Excerpt: Transcending

“You can see me?” he asked. This seemed to surprise him greatly.

I looked at him like he was crazy, which seemed more and more likely. “Of course I can see you.” I crossed across the street, walking faster as I went, looking for someone, anyone, that might render me assistance if I needed it or at least serve as a witness. However, all yards, sidewalks and streets were deserted as far as the eye could see.

“But how?” I heard him ask.

“I’m not blind,” I said cattily, searching through my bag for my cell phone.

“You don’t understand,” he said anxiously, “you shouldn’t be able to see me!”

“Oh yeah, why’s that? Got an invisibility cloak do you?”

“No, because of this…”

Suddenly he was right in front of me and although I stopped short, I obviously hadn’t stopped quick enough. A chill passed through me as I passed through him, and suddenly I felt as though I had walked through a wall of cold gel. I fell to my knees, gasping for the air that was suddenly missing from my lungs, and the world began to blur and move in strange ways. All I could think was that breakfast now seemed like the second hugest mistake of the day, the first being leaving the house.

“Oh my God!” he said and I was only faintly aware that he was now crouched over me. His hands kept moving towards me, but at the last moment he jerked them back. I was thankful that he refrained from touching me again, I was afraid that another touch might kill me.

After a few moments, the world began to come back into focus and I could breathe normally again, though I still felt cold and I had the sneaking suspicion that I would for a while.

“You passed out there for a minute,” he informed me, voice full of worry.

“What’d you do to me?” I asked as I slowly sat up.

“I’m sorry,” he said, arms extended towards me like he was going to help me up. “I had no idea that… that’s never happened before.”

I watched his hands warily, intending to never let him lay so much as a finger on me ever again. “What are you?” I asked. I hadn’t intended it, but ‘what’ had come out sounding full of distaste and hatred. I immediately felt bad about that. I hadn’t intended for it to come out that way, but I was more than a little out of sorts and it had.

“I’m a ghost.” His voice was full of hurt, and I mentally kicked myself.

“I’m sorry about how I said that,” I said, unconsciously pulling my jacket tighter around myself. “I really didn’t mean for it to come out like that.” It occurred to me that I was apologizing to a ghost. It also occurred to me that I hadn‘t though twice about the fact that he claimed to be a ghost.

He smiled. “That’s alright. Probably if all that had just happened to me, I’d react the same way.”