Somewhere In-Between ~ An Adventure in the Afterlife

CHAPTER 20 - THE REVEAL

The Saturday morning sun was peeking through the blinds of Lizzie's windows. Max was alone in her room. Bob left when he heard Lizzie's mom go downstairs. He said the danger was over for the night, and he wanted to see what Lizzie's mom was making for breakfast downstairs. Max thought that was weird since he wouldn't be able to eat it anyway.

Max sat on the floor, back against the wall, under Lizzie's "Attack On Titan" poster, starting to feel a little bored. As the sun brightened the room, his eyes scanned the room. You sure can get to know about a person when you look around their room, he thought. He felt he was getting to know Lizzie better than he'd ever known anyone else in his life.

As he looked around the room from where he sat, he noticed the violin propped up in the corner of her room, a few dying plants, a bookcase crammed with books and stuffed animals, and a neatly organized desk. His eyes finally landed again on Lizzie, still fast asleep. Then he noticed the photograph. It had fallen out of her grasp as she turned in her sleep and it was face-up on the floor, almost under her bed.

Max rose to his feet and wandered over. It occurred to him that he'd never actually seen a picture of Lizzie's dad, and he was curious about what this guy looked like. Since he was dead too, maybe someday he would bump into him. That would be great, he thought, because then he could take him to see Lizzie. That sure would make her happy.

"Let's see what this famous Physics professor looks like," Max said to himself as he knelt down to look at the photograph.

His head was right beside Lizzie's face, and she opened her eyes when she heard his voice. She saw Max's head right in front of her and screamed!

Max stumbled, falling on his butt, and let out a scream as well. "What the freak, Liz?!"

Lizzie clapped her hands to her face. "Max, oh my God, you totally freaked me out!"

"I freaked you out?" Max rose to his feet. "If I had a body, I would have peed my pants!"

Lizzie started to chuckle.

Max pointed to her. "Don't you dare laugh at me!"

"You just looked so funny when you fell down!" Lizzie couldn't contain her laughter. She bent forward and held her belly, laughing hysterically.

Max folded his arms and smirked. "Okay, laugh away. Go ahead. Laugh at the funny dead guy."

"Ho, ho, I'm sorry Max." She wiped a laughter tear from her eye. "I sure did need that, though. Oh my gosh." She sighed, trying to compose herself. "What the heck were you doing on the floor, anyway?"

"I just wanted to see your photo -- the one of your dad that you were holding last night. It fell on the floor while you were sleeping."

"Oh..." Lizzie stretched to reach down for the photograph. "It was taken on the last vacation I had with Dad. A week later he had the aneurysm."

"The what?"

Lizzie sighed. She never wanted to talk about it. "They called it a brain aneurysm. One of those weird freaky things that just happens. It's like God just flipped a switch and – poof. He was gone. No warning that anything was wrong with him. It just... happened."

"I'm sorry," Max didn't know how to react to grief. "Can I see him?"

Lizzie turned the photograph around. Max saw a proud man with a loving arm around his daughter. He smiled very happily... with a mouth of crooked teeth... and he wore a faded gray "Genesis" T-shirt.

"Oh my gosh, Liz..." Max leaned in closer and stared.

"What?"

He straightened up, and pointed to the photo. "It's Bob!"