Till Death Do We Part

Alex and Tammy were late. They bustled around their bedroom and master bath anxiously and excitedly. It was the night of the Military Ball, and it was the first time Alex and Tammy had been able to attend. “God damn it, Alex, we really should have taken

the day off to get ready!” “Come on Tammy you know hell of well I can’t be taking time off just for a dance, I’ll be laughed into oblivion by my superiors!” “Well Jesus Christ I’m a train wreck right now, I could’ve taken the time off today, my boss wouldn’t have

missed me in the least I bet.”

Alex scoffed at this and continued to his closet space to pick out a tie. He held up two to the body length mirror on the back of the door trying to determine just which one he thought made him look more distinguished. “Where the black one, it’s classic.” Tammy

told him directly. “That’s no fun though, I’m trying to be a trend setter.”

He went against her wishes and put on the red tie with white diamond style print. Tammy was in the restroom pulling up her hose not caring if she ended up tearing it here and there. She threw on a white 20s style flapper dress and came waltzing into

the bedroom and Alex could only stand there stunned that this was really his fiancé, the one who he was due to marry in 3 months’ time. “Put your tongue back in your mouth and let’s get going I’m not even going to bother putting on make-up we are already late!”

The sprinted slightly to their garage door

attached to the laundry area and hopped into their Porsche Cayenne. Upon arriving at the ball, a valet attendant proceeded to request their keys and gave them a ticket

number. “Ugh, I don’t trust this kid with my car.” Alex complained a bit. “You have insurance, don’t worry about it.”

They entered the hall, and it was a stunning sight, the decorations, food, the people. They were almost bewildered by the amount of activity happening. “Come on, let’s dance!” and before Alex could resist Tammy had grabbed his hand and pulled him out

onto the middle of the dance floor. It was a soft song, a love ballad playing. “I just couldn’t resist with this song playing.” Tammy swooned.

They held each other as the music rolled across, finally calm and content. Another song started much like the last, a very mellow and fluid ballad. Tammy rested her head

on Alex’s chest, against his heart for a spell, then begin to whisper to him, “I have to tell you something and please don’t be alarmed.” “What is it, Babe?” Alex softly queried back.

“I’m dead.”

With this statement Alex tried to maintain composure and not thrust her backwards

and make a scene. “What do you mean, Hun?” he calmly asked. “I died three weeks ago in a car accident. I swerved to miss hitting a deer and spun off into the lake and my

car sunk into the water. I drowned.”

Alex continued to sway with her on his chest to the rhythm of the music bellowing out from the speakers surrounding the hall. He quickly glanced around with his eyes, and no one seemed to have noticed or heard what she had said. Everyone was mildly

talking to each other and nodding in his direction from afar, but he thought only because Tammy was so ravishing.

Alex then softly chuckled and said “Good one, babe. Next, you’ll tell me I’m dancing with your ghost.” “Well, you kind of are…well, not kind of…...

You really are;

Surprise!” Tammy whispered back to him.

“Come on Tam, this isn’t funny anymore. Quit it.” He nervously said all the while keeping her head on his chest and going along with the steady foot movements to the music which had already begun to spin the next song. “I wish I could say I were joking Alex, as she started to weep ever so bit. I wish I could say I was alive and well, but I am trapped down in that lake, the water came gushing in so fast and the car went down so quickly to the river’s bottom. I struggled to get my seatbelt off, but it wouldn’t budge.

And I couldn’t bear not taking a breath any longer and opened my mouth in a gasp and inhaled the warm and stagnant water of Markle Lake.”

“You told me your care was at Kent’s Alignment Shop, Tam. Is it April fools’ day already or what?” Alex was beginning to grow weary of what he thought clearly was a prank against him. It was not however, Tammy was telling the truth about her car being

in the lake, she had only given the car in the shop story to avoid telling him the heartbreaking truth regarding her unexpected demise.

“And then there’s this.” She took his hand and placed it over her belly region. He was starting to become close to blacking out. “A baby.” He stated rather than asked, he knew they had been banging almost every night anyway for the past month. “Yes,

it’s a miracle Alex, I’m a spirit I know but I have been able to carry on in solid form and now carry our child all through the power of love. I know it.” “Alex was in disbelief, his mouth agape, but she had told him numerous times already

she was not joking. “How can other people see you then Tammy!” “That’s the thing Alex,

They can’t.”

And with that she stepped back and took her right hand and began to peel off her face sliver by skin sliver revealing a dainty and yellow-green tinged skull beneath, with freshwater ferns growing out her mouth. “This is what I truly looked like,” a talking

skeleton of a once beautiful woman, his fiancé, stated to Alex. He began to glance around the room in a panic truly alarmed anyone else may be seeing what was before him. Everyone just seemed to carry on with what they were attending to there just

sympathetic nods to his direction still. Then he heard it, from somewhere, directly he did not know, in a whisper that began to echo throughout his mind:

“Poor Alex, he just can’t seem to let go….”