Lost

           The wind howled making me snuggle tighter into my hoodie as I made my way down the darkened street towards my lost husbands house. He worked early in the mornings so on the days he had the kids over night, I came to his place to get them off to school. Co-Parenting at its finest.

           “Hey, Sam. I made some coffee. Blueberry like you like.” Thomas held his door open for me as I clambered into his modest two bedroom. He was as handsome as the day I buried him and that would never change. Where my hair was now graying around the temples, his was still the vibrant red of his youth. See, my husband had died while on tour in Iraq almost ten years ago—only his ghost came home.

           The lost, as we call them, live among us as they would if they were corporal. The difference is they are of the next world, so while we can see them and talk to them, we cannot touch them, kiss them, or marry them. My husband is long dead to me, Thomas is only a ghostly reminder of the man I’d loved.

           Thomas had his own lost family now and the wife he’d gotten was kind and soft-spoken. I gave Rebecca a smile and complimented her dated frock. She wore complete with matching apron and bonnet. I’d never asked Rebecca how old her lost age was... but by her outfit I’d guess hundreds of years old. They’d even adopted lost children. All frozen in time at the respectful ages of one month, two years, and ten years. I imagine that when the children’s parents pass into the other life, they will go home to them, but until then Rebecca and Thomas tend to them and love them.

           “How were our munchkins last night?” I asked as I sipped my coffee.

           “You know how teenagers can be,” Thomas replied and gave me my favorite of his shotgun grins.

           “Oh, Thomas. Don’t say that. The kids were simply well mannered and behaved. You are doing well with them, Samantha.” Rebecca chimed in.

           Thomas grinned at her and wrapped his arm around her waist to nuzzle her neck. Something he’d used to do to me and a lance of pain lashed through me. I sipped my coffee a little more bitterly than before and said, “you better get going, Tom. It’s almost five already.”

           “True. True.” He agreed and kissed his wife. “Thanks for coming over and getting the kids off to school, Sam.” Winking at the two of us, he sighed. “Even dead, I have to work. The afterlife is such a grind.” With a chuckle, he was out the door.

           Rebecca glanced at me just as the lost one month old started to fuss. “A mother’s work is never done.” She gave me a slight bow of the head and was gone. In a moment, the baby stopped crying as well.

           I blew out a slow breath and focused on finishing my coffee. Ignoring my heart completely.

           ***

           “Hey, bruh. We got a new kid at school today.” Riley, my towheaded walking attitude, said as he climbed into my suv after school.

           “Don’t call me bruh, Riley.” I shook my head and waited for the slick ride in front of me to move their booty so I could get back to work. I honked the horn.

           “Mom, christ. You’re in the parking lot,” McKenna whimpered as she slid down in the back seat and covered her face.

           The man in the slick ride narrowed his eyes at me in his rearview mirror before he pulled carefully out of the way and I could finally high tail it back to my bookshop. As we rushed in, I flipped the open sign and said, “homework then phone time.”

           Groans sounded all around and I watched as they trudged up the stairs towards the office. I rubbed the back of my neck, dreaming of the advil that was cozily tucked into my coat pocket I’d left at home, and got back to ordering inventory for the shop.

           Ten minutes into it, the witch bells above the door jingled. I glanced up to see an attractive man with salt and pepper hair, a fitted suit that was too swanky for this Podunk town, and sunglasses that he peeled off slowly to reveal light blue eyes. He walked in with swagger next to a teenage boy with similar features, just softer and younger.

           “Welcome to Booked in Stone. Let me know if I can help you with anything.” I beamed and went back to my work while I let them look around the shop.

           “You lived here long?” A deep voice came from above me.

           My eyes traveled up the length of the sexy dude and I nodded. “All my life. You?”

           “Just moved into town a few days ago.”

           “Welcome to the neighborhood.” I climbed to my feet, since he seemed to be chatty.

           “You married?” He reached out and touched my wedding band.

           “No. My husband is among the lost. He lives down the street.”

           “Ah.” I shook his head. “I know how tough that is.” He inclined his head towards his son. “His mother became one of the lost at his birth.”

           “Oh, gosh. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

           “She has a husband and a new family. It hurt too much to watch them, so we left her behind many years ago.” He glanced at me. “We are better for it. Not an easy thing, but seeing her made grieving the loss so much more difficult for all of us.”

           “Wow.” I wiped my arm across my forehead to get the hair from my face. “I’ve heard many people struggle with that. And a lot think the lost should have their own towns and cities. My lost husband has a wife as well.”

           “How do you feel about it?”

           “It was difficult at first and I still have moments, but the kids get to have their dad and that’s huge. So I treat it as if we are divorced.”

           “Hmmm.” He tapped the counter. “Then why do you wear the ring?”

           “I...” I twisted the ring on my finger. “I don’t know.”

           “Grieving a lost love is never easy, no matter how that love was lost.” He gave me a soft smile that did wonders for his pretty face and sighed. “He thinks I’m going to buy all those Manga’s.”

           I laughed as his son tried to juggle the paperback novels as he made his way towards the counter. “Are you going to?”

           “Yes. Never turn down buying a kid book.” He winked at me as I rang up the stack of manga. We made small talk until he paid, and his son was on his way to the door. “My name is Lance. By the way.”

           “I’m Samantha or Sam for short.”

           “Nice to meet you, Sam.” He reached out to take my hand and brought it to his lips. “If you ever decided to take that ring off and start to live again like your lost husband has... call me.” He put a business card on the table and slid on his sunglasses. “Also, learn some patience in the school pick up line. I hate being honked at.”

           I snickered as he walked out and slid my ring from my finger to tuck it into my jeans pocket along with Lance’s business card.