When You Die

Chapter One

6:24 PM, 4514 Magnolia street, April 12, 2019

And... done! Ada thought contentedly as she packed her 'grammar saves lives shirt neatly on top of her Han shot first shirt in her suitcase. Only one more day. She sighed as she zipped her suitcase shut and looked out the window. It was raining again. Ada loved the rain, though. She loved how whenever it rained, her mother would come down from the attic in her nightgown, her hair braided into a crown atop her head, and for the rest of the day, she would fill the house with the smell of apple strudel and her singing to Hallelujah.
Ada didn't mind the apple strudel; it was her favorite dessert.

Ada's mother's name was Cecilia, and she spent every day except rainy days in her attic writing poetry, crying herself to sleep every night, but Ada still loved her. She was her mother, after all.
It was mostly her aunt, Sarah, who took care of her. Cecilia was 38, but Sarah was only 19. Ada loved Sarah like a sister. Sarah and Cecilia had a complicated relationship; first of all, there was the age difference, but also they were step-sisters, so they shared a mother, but they had different fathers, and by the time Sarah was born, Cecilia was already in college, so they weren't around each other that much. Once Cecilia got married in her early twenties, she almost never visited her family. She seemed changed somehow, different.
Sarah had wanted to go to college right away after high school to become an architect, but she needed to stay to look after Ada. Ada had told her that she needed to forget about her, to go pursue her career, but her aunt insisted that she would stay.
"Ada! Ada!" Sarah knocked on her head. "Hello! Anybody home?"

Ada turned away from the window. "Hmm. That's great. What?"

Sarah laughed. "Dinner's going to be ready in fifteen minutes, dreamer."

Dreamer was Sarah's nickname for her, because she was always staring off into space, completely unaware of anything around her.

"Oh, and Ada, tomorrow we'll go get your new prescription at the eye doctor's." Sarah said. She was referring to Ada's bad eyesight; she had continuously worsening eyesight. Sarah always half-joked that by the time she was thirty she would be blind as a bat.

"Ok. But can I go on the roof one last time? Pleeeease??" She said, drawing out the please.

Sarah sighed. "One last time."

"Ok, bye!" She said and raced out the door. Ada never liked wearing rain coats or boots. She thought it was boring to go out in the rain but you kept yourself dry. It was a hot, rainy day, so she just went out in her t-shirt and shorts.
She ran up the front of the car and sat on the roof, staring off into space. This was her favorite spot to think. Her favorite time to be up there was right when a sun shower started. The roof was still hot from the sun beating down on it, and the cool rain was the perfect contrast of it. She only came up here when it was raining, but it was often enough that the neighbors had gotten used to the strange girl sitting on the roof.
She took a small doll out of her pocket. It was made with blue and grey silk that must have been silver earlier in its life. She had had this doll all her life, and it was her most prized possession.

No one, even Ada didn't know where she went in her mind. It was like her brain shut down whenever she wanted it to. Ada, Sarah, and Cecilia were moving from their house in Saint Paul to New Orleans to be closer to Ada's grandma, who was, as her aunt says, 'full of spirit' and 'very young for her age', which made no sense as Ada thought about it more. How can you be young for your age? If you're 35, you're 35, and if you're 75, you're 75.

Ada was sort of sad that she would have to leave everything behind, but when she thought about it, she didn't really have much to leave behind. She had a house, a few friends, and... what else did she have? The most important part of her life was her family, and she would be with them the whole time.
Ada was staring off into the distance when, through the fog and rain, a figure completely clad in blue appeared. As it got closer, Ada could notice a few things about this figure. One, she could tell that this person was a woman by the way she walked; with purpose but also carefree. And two, that there were small white designs on her umbrella. Maybe penguins or small swans.
Ada didn't know why she had thought this woman out of the ordinary, but there was just something about her, something different. It seemed like she was walking this way for another reason besides just to take a walk in the rain. She was radiant, she was walking with importance. Like an angel wearing blue wellies had been sent from the heavens. You're just being paranoid. She thought. She dismissed the thought and laid back down.
"Hello there! May I come up?" Said a voice. Ada looked down to see the woman with the blue umbrella. She could now partially see her face. She seemed to be in her sixties or so.
"Um, sure." Ada responded, startled. No one had ever asked to come up, and she was wondering why this woman that she had never seen wanted to come up.
"Here, could you take my umbrella?" She asked, already handing her the umbrella, which Ada could now see what she thought were penguins, were clocks.
There was no point in answering. She was already climbing up the front of the car, surprisingly nimble for someone her age. Ada was handing back the umbrella when she noticed that there wasn't a single drop of water on it; it was completely dry! She took the umbrella from Ada, and set it at her side, not bothering to put it up again.
"Nice weather, isn't it?" She said, re-adjusting herself so her legs were hanging of the side of the car like Ada's.
Ada nodded awkwardly.
"You know, I used to climb up on my own car when I was younger. I love the rain." She said, taking off her hood.
And as she did, Ada did a double-take. Her face was stunning. It was timeless; as if she was 100, 60, 20, and five years old all at once. Her hair was silvery-white, with streaks of metallic blue braided into it, and her eyes were a steely gray, sparked with electric blue. She was smiling, and Ada could see that one of her teeth had been replaced, not with a gold tooth, but with a tooth the same color as the streaks in her hair.
"Yeah, I love this spot." Ada responded, smiling back. She decided she liked this person.
"Oh, excuse me. You must be wondering who I am. Emma Mulberry, pleasure to meet you."
Huh, interesting name.
Just then, Ada noticed that the stranger's hair wasn't even getting wet. What is up with her?
"Nice to meet you too. I'm A—"

