Unfinished Business

Being a ghost sucked.

Yuki watched the morning traffic speed by from her perch on the back of a park bench. She sighed, crossing her legs and tapping her other foot on the seat. The office workers, grocery store checkers, and delivery drivers had no idea how lucky they were. They had places to be, business to be about, deadlines.

And Yuki had flat-lined.

She'd been a ghost for about two months now and was bored out of her mind.

Being a ghost hadn't always been boring. At first, it had been terrifying. She'd been shocked when she sat up in the center of Main Street, watching a paramedic team rush her squashed body away and police cars frantically trying to redirect traffic.

Horrified didn't even begin to describe what she felt next. She'd had a full-blown panic attack when one of the officers walked right through her. A moment before, Yuki had been crossing the street on her way to pick up her library books. The next, she was an apparition having heart palpitations.

Then, she was furious. Her life couldn't be over! She'd just been getting started! Leaving her toxic family's house, moving to a new town, and starting a new job which she didn't utterly despise this time. Then BOOM! Dead. She felt cheated and disappointed, and ultimately underwhelmed.

Her anger lasted the weekend. Depression set in by Monday.

She went to her own funeral, which was a surreal experience. The function had been on a budget, and none of her family members seemed particularly cut up. At least Stephan's eulogy had been nice. He'd been a good friend.

Afterwards, Yuki had gone and mopped about all her old haunts. Actually haunting them was a whole lot less fun, and haunting people just made Yuki feel like a creep.

When she realized she could go to the movies for free, it had cheered her up a bit, but the feeling didn't last long.

She'd been watching a rerun of Just Like Heaven when Yuki started to wonder; Why wasn't she moving on to the afterlife?

She set about trying everything she could think of to jump-start the reincarnation process. After many failed attempts—one of which involved trying to crawl into her own casket—Yuki had concluded that she must have some unfinished business tethering her to earth.

But what?

That was the question Yuki pondered as she sulked on the park bench.

I had to be something she could complete as a ghost, right? That crossed off most of the things on her bucket list, like directing a movie or getting her driver's licence.

So what fucking is it? Yuki groaned and plopped her head into her hands.

A second later, a pigeon flew through her chest and shit on the bench. Yuki didn't bother moving. While she'd gotten used to things passing through her, in her eyes, she was just as visible and tangible as ever. She could pick things up, sit down, feel the weather, though it was more like experiencing the memory of it. All those ghost stories she'd read had been totally lying about the whole see-through deal—

Wait.

Yuki froze.

Stories...

Books! Her TBR!

She had over three hundred books on her To Be Read list, and she'd often vowed to her friends she'd finish them all before she died. It will take you that long to finish them all, her friends had joked.

Could her TBR really be her unfinished business?

The more Yuki thought about it, the more it made sense. It felt right. Plus, it was something she could complete as a ghost; she'd just have to haunt the local library.

Yuki sprang up for the bench and started booking it towards the Peterstone-Sundale Regional Library. She took a shortcut, running through cars and buildings, anything standing in her way. As she ran, all the titles on her TBR came flooding into her mind. It was like they'd just been waiting for her to remember them.

This must be it. Her TBR was her unfinished business.

Yuki burst through the library wall, right behind the reception desk. Wendy, the librarian, crouched there picking up paperclips that had fallen onto the floor. She wore a grey sweater, which was strange. Her signature color was yellow. And she looked gloomy, which was even stranger. Yuki had only ever exchanged a few words with the young woman despite having frequented the library often. She'd always been too excited about getting her books, and while always cheerful, Wendy was shy.

Yuki hurried past Wendy and into the library. She found the adult fantasy section and started browsing the shelves. In a few minutes, she found the book she was looking for and pulled it off the shelf.

She opened The Priory of the Orange Tree and sat down on the floor, starting to read immediately.

The stranger came out of the sea like a water ghost, barefoot and wearing the scars of his journey... As she read the first sentence, everything clicked. This is what she'd been supposed to be doing.

Yuki got down to business.

From then on, Yuki haunted the library constantly. She burned through whole books in half a day, starting another right after. She was on fire with purpose. Yuki almost felt like she was alive again. Almost.

