After Life

CHAPTER THREE-BRINGING BACK THE PAST

Maisie Past...
Putting Maisie down for bed wasn't always a hassle. She was a pretty well-behaved kid for her age. "Who's my beautiful sugar muffin?" Mother said, looking at baby Maisie. She is sucking on her binky and just staring at her. She is in her little world, not knowing anything but sleeping, feeding, and pooping.
"Can you say, Mama?" the mom asked with a smile. Maisie drops her binky and looks at her with a straight face. The room grows quiet, making her mother think she is trying to form the word "Mama."
    Maisie takes a deep breath and says...
     Maisie finally said, "Mother, I've seen terrible things!" The mother's eyes grow wide in shock. "Gunfire! Bombing! Planes falling from the sky!" Mother steps back in shock. Deep down in her gut, she is scared and sick. No baby could form sentences like that at such a young age. Especially talking about a war! Maisie continues, "Fighting for my queen and country, I've killed so many!!"
"No, Maisie no!" Mother screamed, trying to get the little one to calm down, but even then Maisie continued, "One day the enemy took out one of my engines, FUCK YOU, YOU BASTARD SCUM!"
"Maisie! This language!!" her mother cried, trying to find her phone.
"Falling in a flaming fire tornado! I shouted over the radio 'TELL MY WIFE I LOVE HER!'" Maisie explained.
Maisie's mother found her phone and looked up the symptoms of her behavior. Something has to be wrong with her, she thought. Maisie kept rambling on about cigarettes and the war over and over again. The mother could never figure it out. Until she realized something.

An engine? Flaming fire tornado?

The mother shoved a binky into Maisie's mouth, making her fall asleep as if nothing had happened. She quietly, but quickly left the room and into her office. She went through books on top of books until she finally found them.

The family tree.

Searching through people who have died in her family she finally concluded...

Richard Thomas Williams was the man who died from an engine. Is Richard from Maisie's past life?

***

Now...
After a couple of weeks of living in the UK, it's a blur. Maisie became busy. She would wake up, go to college, come home, and then talk to Jonathan and Edith. The weekend is coming close in a blink of an eye and that was very exciting for everyone in the house. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Maisie is getting a bit of studying in by reading "The Second World War" by the New York times.
The bell rings, making Maisie close her book as fast as lightning. "He's here!" she says with a grin. Jonathan comes in through the door wondering about who is ringing the doorbell, "Who's here?" Jonathan is rubbing his thumb on his pointer finger, with his left hand in his tux pocket. He doesn't change clothes which is understandable, due to the fact he's a ghost.
Maisie jumps at Jonathan's appearance. "Jonathan I've been meaning to talk to you. I've got someone coming to stay for a couple of days." Jonathan's smile turns into a scared look, the look you only see when someone is hopefully not a boyfriend/girlfriend. "You've got ah-a chap staying with you?" he says. Maisie places her book down. "My cousin," she says trying to tidy up the place a bit more. A sigh of relief comes over Jonathan. "Right-o!" he announced.
"I've got a mission for you!" she says, crossing her arms with a grin. Jonathan pulls up his sleeves acting cocky. "A mission? Now we're talking. How can I be of service?" Maisie's smile grows larger at the dead man. "Okay, for the next few days, I need you to kind of lay low and not talk to me." The smiley, cocky man looks at her with a frown, "I don't like this mission."
She sighs, forming a frown as well, "I can't talk to you while he's in the room. He won't be able to see you. He'll think I've gone doolally!" Jonathan thinks for a moment and then smiles at Maisie using war slang. "Can you tell Edith as well? That's your other mission for me" she asks, watching Jonathan walk out of the room, "Rodger Captain." he says, giving a salute to Maisie and disappearing into thin air.
The doorbell is ringing again and Maisie takes a deep breath, walking to the front door. With a turn of the handle, she sees her cousin Jack. He's an average-height man, with a french fork beard. He's wearing a hoodie and jeans, his blonde hair is covered up by a gray beanie. "Jack!" Maisie exclaims in joy. Jack smiles and says, "Is this the home of Maisie Baker, the super-smart Oxford student?" Maisie stands back in surprise. "It's not like you to compliment me....are you jet-lagged?" Jack chuckles while walking into the house. "Well you might have brains, but the banter has arrived!" he says, smiling, putting his hands on his hips. She smiles, finally having the Jack she knows far too well. "It's so good to see you, but before we catch up...long journey. Where's your washroom?" Maisie points down the hall and smiles. "Just the one at the end of the hallway." Jack nods and walks off out of the room.
Jonathan walks through the door not saying a word. He looks as if he needs to blurt out the sentence at any moment or he's going to explode. He walks back before Maisie spots him. "You can talk Jonathan, he's not here," the girl explained, looking at the bathroom and then looking back at the dead man. "Current mission status unsuccessful, I didn't find Edith." He puts his hands into his pockets and looks down, defeated.
"You didn't find her then where could she-" Maisie says before she was interrupted by screams from the bathroom. The two of them turn their heads to watch Jack sprint out of the room and shut the door behind him, leaning against the door, keeping anyone from coming in or out of the room. Maisie puts her hand out to try to calm him down. "Jack did you just see-" she tries to explain until Jack notices the man in the hallway making him jump.
"You can talk to Jonathan," Maisie says with a sigh. Jack doesn't know what to do. He is still leaning on the door, not making a peep. "I think he can see me..." Jonathan says, shocked. Maisie turns with the realization that she isn't alone. She walks up to him and grabs him by the collar. "Open up your pile hole, gosh darn it, and tell me you can see them as well so I know that I'm not the only one seeing ghosts!" she blurted out, annoyed, looking at him urgently.
He nods, trembling in Maisie's hands. "You can see them.." she says, letting go of Jack's collar. She steps back and looks at Jonathan, starting to smile. "You're real!" she cheers. She starts jumping up and down in excitement "I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy!!!"
Jonathan smirks, watching the girl. He crosses his arms. "You're not crazy but you're currently acting mad as a box of frogs."
"Maisies lost her doolally." Jack says, watching her as if she is crazy. Jonathan's head snaps towards him and he points, "HE KNOWS WAR SLANG MAISIE! THE COUSIN KNOWS WAR SLANG!" Maisie stops what she's doing and thinks.

What is going on... Maybe mom knows....

She grabs her phone and finds her mom's contact. "Who are you calling?" Jack asked. She puts the phone up to her ear, listening to the humming of the phone. "I'm calling mom."

The line picks up...
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