My phone buzzes at 6am with a message on the group chat.
Dominique: Just landed in Singapore!
Attached to Dominique's message is a photo of her and her smiling family. Dominique has a height difference of one foot between her mom and dad, with her being taller. Next to her two older brothers, she stands only three inches shorter. It feels like they're smiling at me to let me know everything will be okay. I'd like to believe so, but I won't be able to stop thinking about Dominique's death until tomorrow. Then I'll know and smile back.
I stare at their picture for a long time and get into my mind another reason for their happy faces. Maybe they're just glad I allowed Dominique to leave in the end. Dominique couldn't have given them the truth behind her delayed flight because she didn't truly believe Dustin, Milo, and me before she left. But what did she say? Privately, I message her an apology for the scare at the airport. In a three-paragraph long text, Dominique tells me that love, care, and friendship are nothing to be sorry about. She also explains that, in her household, family always comes first, which is why she did what she did.
I take it that she thought I was too crazy to hear all this at the time, but I've come to terms with how everything played out. For good measure, she adds that Singapore 'has no viral breakouts, so rest assured, I won't be dying of that'. When Dominique asks me about Dustin, I tell her that he's fine, but still can't explain how he was able to speak Malay.
Dominique: Maybe I heard wrong. God, I need to brush up on my first language.
Me: Maybe I dreamt wrong, too. I think we either hear or see what we want to or what we should, and anyway, you took a different plane. Just don't do anything crazy until you come back.
Dominique: Maybe you're right, but Miranda, darling. You have all the crazy with you.
I send her two animated emoticons - one laughing hysterically and the other shaking its head. If Death was standing in front of Dominique and staring right in her face, she'd probably call him crazy for taking her soul for any reason other than the death she, like many, expects to have in her old age.
YOU ARE READING
Death May Disagree
General FictionMiranda's first introduction to death comes at her father's passing, but another form of death enters her life shortly after. Meet Doom, an Agent of Death, whose job is to ferry souls to the afterlife. Miranda never expected to make friends with an...
