Floating Above

Jamie looked down on the lifeless body laying quietly, and quite dead, in the bed below him. Only inches from the face of the corpse, nose-to-nose, Jamie looked under himself over the full length of his body, from his head to his toes. He realized, in this moment, that he was floating above the corpse, and although it clearly was a dead person, he was not scared. He seemed to be floating in some ethereal cloud, so that when he looked through the cloud at the body below him, it was distorted because the cloud wavered and shimmered like a mirage in a hot desert. Because the ethereal cloud distorted his view of the body below him, he was not sure as to who belonged to the corpse or why he was the one hovering above the obviously dead person. He also noticed as he looked again under himself floating in the air, that he was colored a rather strange hue of blue. He rather liked it because blue was one of his favorite colors. Jamie peered through the ethereal cloud surrounding him, intent on seeing whose corpse it was lying dead in his bed. He stared and stared and then seeing the small slash across the corpse's cheek, a slash he got when he was a child riding his tricycle and crashing on the hard concrete sidewalk, that the corpse was him. The realization that he was looking down at his own corpse surprised him and for a fleeting moment he was terrified. "I am dead" he said to himself; "that cannot be." I was fine when I went to be last night after a long evening of drinking beer and eating ribs with his frat buddies. And so, he wondered how he had died. He looked deep into his own face, now turning a ghostly white below him, and saw a rather surprised look on his face. A look that seemed to say, "something is happening to me, but I do not know what it is." Maybe, Jamie thought, "he died of an aneurism in his brain--that would kill you it probably happened in his sleep so was sleeping when his brain shutdown.” "Maybe," Jamie thought, "he died of an unexpected heart attack.” No, his recent physical at his doctor's office showed that his blood pressure was 120 over 60, his pulse an athletic 68 and those are usually the signs of a healthy person. Maybe a poisonous spider bit him while he slept, or a poisonous snake snuck into his room and bit him on the ankle. No, he lived in the city and so no poisonous spiders or snakes about. "No," Jamie thought, "my brain malfunctioned, and I died when one of my arteries ruptured. That would explain the surprised look on my face." "So, I am dead, now what?" Jamie thought. "Am I going to heaven or hell?" He looked up to the ceiling above him and said to God, if there was one, he thought, "God, this is Jamie speaking," he said with a slight smile on his face. "I certainly deserve to go to heaven. You know how good I am to all the animals of the world, donating monies for the koala bears in Australia and the cheetahs in South Africa. Yea, I am not good with humans, but I know you won't hold that against me. And I certainly don't deserve to go to hell, so if there is a Satan, keep him the hell away from me! " Jamie sniggered, trying to grasp that he was a ghost, floating above his own dead body and trying to have a human conversation with the Almighty, another ethereal being. Jamie, encased in his ethereal cloud, began to move away from floating above his deathbed. He wasn't intentionally moving himself, but, nonetheless, he was heading toward the closed door to his bedroom. As he arrived at the door, he simply passed through it and entered the hallway. The bedroom right next to his was his little sister Mink's room. His whole family called her Mink--although her real name was Maria--because his grandmother, Dora, had started calling her Mink when she would comb her hair and comment on how soft and silky it was. As Jamie passed through Mink's door and traveled over to her bed until he was floating above her. She was sleeping soundly and one of their family’s tiny cats, Miss Millie, was sleeping with her and Mink held Millie in her arms as she made small snoring sounds. I guess the Almighty, or whomever, brought him into Mink's room to say goodbye and so as soon as he was floating over her sleeping body, he reached out his hand and touched her cheek. Then with a tear in his eye, he whispered, "Goodbye little sister. I love you and I hope my death does not bring you too much sadness. Millie will keep you safe and happy. Goodbye, Mink” Jamie’s floating body moved again on its own. Jamie wondered if his thoughts were the driving force behind his movements because after he said goodbye to Mink he thought about his parents. Jamie’s body again passed through Mink’s closed bedroom door, traveled down the hallway a few feet, and passed through his parent’s bedroom door. It was late at night and as usual his father was snoring and sleeping soundly, and his mother was tossing about in bed. She had had trouble sleeping lately, probably because of her changing job situation which had not been settled to her satisfaction, and she was restless. His mother’s eyes were not open and so she did not see him floating above her, if that was possible. Jamie knew he now was a ghostly figure but did not know if living humans could see him. If she did happen to open her eyes, Jamie hoped his mother did not see him and scare the living daylights out of her. He wanted his mother to remember him as her loving teenage son and have that last memory of him in the kitchen when he arrived late from his party last night. Jamie was now 19 and his mom knew he drank beer with his friends sometimes but did not seem too concerned about it yet since he did not drive. The night before his friends dropped him off at home, it was around midnight, and Jamie saw the light on in the kitchen when he came through the front door. He knew it was his mom since she had had so many restless and sleepless nights. She asked Jamie about the party, and he said it was fun and then said goodnight to her and went up to his bedroom. As Jamie floated above his mom, he found himself crying a little. He did not know that ghosts cried, he probably thought that they didn’t since they were dead, and nothing was sadder than that. No, he was crying because he loved his mom and dad and Mink and there three tuxedo black and white cats and he was never going to see them again. Like he had done in his sister’s room, he reached down from where he was floating above his mother and father, and with both of his hands touched their faces. They both moved and groaned a little from his cold touch but did not awaken. After he whispered his goodbye, he started floating up to the ceiling, and then he was through the ceiling and into the attic, and then through the attic and floating above the roof of his house. Jamie kept floating up and up and up and, in that moment, he realized his was on his way to heaven and the forever, ever after and that made him smile with happiness and joy.  “Jamie the angel,” he whispered to himself as he floated into the dark, night sky, “it has a good ring to it!”