"Ada Mata Collins." She finished. "I know all about you." Ada was flummoxed. Oh my god. Who is this lady? Why is she here? This is creepy. Am I just imagining this? I am losing my mind. "I don't mean to sound rude, but exactly why are you here? And, if you're wondering, I was named after my grandma, Ada Lovelace and Mata Hari. My mom goes on and on about how 'with name comes responsibility', so she chose my name carefully." This was a sore spot for Ada. It seemed like the only times her mother would talk to her was about her name. 

 The woman chuckled. She was the kind of person, Ada decided, who could make a chuckle elegant. She even seemed to make the word 'chuckle' elegant. Ada thought she was reminded her of a real life mother goose. "Those are two wonderful women to be named after. About your questions, I should probably explain. I work for BODA, the Bureau Of Death Affairs, and as it is apparent, I am the manager of death; I manage all the deaths that happen. So basically, time doesn't affect me." She stated matter of factly. "I will let this sink in before I tell you more." 

 Ada was mystified, stunned, confused, and every other word that could describe what she was feeling. "Wait. So either you're crazy and pranking me, or you're telling me that you know when someone dies? What do you mean you 'manage all the deaths that happen'? And that you are immortal? Well, that would explain why you're not getting wet. I didn't even know we went anywhere when we died! How old even are you? AND there's more??"

 Emma smiled "So many questions! Of course we go somewhere when we die. Did you just think that we died and that was it? That would be so disappointing. I will tell you right now that I am completely sane, and that this is not a prank, and yes, I am essentially immortal. I was born on October 3rd, 2023–well, I guess I'm going to be born in four years, and I died when I was 107, and it's my job to sort through the lives of all the people that die, and based on their achievements in life, then appoint them to an area of the afterlife. I interview everyone and give them two choices. One, they can start over in the afterlife and leave their life behind, along with the memory of it, and two, they can keep doing what they did in life. Time for me slows down when I want it to. It's very useful when people there are people dying every second." 

 "So I'm talking to a dead person. Great! I feel completely sane. If you can prove that you really are the 'manager of death' or whatever, I'll believe you." Ada said, exasperated. "Conjure a dead person or something!" 

 "Do you really want me to?" she said, suddenly looking years older. "I want to know if I should report you to a mental health office." Ada replied, indignant. The woman sighed. "Ok. I guess I will." She said, then started digging in her bag. When she found what she was looking for; what seemed to be a blue address book, bursting to the seams, she stopped at a page in the C section, squinted down the page, and stopped at the bottom. Then she cleared her throat and said clearly: "Cleopatra, 3572516205, occupation, empress." 

 Then, before their very eyes, appeared Cleopatra, sitting on the roof of the car right next to Ada. And when I say appeared, I mean appeared. One second, there was no one on the roof, then the next, poof! She was there! "It's her zip code." She said with a wink. Ada was stunned. Here was Cleopatra, in front of her, dead for 2,000 years, but still obviously there. Or she was going crazy. "Oh my god. Um hello—" But just then she doubled over, heaving for breath. "I'm burning! Help me! Get me out of here!" Emma slammed the book shut, and as she did, Cleopatra vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of her ever being there. "Are you ok, Ada?" Emma asked, worried. "Yeah." She replied, still gasping for air. "I felt close to her, like I had known her for my whole life." "I feared this would happen." She sighed. "This is really why I'm here. She checked her watch. "Ada, you're going to die in 11 minutes."