| Natalie stood up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She looked down at herself and was confused by her outfit. The dark gray hooded sweatshirt she�d been wearing earlier had suddenly become an immaculately clean white and her loose dark denim jeans had a strange silvery tint. Looking up, Natalie was shocked by the sea of people ahead of her. "What happened to my car?" she asked, rather dumbly, since absolutely no one was paying any attention to her. Everyone was paying attention attention to and screaming at whatever was at the front of the crush of people. She got onto her tiptoes, but saw nothing but even more heads. She dove in and Natalie wove through the far right side of the throng of people and after ten long minutes of squeezing and squishing, she made her way to the front. There were tall steps, like the ones in �Rocky�, but less, and these were a bright white, like the new color of her sweatshirt, and were rimmed with neon blue lights. Like Las Vegas in the 80s. Everyone around her looked hysterical or just as confused as she was, so Natalie began to squish her way towards the center. Here, people had begun to form a single-file line, but the noise was even more deafening than where she was earlier. Her hands tightened themselves around her ears and she looked up the stairs to find one calm person in the entire crowd. He was very tall with jet black hair, gray patches around the temples, and squared black wire-framed glasses that sat smartly on the bridge of his nose. Reminded Natalie of her dad. Looked exactly like her dad, now that she thought of it. It looked like a club. Not a dance club or anything like that, but a ritzy club. A forties-style Frank Sinatra kind of club, all decked out in white and electric blue. The Dad-look-alike matched the place, with a white expensive Armani-looking suit and a bright blue silk tie peaking up from underneath. "Hey!" she yelled at him. "What the hell is this?" He threw an upset glare at her and dealt with the head of the line before coming back. "We don't say 'hell' in the place, young lady," he scolded. Pausing, he then asked, "Who are you?" and his thick New York accent bubbled through. Natalie was shocked. It was so loud, she could barely hear herself think, but this guy, she heard his words clear as day. And now that she realized it, he hadn�t even opened his mouth. Natalie looked up at him again. He had an amused smirk on his face and she heard his voice again. "What�s the name, little lady?" She had meant to shout out �Natalie Harris� at the top of her lungs, but with the noise, it was like mouthing out the words. "Think it to me, sweetheart." "It�s Natalie Harris," she whispered in her mind. He grinned. "Finally! We�ve been waitin� for ya." Natalie gave him a confused look, but followed him up the steps. A dull wave of groaning followed her through the spinning doors and into a wide restaurant. "What is this?" she thought to the man. "You can talk out loud now, sweets," he told her. Her eyes went wide with shock. "Thank you for the warning," she grumbled, though following him through the splotches of well dressed people accessorized with champagne glasses and, what else but, Frank Sinatra music. Natalie followed her Dad-look-alike all the way through until they stopped at the bar. They were standing behind a younger looking man with dark, dark brown hair, gelled accordingly, champagne glass in hand and white sport jacket hugging his shoulders like every other male in the room. He was small-talking with an older lady with long blonde hair and bright magenta eyes. They stood well enough behind him, waiting patiently. Just when Natalie�s impatient foot-tapping was beginning to get audible, Magenta-Eyes kissed the young man on the cheeks goodbye and was gone. He turned around, a bright smile on his face, like he was expecting them. Natalie nearly swallowed her tongue with shock. "Nathan?" He smiled even wider and looked down at himself. "If that�s who I look like, then that�s who I am," he said, brightly. "Why are you wearing that jacket?" she asked and grabbed for the champagne glass. "And since when did you start drinking champagne?" Nathan laughed with the Dad-look-alike. Natalie frowned, her hands unhappily at her hips. "What is so funny? And where am I?" "What does it look like?" Nathan said, with