Impossible Love // Michael Clifford

Spirit: something I didn't believe in

"Zivian. I can feel you here. I know you're still with me." he cried. "I can still feel your lips on my face. I can feel your hands in mine. I can feel you around me. Please come back to me..." Michael sat crying in the chair next to the hospital bed. My parents gave him some time alone with me and my body.
I stood behind him and wrapped my arms around his torso.
"I'm still here, baby. I'm not going anywhere."
He cried and cried, holding my body's hand. I couldn't stand to see him like that so I stepped out of the room and walked along the hall trying to get someone's attention. Nobody could see me. Nobody knew I was still there.
I saw a little girl with pig tails wandering alone.
I didn't think she could see me until I put a hand on her and she jumped.
"Hello."
"Why can't anybody see me? Why can't mommy and daddy hear me when I yell?" She asked, tears streaming down her face.
I kneeled down to her level.
"Can you tell me where your mommy and daddy are?"
She pointed to the waiting room. I saw her parents talking to a doctor. Her mother was holding a tissue to her face, presumably crying.
I walked over after telling the girl to stay.
"...nothing we could do. I'm so sorry."
This little girl had died on the operating table trying to get a tumour from her lung.
I walked back over to the girl and picked her up like a mother would and rested her on my hip.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
"Sweetie, do you know what death is?"
She nodded with a puzzled look.
"Well, you and I, we have a lot in common. We're both dead. We're spirits. Nobody can see us but other spirits. Not the doctors, or your mommy and daddy, or my best friend."
The girl looked to my left.
"What's the bright light?"
I set her down.
"Well that's where you belong. Up in heaven."
She nodded and ran a few steps toward the light, then turned back to me.
"Are you coming?"
I shook my head sadly.
"No, honey. I'm not coming. I have things to take care of here."
She nodded and ran on ahead into the light.
It disappeared after that.
I went back to where Michael and my body were. Shockingly Trisha was back and crying with Michael.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to break something just so they KNEW I WAS THERE!
But I couldn't. I couldn't even knock a glass off the little table next to the chair.
My parents took Michael and Trisha's parents took her out.
The doctors took the sheet over me and pulled it up over my body's face.
I felt dizzy for just a second but then I followed Michael and my parents home.
It wasn't until then that he really looked at me.