Little Red Gem by D L Richardson Read Free Book Online Page B

about being angry with her and
welcomed her company.
    “ Okay, I’ll admit this has
been a rather extraordinary morning so you may be right.” I sniffed
back the tears and turned to face her. “How did I die?”
    “ Your car slid down an
embankment. You weren’t wearing a seatbelt. Leo dragged you out of
the car but it was too late.”
    I jumped up.
“Leo!”
    Panic slammed into me
faster than a tsunami slammed through homes. I bolted down the
street in the direction of Rock-A-Lilly’s. Blindly, I ran out into
the oncoming traffic, a small truck. A few tons of metal came
barreling toward me. I did what anybody living or dead would do – I
screamed. But instead of the truck breaking every bone in my body,
my vision fragmented like a kaleidoscope. I turned around to see
the truck stop for a red light. The driver didn’t bother getting
out and inspecting the damage, because there was none. Not to the
car. Not to me.
    Intact and unhurt, I took
off once more for Rock-A-Lilly’s. Audrey called out from behind,
“Wait. Ruby, come back”, but I ignored her and kept
running.
    I guess ghosts were better
at travelling at fast speeds than astral projections because I left
Audrey in my imaginary dust. My purpose spurred me on – find Leo.
That and that alone was my only reason to exist now. He must have
been an emotional wreck, believing me dead and gone. Dead, yes, but
I hadn’t gone anywhere and I needed him to know this. How often had
he told me that he didn’t believe in the afterlife? How often had I
eagerly agreed with his philosophy simply to see his
smile?
    The fatal flaw in my plan
never once entered my mind; if I was invisible to Natalie and
Shanessa, I was invisible to Leo.
     
     
     
    ***
     
     
    Rock-A-Lilly’s sat
shrouded in dark shadows by the time I arrived, the storm-grey dome
that had hovered at the edge of the town earlier seemed determined
to lock everyone beneath its gloomy hull. Walking up the path
leading to the front door, a loud buzzing sound attacked me.
Similar to the sound an electric fence makes, the noise grew louder
the closer I got to the glass doors.
    Not this again. My hand still tingled from my earlier attempt to
touch glass.
    I pushed beyond the weird
sensation, yet trying to open the door was like trying to grab hold
of a laser beam. The more I forced my hand forward, the worse the
buzzing sensation got.
    I looked around for Audrey
but the parking lot was uncharacteristically empty. She must have
decided against following me and I wished now that I’d waited for
her. At least she might have been able to go inside and invite me
in.
    Leo usually sat behind the
counter tuning guitars or replacing broken drum sticks for other
musicians. Peering through a glass panel in the door and suffering
the blinding buzzing attack, I spied Lilly, one half of the
studio’s name, sitting behind the counter. She was tall and
straight like the stem of a flower, and she wore her
bleached-blonde hair in a spike which reminded me often of her
namesake. Her partner, Rock, called so because he was dark like
granite, hovered in the background pinning posters of bands to the
walls. I liked Rock but I’d never had the stomach for Lilly’s
crassness. Still, I’d have tolerated stories of her and Rock’s sex
life in exchange for one of them noticing me and letting me in. To
my great dismay, neither one possessed supernatural powers that
enabled them to see me jumping up and down outside to get their
attention.
    Stupidly, I realized that
Leo would have been too distressed to work and he’d be at home with
his family. I blinked and pictured his house, and when I next
opened my eyes my face was pressed up against a window. Taking a
step back, I saw I was standing at the dining room window of Leo’s
house.
    The tingles and buzzing in
my ears had eased a little, as if I were becoming accustomed to my
death. I pressed close to the glass to eavesdrop on the
conversation happening around the dinner table.
    “