Eternally yours

Melody lifted her head from the steering wheel and opened her eyes. All she could see was billowing grey smoke and flashing lights from emergency vehicles. The front end of her car was crunched like a beer can waiting in the recycle bin, and she could hear the hissing from the engine ringing in her ears. The car in front was facing the wrong way and looked as severely damaged as hers. Looking around, she noticed the driver's side door was already open, so she stepped out to see if she could find out how this occurred.

An ambulance was parked on the side of the road, and she saw a young man sitting on the gurney with a policeman inside taking notes.

“Excuse me, I was in the other car and just want to know what happened,” Melody said to the group, but no one answered. All she could hear was talk about texting and driving, and the young man started to cry and ask if his parents were there yet.

“I said, Excuse me. I would like to get some information about what happened. I was involved in this accident, too,” she said much louder this time to get their attention.

Again, no one looked her way. They just kept asking the boy for more questions. Melody was furious and thought she should return to her car and get her cell phone to try and get some help on her own. As she walked back toward her car, the smoke cleared away, and she stopped in her tracks. Somehow, she saw she was still in the car with her head against the steering wheel and all the airbags deployed around her. “I must be hallucinating from hitting my head,” she thought. And while she kept waiting to feel pain from the impact, she felt nothing except euphoria, which she couldn’t understand but somehow had peace with.

As she turned in a circle to take everything in, her only thought was that she needed to walk home and find her family. Melody knew she had to be at least five miles from her home, but every step she took felt like floating, and she moved quickly through the streets toward her street. On the way through their town, she passed the small boutiques she loved to frequent and stopped in front of her favorite antique store to look in the window. As she perused the beautiful display, she noticed a gold mirror and wanted to see how she looked after the accident; however, there wasn’t an image of her looking back. Once again, her only thought was, “How odd, I can’t imagine what is happening.”

Melody turned down the street and noticed the beautiful color of the fall leaves and how magical everything looked in the afternoon sun. Things flashed through her mind, like when the children were younger, and she used to take them trick-or-treating. She thought about family holidays when they gathered in the dining room to share beautiful meals and tell stories. The house felt so empty now that they were grown, but she was so proud that they had become happy, productive human beings.

A stone pathway wound around the house and led to the back door. It was covered in moss now, and the stones were worn away, but Melody remembered when she and her husband had put it together. They were still so young and just starting their careers, so money was tight, but the love was strong, and they enjoyed working on the house in their spare time. She always thought she was one of the lucky ones who had chosen the right man to build a life with, and they were still deeply in love after 35 years of marriage. She wondered if Phillip had heard about the accident because he should have been home by now.

There was a key for the back door hidden in a fake rock in the garden, and when Melody went to find it, she had to dig through overgrown weeds that she had been meaning to pull since the middle of summer but somehow never had time. When she slid the rock open, the key fell to the ground, and she reached to pick it up but stopped momentarily as she realized that her hand looked almost transparent. As she turned the key in the lock, the door floated open, and she entered the house, but something felt different. She ran her hand across the granite of her kitchen island but realized she couldn’t feel the cool stone under her fingertips. She bent over to smell the vase filled with her favorite lily and rose bouquet; however, no scent reached her nose. Melody walked into the dining room and stopped at each chair to reminisce about where her children sat when they were younger and how they would argue about whose night it was to do the dishes. As she reached the living room, she looked at the family pictures on the fireplace mantel and thought about how wonderful her life was and all the joyful memories that had been created. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the front door open, and her three children walked in together. They were holding onto each other and crying in an inconsolable way. Melody called out their names as she moved toward them, but no one looked at her. They just kept crying and heading for the couch.

“How come they can’t hear me?” she said out loud. She walked toward the fireplace to look in the mirror above it and, once again, did not see her reflection. It was at that moment she realized what happened. Melody wasn’t part of the living anymore, and no one knew she was there. She thought it was odd that she felt no emotion about that realization. However, being a mother never went away, even in the afterlife. The one feeling she still felt was the sadness of watching her children in pain. Melody walked up to her oldest daughter, Marin, and wrapped her arms around her. She knew she was the strongest of the three and would hold the family together. Next, she went to her middle child, her son Ben, brushed his hair from his forehead, and kissed his cheek. Finally, she stopped at the youngest child, her daughter Haley. She was a tender-hearted young woman who would probably have the most challenging time with what happened. Melody hugged her tight and whispered in her ear. “You’ll be fine, Haley. You are strong enough to get through this, and I will always be by your side.”

She stepped back to listen and heard the youngest say, “This home was our parents’ pride and joy, and it’s filled with so many wonderful memories. I swear I can feel their presence in this room.”

The other two children nodded in agreement, and Haley said, "I swear I just heard mom's voice in my ear, but I know that's just wishful thinking."

Melody thought it was odd that the children said she could feel “their" presence and wondered why Phillip hadn't gotten there yet. She turned to leave the room and saw her husband standing behind her with open arms, waiting to hug her.

"You can see me?" she asked.

"Of course I can, Melody," Phillip replied.

It wasn't until that moment that she remembered he was with her, running errands, when the accident happened. She walked toward him, slightly blinded by the bright light behind him, and took his hand. Phillip turned and looked at her with the same love in his eyes that was there on the first day they met and had never changed through all the years. Melody now knew their love would exist for the rest of eternity. They walked together hand in hand toward the light, but she stopped to see her children one more time and whispered, “Don’t worry, my loves, we will always be by your side.”