Read Online The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly) by John Corwin - Free Book Online

about Einstein?  I'll bet he could help," I said.  Einstein could probably figure out anything.
    "Nobody I know has met him here.  One thing we've noticed is that all the ghosts here are relatively new.  We did meet some people from the Victorian Era, and a guy who claimed to be a duke or something in the Middle Ages, but nobody famous."
    "I think Einstein would be a lot more useful than a duke."
    "Duh.  I think we would've found him by now though."
    "Well if a duke from the Middle Ages is still running around Heavenly that probably means we've got a few hundred years of life here.  That is if he and the others aren't big fat liars."
    "I guess.  According to the old ghosts, there are those who take great interest in the living and those who grow bored with it and move into Beyond."
    "There's something after Heavenly?"
    "Apparently, but you can't just go there.  Someday you just know how to."
    Maybe that was the real Heaven, I thought.
    Kyle and I joined Chris later and discussed a campaign to increase alien awareness among our dead brethren along with a plea to help.  Maybe word would reach brilliant minds that had until now been lurking in the shadows.  Instead, we found increasing apathy and depression.  Most people blew us off, didn't want to hear anything more because the afterlife was supposed to be a happy place.
    After a time it became clear that the people who cared the most about battling alien scum were in our age range, somewhere between fourteen and the mid-twenties.  The number of concerned individuals diminished greatly in the older age groups.    It was ironic, really, when I remembered most of my friends being so ADD about everything.  Even with my own attention deficit mind almost constantly on Nick, I forced myself to the matter at hand.  If the aliens landed, they'd be sure to find Nick and kill him.
    Chris obsessed about finding an answer.  My feelings for him hadn't changed since Nick but I was incredibly conflicted about the two of them.  When it boiled down to the essentials, I had a better chance of making things work with the dead guy, not the living one. 
    "Has something changed?" Chris asked me as we flitted to Earth for some quiet time away from the ships orbiting Saturn.
    "No, of course not."  My voice trembled with the lie but I couldn't let him know.
    "You vanished for a while and now you seem different."
    "I wasn't all that interested in the space ship stuff.  You know that.  I took some time to explore."
    "Where'd you go?"
    "Just around Earth.  Looked at the touristy places."
    "You seem distant.  Emotionally, I mean."
    We arrived in Egypt and landed atop the Sphinx. I hugged him.  "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be."
    He kissed me and the warmth I remembered rushed back into me, flooding from my lips to my feet.  His hands pressed up my back and to my neck.  He gripped a handful of hair at the back of my head and gave a gentle tug.  A tingle ran down my back.  I felt alive again.  I could smell him.  I could feel the stubble on his chin.  Even feel his breath on my face.
    "I want you, Luce," he whispered in my ear.
    I stiffened and some of the pleasure drained out of me.  Chris cursed and backed away, turning from me and looking at the rising sun.
    "I'm sorry," I said, and pressed myself to his back.  "Let's just do it and get it over with."
    "It's so appealing when you put it that way," he said.  "You should want to by now.  Even if we were still alive you should still want to.  Don't you want to experience something new?"
    "Part of me desperately wants to.  Another part is scared stiff.  I can't help it."
    "Does that part of you feel that being a virgin is special?"
    "Probably.  I think it still clings to the memory of life."  I took his hand and made him face me.  "Let's do it right now.  Maybe after I try it once, I'll be fine."
    "Are you sure?"
    I nodded.  My lower lip trembled so I bit it.  What if we did it and I didn't feel anything?  What if