Memories from a Different Future: Jump When Ready, Book 2 by David Pandolfe Read Free Book Online Page B

on the stone wall. She jumped back, her heart suddenly
pounding. Curtis stood looking back at her. Nikki watched as his image
flickered in and out of solidity. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d
felt afraid but now her skin tingled. She couldn’t help think—even as she
realized the irony—that it felt like she was seeing a ghost.
    “Curtis? How can you be here?”
    Curtis took a step toward her. The same long, red hair
and piercing green eyes. But within those eyes, no longer the anger she
remembered. Definitely, not the peace she recalled from the time before he’d
jumped into a new life again either. Instead, a sadness she’d never seen in his
eyes before. Still, he said nothing.
    “Curtis, tell me why you’re here. Can I help you? You
can’t possibly be here.”
    Nikki stood transfixed, waiting for him to answer.
Instead, the light above crossed through him and he started to fade. Within
moments, he disappeared just like last time, leaving Nikki alone in her garden.
    ~~~
    Nikki strode into the food court, not surprised to find
Henry and Jamie hunched over a table, each facing a plate loaded with food. If
anything remained consistent between this realm and the other, it was that
teenage boys remained perpetually starving. Of course, here they could also
perpetually remain teenage boys. “We need to talk,” she said, approaching their
table and pulling out a seat.
    Henry and Jamie nodded and waited but, predictably, Henry
didn’t entirely break his focus on his meatball sub and Jamie kept glancing at
his tacos.
    “Um, can it maybe wait a few seconds?” Jamie said.
“Seriously starving.”
    Nikki balled up a napkin and tossed it at his face. “You
arrived starving, butthead. You’re the only person I’ve ever heard of who
traveled to the afterlife with a jar of mayonnaise.”
    Jamie shrugged. “A life without mayonnaise is not worth
living. Didn’t somebody say that?”
    Nikki glared at him. “There’s no way someone would be stupid
enough to say that except you.”
    Jamie grinned. “You can quote me on that, if you’d like.”
    “Quote me on this.” Nikki reached across the table and
smashed one of his tacos with her fist.
    “Murderer!” Jamie said.
    Henry slid his plate out of Nikki’s reach and took a
hurried bite of his sub.
    “Really?” Nikki said.
    “It was getting cold,” Henry mumbled, his mouth full. He
swallowed like a seal gulping down a fish.
    Waiting for them to get serious was pointless, so Nikki
just blurted it out. “I saw Curtis.”
    Jamie frowned. “You mean Ian?”
    “Not Ian. Curtis. Twice. The other day in the kitchen,
then—”
    “I totally knew something was up,” Jamie said.
“For like just two seconds you weren’t bossy.”
    Normally, Nikki would have risen to the challenge but
this time she let it go. “I thought it had to be my imagination. But then I
just saw him again.”
    Henry stared at her, his eyes wide. “Where?”
    “Just someplace I go.” Nikki waited but neither one of
them pried for more information. Clearly, they felt the same way about keeping
a private place.
    “That’s not possible.” As soon as he said it, Jamie
snatched up one of his remaining tacos and took a quick bite.
    “Obviously, it is possible,” Nikki said. “Since it just
happened.”
    “I guess the question is, how is it possible?” Henry said.
    “Exactly.” Nikki hadn’t yet told them about her stunt
with the Ouija board. Actually, she’d never intended to. But now she felt like
she had no choice. It seemed there had to be some sort of connection between
her little bit of meddling and what she’d now experienced twice. “So, the other
night I kind of did something that maybe I shouldn’t have.”
    Jamie and Henry both took bites of food, then stared at
her, chewing and waiting for her to continue. Even an impossible visit to this
realm from someone who’d started a new life on Earth couldn’t tear them away
from their chow.
    “I kind of looked in on