When Wendy walked right through her or picked up the book Yuki was reading at one of the desks and put it in her library cart to re-shelf, it was a bleak reminder. But Yuki kept plugging away at her TBR and... she didn't hate hanging around Wendy either. Even if the librarian kept subconsciously reminding Yuki of the cold reality that she was, in fact, dead.

Wendy had always had a sunny smile for Yuki whenever she visited the library. She'd always offered her a candy from her jar of sweets on her way out. They'd once spent fifteen minutes searching for the most recent Brandon Sanderson novel together.

It was strange to see Wendy looking so down. Sometimes the young woman would sit at her desk and stare into space for so long that Yuki would get worried. She only wore clothes in muted colors, and her steps seemed heavy. Yuki wondered what had happened. She'd been so bubbly before.

Time went by. Yuki spent hours at the library reading every day. She was making splendid progress on her TBR. Only 236 books left. Wendy seemed to be cheering up, too. She started wearing her colorful, embroidered sweaters again. She even wore sparkly lip gloss one day. Sometimes, she hummed Thai pop songs as she re-shelved books. One day, Wendy caught herself staring as the librarian built a new craft table for the kids' room.

Wendy was... really, really cute.

Yuki shook herself and forced her eyes back to the book she was reading. It wasn't her favorite so far. Another heterosexual elf/human romance with a problematic age-gap. She didn't even remember why she added it to her TBR. Probably because the cover was pretty.

Before long, her eyes strayed back to Wendy. Something twisted in Yuki's chest. Not for the first time, she wished she hadn't died.

170 books left to go. Yuki kept working away at her TBR, her progress only slightly slower since Wendy's adorable presence kept getting more and more distracting.

98 books left. Yuki tried switching libraries. Her progress became even slower. She missed Wendy.

52 books left. Yuki went back to Peterstone-Sundale Regional Library. Fine, Yuki admitted to herself. I've got a crush on her.

20 books left. Every day brought the end of her TBR closer in sight. Yuki was mildly concerned that she didn't appear to be 'fading' yet, but maybe that only happened after she completed her TBR. She could only hope. Except that was the problem. She didn't really hope so anymore. Yuki felt both annoyed and saddened by this realization.

Damn it, I wish I hadn't died, she thought, pulling the eighth volume of Heaven Official's Blessing off the shelf.

9 books to go. A few feet away, Wendy was dusting the shelves.

Yuki watched her from her seat on the floor at the end of the aisle. "Hi," Yuki said. "Can you hear me?" Please hear me.

Wendy kept dusting.

Yuki sighed and turned back to her book. I was worth a shot, she thought.

Finally, the day came. Yuki had reached the end of her TBR. She only had one book left, Katabasis by R. F. Kuang. She reluctantly picked it out of Wendy's library cart of books to re-shelf tomorrow. It was the book she'd been coming to the library to pick up when she'd gotten hit by that car. She'd left it for last because of that. Yuki steeled herself. Might as well finish it all tonight. She could hear Wendy shutting windows. The library closed soon, and she'd be heading home.

Yuki took a deep breath and sat down in what had become her favorite bean bag chair. She started at the cover a long time before opening it. She read the whole table of contents, author's note, even the copyright page. Then, slowly, she turned to chapter one.

Yuki froze. A few Post-it notes were stuck to the page.

It read: Hello, Yuki Kato. This is from Wendy, the librarian. Sorry if this is super weird. I honestly can't believe I'm writing this ha ha... But I don't have the courage to say this to your face yet... I love your taste in books, and I think you're really cute. Would you like to get coffee sometime? I know a great place on 3rd Street. Here's my number. Let me know if you'd like to ♡ - Wendy Seo

Yuki had barely finished reading the note when she started to disappear. No, no, no, no, she thought as she watched her hands vanish, the book falling through her onto the bean bag chair. She jumped up, the rest of her body fading fast.

My TBR was never my unfinished business, Yuki realized. It was Wendy's unread note.

Yuki started running for the front desk. Maybe she could catch Wendy before she left. Maybe she could get through to her. Maybe... she could... tell... her...

I w o u l d h a v e l o v e d t o , Yuki thought. We n d y—