The Afterlife

Chapter 2

About an hour later, Eric was lying on the couch, leaving me no choice but to sit in the beige armchair. I heard footsteps and my dad walked into the living room.

He spotted me and grinned. “Keira, your mother and I have something very important to tell you.” I sat up a bit straighter in the chair. Eric was snoring softly.

“What is it?” I asked.

At that moment, my mom walked into the room, spotted me and grinned like my dad did. Then my dad walked over to her and put an arm around her waist, both of them looking like twins with their smiles.

My mom's eyes glistened. “I'm going to have a baby!” she exclaimed.

Her smile was wider than I had ever seen it.

My heart gave a sudden jolt as I took in what she had just said, and I jumped up. I ran over to the two of them and hugged my mom tightly.

“Mom, that's wonderful!!” I said. “I'm so happy for you!”

“I'm hoping for a boy.” My dad whispered smugly.

The feeling truly sunk in. Me and Christy were going to get a little brother or sister!

That reminded me.

“Does Christy know?” I asked them.

I saw them glance quickly at each other. “Well..yes, we told her this afternoon.”

“Then why-” I started.

“Because we heard from Craig what had happened to Eric's cousins.” My dad explained.“We didn't want to put you in a false happy mood when he told you. That would make him feel worse than he already is.”

I realized he was right and thanked them.

“I'll tell him later when I'm not so hyped.” I reassured them.

I was obviously still really upset about Jared and Alicia. I couldn't imagine how Eric felt.

But a baby. A baby!

I sat there for another hour or so, reading a really good book that used to belong to my grandma, called The Host.

She had given me a lot of her old stuff before she died a few years ago. I really miss her; she was always so wise, and I don't ever remember her being mad.

But I did know that the war truly upset her. It was different for her than it is for me because the world obviously changed a LOT in her years of living.

I couldn't imagine.

I heard something from the sofa, so I looked up from my book. Eric was now sitting, stretching his arms and yawning.

“Hey Sleepyhead. Its almost midnight.” I said.

“Ah, okay, I'll.. be.. heading back..soon..” He mumbled something else, then got up lazily.

But then suddenly, he fell back onto the couch and within 20 seconds he started snoring again. I half-laughed, half-sighed.

I phoned Mr. Punsulan's cell. I knew he was awake until late and I didn't want him to worry.

He told me it was okay for him to stay here, if it was okay with us. I agreed. We did this all the time; sometimes I'd go over to their house and we'd be studying, and the next thing I know, I would open my eyes and the first thing I see is Eric's living room.

I went upstairs and grabbed a spare blanket, came back down and threw it over him.

His mouth was hanging open and he was drooling a bit.  I laughed silently and took a picture with my phone. This was totally a keeper.

I turned the living room light off and hurried back upstairs and jumped into bed.

I closed my eyes and I dreamed about chocolate strawberries...

                                                                         * * *

I felt someone tapping my shoulder. “Go away,” I mumbled, half asleep.

“Keira...KEIRA....hey KEIRA!!!” I heard Eric's familiar voice say. He was now shaking me.

“Stop...” I mumbled.

Then suddenly another familiar voice called, “Keira Mikaela Coulthard!! You are going to be late for school!”

At my mother's voice, my eyes shot open and I looked up. Eric was looking at me grinning. He had his black and dark blue backpack on.

“Oh!” I gasped. I sat up and looked at the time. 8:14 am the clock read.

It was Monday. Great.

“I'll meet you downstairs!” Eric called, halfway out my bedroom door.

I quickly got ready for school, throwing on my blue sweater and dark jeans and threw my hair into a messy bun. I grabbed my backpack and flung it over my shoulders and ran downstairs.

Eric was standing at the front door, holding a slice of bread and an apple. I hugged my parents and ran over to him, and we both started sprinting down the hill. Eric handed me the bread as we ran, and I grabbed it and took a big bite.

“Thanks”I mustered, my mouth full.

We passed house after house, a lot of them abandoned due to the family freaking out about the war and ended up moving somewhere else. It was probably the same there too! They just didn't get it.

The sky was a dull gray, like usual, and there was that faint smell of smoke. “Anything new?” Eric asked me, panting. I decided this was the time. “Yeah, actually.

"My mom's gonna have a baby!” At this, Eric's eyes widened. Then he smiled.

“Really?”he asked. By his tone, I could tell he was excited.

“Yeah, really,” I answered, “My dad's hoping for a boy.”

Finally we made it to our high school. We ran through the front doors, down a hall and we made it into our classroom just as the bell rang. Unlike most high schools, the total number of people in our grade 9 class was 20. We didn't have to walk around the school for every subject. The teachers came to us.

At lunchtime, a girl named Mia came and sat with me and Eric in the cafeteria.

She had short blond hair and greenish blue eyes. I personally thought she had always fancied Eric. Of course, I had never told him in case I was wrong. She was rambling on about something and I wasn't listening, ( I could see Eric nodding, pretending to listen too.) But then, something caught both our attention.

“.......and then into the Afterlife.” Mia said.

“Sorry, I didn't catch the last part.” Eric told her politely.

Mia looked slightly annoyed.

“The Afterlife. Surely you know what-” she started, but I interrupted her.

“You mean the new life people believe you start after death.”

“No, I'm talking about the other one. It might be a rumor but it is said that after this long war has reached its worse state, people under age 16 who survive will have to start a new life. And that's not entirely a figure of speech. Something about traveling very, very far and passing a “test”. I don't know what happens after that, maybe bringing this world back to peace or something, I dunno.”

“That sounds interesting.” said Eric, and by his expression I could tell he was. Mia now looked very pleased with herself.