about the town and weather. The woman's head popped from the side of the desk.

"I have no idea." The woman raised her lower lip.

"Is it in your pocket?"

She patted the rear pocket of her baggy slacks and her lips tightened. "Right, right... of course it is." Slamming the drawer, she jumped as Mt. Garbage tumbled to the floor.

#

After cleaning the garbalanche, the assistant pawed through another locked cabinet in the back and snagged a second key, passing it to Cayden.

"So where am I going?"

"Fifteen blocks south of here, you'll spot a two-story building on the left with one of those swinging, wooden sign thingys you can see above the doors. Visitor's Suites is written right on it."

"Ah, got it. Thank you!"

"No problem," she said with some hesitance and fidgeted uncomfortably prior to blurting out "Do you like board games?"

"Uh, yes?" The woman stared at Cayden and he stared back for what must have been an eternity. Within her pockets he spotted her hands trembling. "Do... do you want to play a board game?"

"Maybe."

"At 1 am?"

"You mean my 1 pm."

"With a strange guy you met ten minutes ago, alone in a dark empty building...at 1 am?"

"Oh please. If we didn't have superpowers that might be scary. Here, I could wreck you if I considered you a danger. Watch this." She attempted to smile though it squeezed into a grimace as she used her key to open the hourglass and raised her arm. From the massive glass, sand streamed in a fine line and swirled into the air, congregating and stiffening into a spear.

"Neeeeeaaaaat!" Cayden said as the spear point sharpened and glittered in the fluorescent lighting. "Gosh, my little half-brother would have loved this place!"

The woman's face went blank as she remained motionless, then she graced him with a subtle smile as the spear sailed toward the ground by Cayden's feet. Before touching land, it stopped then rolled into a ball. Circles for eyes and a big curving line of a smile spread across the surface.