Echoes of Life

7

What happens after you die? Lots of things happen after you die – they just don't involve you. – Louis C.K.

The other Sigmonds and I spent nearly every moment of light with the Emilia's for about a week. They came to our side, and we went to their side. It reduced the loneliness.

We talked and played games. They missed us as much as we had missed them.

I approached the door to Emilia's room one morning and noticed Ten standing outside our parents' room.

I cleared my throat which got his attention. He turned to me with a weary smile.

"I feel a strong pull, like I need to go through. Like I'm needed." He said.

I nodded my head to show I understood. That door had been calling to me as well, I just wanted to spend more time with Emilia first.

Before I could tell him my thoughts, he barged through the door with fury and then collapsed on the floor. I knew it got worse with each time you did it. I felt that when I touched Emilia's door. It had shocked a lot worse than when I touched my parents door when I first arrived.

I walked to him and knelt beside him rubbing his shoulder. "You O.K.?"

He responded with a grunt before pushing himself up.

We both made our way to the window and upon seeing our mother out of it we turned and started down the steps. We had the same thought; find a ladder.

Ten found one first and yelled for me to help him. Getting it up the stairs was a feat in itself as they had a turn. After maneuvering the ladder and ourselves we finally got it to the top.

Ten told me to yell for the others, to which I ran to the doorway and game a holler. When I got back he was getting prepared to go out the window.

"Ready?" He asked.

I nodded my head and watched as he started his way down, then I followed. As I made it onto the ladder I saw several Sigmonds and Emilias make their way into the room.

At the bottom of the ladder, I was face to face with a younger version of my mom. A time before she was a mom. I hugged her without thinking and as if knowing she hugged me back.

There was a lot of chatter as versions of my mom chatted with versions of me and Emilia. I suddenly occurred to me that I didn't see my dad. As things calmed down between everyone I found the an older version of my mom. I guessed she was from the same parallel universe as Five.

"Where's dad?" I asked.

Her face went white. "He's gone."

"I don't understand."

She started snapping her fingers. "We were all just standing outside a few days ago and all of the versions of him just vanished."

"What does that mean?"

"We think it means the actual version of him died. He ran out of spares."

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who viewed it like that. We were spares.

What happened to him though. Where did he go from here?

I turned and looked for Eleven, Ten, and Twelve. I gathered them and told them the information I was given.

They seemed to have already known. We were on the same wavelength with it.

I could feel the tears try to fill my eyes and pictured the car hitting me in the road.

I was brought back to reality and stared at the guys in front of me.

"We should have come sooner." Ten said as he looked at me.

Guilt flooded my body. If I had opened this door rather than Emilia's we would have been able to see dad one last time. Same for if I would have told Ten to open it the day after opening Emilia's, when he wanted to. Instead I was selfish.

"I'm sorry." I hung my head in shame.

I felt arms fold around me and looked up to see a version of my mom that resembled the mom I pictured from my last months with the living. Her eyes looked at me with empathy and her hug tightened.

When she let go of the much-needed hug, which didn't last long enough, she offered to show us around.

She walked us to one end of the block. She pointed to the houses. They were the house she grew up in as a child. Then she pointed out her and dad's first house together. The next houses contained one of the ones we came out in. Then there was one apartment that had been dad's before he met mom. After that were dad's childhood homes.

I thought I was unlucky with 13 deaths at the age of 31. My dad was 62 and had 30. Most of them from his childhood.

Mom explained to us the sicknesses that dad had caught as a kid. I briefly thought of how she had told me and Emilia about how sick dad was as a child and how lucky we were to be healthy, when we were all in the land of the living.

I spent the rest of the light, with the versions of my mom, sister, and myself. I had zoned out. I was imagining what happened to us when our final version died. My brain couldn't seem to come up with any good ideas. After all, I hadn't imagined this. I'm sure what awaited next was just as unthinkable.

"You coming with us Thirteen?" I heard.

I snapped from my thoughts and turned to Ten. I looked around as everyone was dispersing before nodding and walking.

Ten must have been able to tell what I was thinking. I'm sure he was thinking it too.

"What do you think happens?" He asked.

"I have no idea. After all of this I can't wrap my head around anything else."

"Same here." Ten agreed. "It scares me to think about it."

"I know what you mean. I don't want to lose any of you."

"I don't want that either. You are all special to me and hold a special place within me." Ten finished before another Sigmond chimed in.

"No matter what, you have all of us with you. We are you and you are us. That's what we are being taught here."

We looked around the room, but the darkness didn't allow us to see who had said it.

After a moment of silence the voice said, "It's Four by the way."

I was amazed at this 9 year olds ability to think about life. He was wise for his age.

"Those are big thoughts for such a young boy. I think you're right. You are all within me and will forever be a part of me. You always have." I said.

I felt arms around my neck embracing me in a hug and I embraced back.

That night I dreamt of a version of me I didn't know. He was in his house with the receptionist from the job we quit. They looked happy. I watched as this version of me kissed her stomach with a smile.

A flood of emotions went through me. She was pregnant. I could tell by the way he did that. Something I had always longed for.

He looked up at the woman with a sincere smile and said, "I love you."

She said it back before kissing him. I felt a sting of jealousy and longing.

I noticed behind them there were wedding pictures. We had married her. A moment of happiness came through me before a nagging feeling.

Waking, I heard chipper voices. They stopped when they noticed me waking.

"Did you have the dream too?" Eleven asked.

"Of us kissing her stomach?"

"No, of our wedding." He said.

I told them about the dream that I had. We thought that this meant that we had finally gotten married and were about to start a family.

Something struck me as odd with this though. Had this already happened? Had there been enough time for us to get married and have a baby?

As I was about to share my thoughts with the others. A sound of bells rang out as if from surround sound and then silence. My vision went black and my body and mind went numb.