Resurrecting Harry by Constance Phillips Read Free Book Online Page B

still hung exactly as Harry left them before he and Bess left for their last trip: a series of performances that ended for him in Detroit, Michigan. Except for his stage clothes, they were nowhere to be seen. His trunk sat in the corner, covered with a thin layer of dust. Erich wondered if she’d packed the costumes in there.
    He stood in his home, yet was a stranger. And though it was only tiny things — like the stage clothes — that seemed different, each change ate at him.
    What to wear? He slid his fingers down the sleeve of the blue cotton dress shirt. Or maybe he should pick the simple white one? 
    “Eleven months is a long time to hold on to anything. Isn’t it?”
    Erich didn’t have to look to know Jaden stood behind him at the ready to probe his psyche. “You think it’d be better if she threw my things away?”
    “Not yours. Harry Houdini’s,” Jaden said, his voice cool and firm. The reminder put Erich off balance. “You are no longer that man.”
    In some ways, a distinction between the two seemed absurd. Every single one of Harry’s memories breathed inside of him, as if the period of time since he’d been hospitalized and received this new body was just a long, twisted dream. In other ways, the distinction made perfect sense. Everything from Bess’s unknowing stare to an old friend treating him like a suspect stranger distanced that life, as if it had belonged to someone else.
    But now — in this house — Harry’s voice screamed at him from deep inside to reclaim his life. He touched the shirts again, Jaden’s warnings bouncing around in his mind like a ping-pong ball.
    “Is there a right choice?” he asked out loud, trying to remember if Bess had ever expressed a preference.
    “To see you in either is going to cut her to the bone.”
    “Then why did she offer them?”
    “It isn’t that complicated. In your previous life, wouldn’t you have given the clothes off your back to a man brave enough to dash into traffic to save a small child? Every action and every choice she makes is dictated by what Harry would have done.”
    Jaden spoke the truth. Harry would have applauded the bravery and done just as Jaden suggested. Following that gut instinct, Erich selected the light blue shirt and slipped it on, wincing at the pain the movement caused. “Why is this body marred with the incision from Harry’s surgery?”
    “You like that? I thought it was a nice touch.” Jaden’s laugh sounded yet again, causing acid to bubble and press up from Erich’s stomach. The Houdini image was his hard-earned prize, and it offended him that Jaden mocked it.
    “Why do I think it’s there for a reason?”
    “You’re a smart guy. No one can deny you that. Everything in life has reason, value, consequence and repercussion.”
    “Repercussion. Saving the child burst a stitch. Punishment for a good deed?” Erich asked, frustrated by Jaden’s typical avoidance techniques.
    “Wrong. That was a consequence. Just because something is right doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Repercussion will be how it affects you.”
    “Pain?”
    Jaden sighed and shook his head. “Too narrow a focus. I’m rather disappointed. I expected you’d visualize the future more.”
    The endless stream of riddles made Erich’s head light. He had once enjoyed games like this, but having experienced death, the frivolity seemed pointless. He started buttoning the shirt. “What comes after pain? Either healing, more pain or death? Are there repercussions to death?”
    Jaden’s hand touched the center of Erich’s back. An instant flash of fire shot through his body, dragging him to his knees. His head arched back and pain contorted every muscle. Not the physical, like when the stitch had torn in two, but the pain of a heart ripping to shreds, of drowning in grief.
    In his mind, the slideshow of images, like those that played during his months of death, flashed in front of him. Only this time, he wasn’t inside his own mind’s