a laugh. "The Forties Club from �Blast From the Past�," she said with a sarcastic tone, though she meant it. Nathan and Dad-look-alike laughed again. "You know, sweets," Dad-look-alike said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and walking her around. Nathan walked along closely on her other side, occasionally sipping from his glass that ceased to empty. "You�re not supposed to be here." "I don�t even know where here is," she said, rudely. "Here is Heaven, babe!" Nathan laughed. Natalie�s eyes went wide. "You mean, Frank Sinatra�s heaven right?" He shook his head. "No, I mean, heaven. As in the real deal. As in the whole shebang. As in-" he held his arms out motioning to everything in the room. "This is heaven, Nat." She sighed, shaking her head vigorously. "I don�t believe you. I don�t- This can�t be heaven. I can�t be dead. I�m not dead. I�m not dead!" "Oh, but you are," Dad-look-alike said, matter-of-factly. Natalie sighed again, still not believing. "So you�re telling me," she said, dubiously, "That this is heaven. As in the real-deal heaven. As in flying angels with wings and harps and clouds and everything?" Nathan rolled his eyes. "Well, that was about two hundred years ago. We�ve remodeled. I hated those robe-y things God made us wear." "God?" she said, her blue eyes huge with shock. "You- you guys are angels?" Nathan shrugged, as if it were no big deal. "No way. I still don�t believe it. This doesn�t look like heaven at all." She shook her head. "What am I saying? This isn't heaven because I'm not dead." Nathan sighed, and snapped his fingers. The entire scene had changed from the classy piano-ish setting to a rave. Well, a rave plus more lights and minus the Ecstasy. The noise was down too. The thudding beats of a bass just hummed in Natalie�s ears. She caught a glimpse of Nathan. His hair was gelled up into deadly-looking spikes and he wore a red Hurley T-shirt and baggy jeans. His mouth was glowing. "Oh, gross," Nathan said, spitting out a mini-mouth glow stick. "I�ma reprogram this place without the glow sticks. I always end up choking. I don't see what you humans think is so wonderful about those things. But, we�re still in heaven." Natalie heard snapping in the background and the scene changed once more. They were in a country club now. Dad-look-alike was wearing a dark gray suit and Nathan was in a polo shirt and khakis. The whole deal was scaring her now. What kind of sick dream was this? "It�s not a dream, darling," Dad-look-alike said. She shuddered. "Don�t do that! Don�t get into my head like that." He shrugged. "Sorry." "No way can we be in heaven," she said, doubtfully, checking out her surroundings. "No way. I mean, I can�t be dead. I-" she quickly tried to pick out a flaw in the supposed heaven scenery. "Nathan doesn�t have wings. Angels- angels are supposed to have the big feathery wings." Nathan sighed, a sad look overcoming his face. Huge feather wings appeared from his back, at least three feet long each. "Happy?" he said. His cheeks were turning a light shade of pink as he bowed his head, shamefully. Natalie�s eyes went even wider and the wings quickly disappeared. She shook her head, blinking a few times. "Still, I can�t be dead. I�m not supposed to be dead. I have to play at the Crest. I have- I told Nathan and Anna that I would play even if I was dead. I even swore it, and I never swear." "That's good!" Dad-look-alike commented. "Swearing is bad." Natalie gave him a funny look but continued. "But yeah, that doesn't matter because I'm not. I�m not dead. I can�t be dead. I am not supposed to be dead!" "That�s right," Dad-look-alike said. "You�re not supposed to be dead." That was the most shocking thing she had heard the whole night. "SO YOU KILLED ME OFF FOR NO REASON?!" she shouted. Nathan rolled his eyes. "Pchh, we didn�t kill you." He pointed down the aisle to a girl in a white and pink tennis outfit. "She did." The girl was about Natalie�s age with cropped blonde hair and big green eyes and cherry red lips. She was unbelievably bubbly and skipped over to them when Dad-look-alike called for her. "Anna?" Natalie said. Not so shocked this time; almost anything was believable now. "Oh, is that who I am today?" she said, perkily. "Why do you look like my father?" Natalie asked, turning angrily at him. It was beginning to upset