A Long Wait

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright 2011 Plot Roach.

A Long Wait

By Plot Roach

It was the gunshot that woke her up. Unfortunately for her, the wound she received was also fatal. She had just enough time to wake out of the haziness of sleep to feel the pain before the blackness of death took her. Her spirit stood beside the bed, looking down at her body. The arm of it stretched out to the side table, having knocked the contents to the floor.

“What was I doing?” she asked her companion in the shadows.

“I think that you thought it was the alarm clock, so you went to hit the snooze button.” It said.

“Are you here for me?” she asked the presence.

“Yes and no.” it said. “I’m just ‘here’ like you.”

“Come into the light where I can see you better.” she pleaded. “I hate to be alone in death and I want to see my only companion.”

“It might bother you.” it said. “And it’s not the light that allows you to see or not see me, it’s my willingness to be seen.”

“Come to me anyway.”

“Alright, you asked for it.” It said and stepped closer. It was a sewer rat, about the size of a kitten and not nearly as cute.

“Oh” she said.

“I told you so.” the rat admitted.

“No, it’s just that… I thought you’d be…”

“Death? Your guardian angel? Maybe Jesus?” the rat asked.

“Well… kind of.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Oh, well” she said. “You might as well be here. Someone needs to put the dead body to use. You might as well feed on it until the neighbors find me.” she said.

“That’s kind of you to offer and all. Not that I needed your permission. But it’s kind of a moot point.” It said, its whiskers twitching in what she assumed was either humor or frustration.

“Why is that?” she asked.

“I’m dead too.” the rat said.

“I thought that you were here because of me.”

“I am here because of you, but not in the way you think.” the rat explained.

“Huh?”

“Remember the poisoned rodent bait you put in that peanut butter and left out a few months ago?”

“Yeah…”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh.”

“It’s different killing a rodent when you can talk with it, isn’t it?”

“Kind of.”

“Don’t feel so bad, I don’t hold a grudge or anything.”

“I’m glad, but… How come you’re still here and not in rat heaven or something?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe this is it. Maybe there is no Heaven or Hell. Maybe waiting around is only for rats and you’ll get to move on. Otherwise, it’s going to be one long wait.” the rat said.

“One long wait for what?” She asked.

“More company.”

“How so?”

“It seems that your neighbor botched his suicide and is being trundled off to the hospital as we speak. He’ll probably be in a coma for years…”

“How do you know that he tried to commit suicide?”

“It was the gunshot that killed you, remember?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” the rat said. “It’s going to be a long wait.”