her that all these people were suddenly coming back into her life. Er, death... "Thought you�d ask that," he said, motioning for the group to follow him. They sat in a circle of big comfy leather seats. Anna crossed her legs in a very un-Anna-like way and Natalie lay sideways, her head and legs dangling off each arm. Dad-look-alike looked at her crossly for a second and then smiled. "Yeah?" Natalie said, getting the picture. She slid over and sat correctly in the chair, with her legs crossed Indian-style. "Why do you look like my father?" She turned to Nathan. "And why do you look like Nathan?" She then turned to Anna. "And why do you look like Anna? And why did you kill me?!" "First, why we look like your father and friends," Dad-look-alike explained calmly. "This is heaven!" he threw his arms in the air. "If you�re in heaven, then you should see the people that make you feel comfortable. People that you love. The people you love the most. And well you must love your father and friends a lot." "Well, I can�t go around calling you guys Dad and Nathan and Anna if I�m going to be here for the rest of eternity," Natalie sighed, sadly leaning back into her leather chair. "What are your real names?" "You won�t get it," Anna said, looking down sadly, "We�ll you won�t get mine at least. You�ll get� um, Nathan�s. And you�ll probably laugh at you�re, uh, Dad�s, but you won�t understand mine." Natalie looked at her strangely. "Shoot." What Natalie heard wasn�t a name at all. She saw Anna�s mouth open and move in a way that would normally have formed words, but instead she just heard music. It was like someone bringing their hand and brushing it all the way down a harp. It was beautiful, really. "Whoa," Natalie said, shocked. "I told you." "So then what do I call you? Because my vocal chords aren�t equipped with instrumental adjustings." "Everyone else calls me Shannon." Natalie shrugged. "What do I call you?" "Adam," Nathan said, plainly. "And you?" "Eduardo." Natalie looked down, smiling wide, trying not to laugh. She could never imagine calling her father Eduardo. The all-American, hard-working, blue-collar, meat-and-potatoes guy that her dad was did not fit the title 'Eduardo'. But well, this wasn't her father, right? "Eddie it is, then." She looked up at him. "Is my dad here?" she asked, softly. At first she thought he had ignored her question. "You don't have to stay here," he told her. But she didn't even care. She wanted to know about her father, damn it. "You didn't answer my question," she said. "I did," he thought to her. "He's here, I told you, but you won't see him now, or any time soon, if you choose the option I give you." "Your question doesn't really matter," Eddie said aloud. Natalie choked on her thoughts. How could they be so horrible to her in heaven? All she wanted was to see her dad. "Because you're going back to earth, if you want to." Her eyes widened. "I am? I can? I'll be back to play the Crest next Friday?" "That�s the thing," Adam said, doubtfully, "You can be back by Friday, but your body won�t be." "What are you talking about?" "They found your body already," Eddie said. "They know you�re dead. People on earth know you�re dead, we can just resurrect you like that. That�s sort of a God thang. But we can bring you back as someone else. You�ll be in the body of someone that has died but no one�s found out yet. Do you get what I�m saying?" Natalie nodded yes and then no. Adam stood. "Well, if you wanna go, we might as well go now. I�ll show you. Me and Shannon." Shannon nodded happily. Natalie looked at them strangely. "Wait, wait. I still don�t understand why I�" She paused. "DIED." Adam and Eddie looked at Shannon. She frowned guiltily. "That would be me, Shannon, the junior angel," she said, "I had a list. I must have saw your name and read the date wrong. Wrong year� I� I didn�t� I just read the list wrong. I really didn�t mean to. I�m so sorry, Natalie. I�m so-" Natalie�s mouth dropped. She looked curiously at Eddie. "Some angel-in-training that looks like my best friend played hit-woman and accidentally had me murdered?" "You say it like it�s a bad thing," Shannon said. Natalie rolled her eyes and stood up. "So can we go body shopping now or what?" Eddie stood, too, and smiled. "If Adam and Shannon are up to it." Shannon perked up. "I love shopping!" |