The Medium Kid

Chapter 75

"I'm ready to go... I think," Mister Dorinto said with a twinkle in his eye. If he were a living person, his heart would be thumping in his chest.

"You can't say something like that and follow it with an: I think. You have to be one hundred per cent ready. Otherwise, I can't cross you over," Alfie said. He was also nervous. Dorinto had been a good friend through some of the strangest months of his life.

"Okay. I am ready. You told me to come back when I was, and here I am." Dorinto sat on the floor next to Alfie, not making a single sound. "I know my wife won't talk to you again, but that's okay. I'm at peace with everything I left when I was alive." Dorinto chuckled to himself. "I'll tell you what though, I never thought I'd be saying goodbye twice if you know what I mean. I cross over once, and now I have to do it again."

"We all have our beliefs on where we go after this point. If you get reincarnated, come and visit me."

"I will. Even if I don't remember you, I'm sure our paths will cross." Dorinto rubbed his hands together, sucking back his emotions. "Right, how do we do this?"

"Just relax," Alfie smiled and held out a hand. Dorinto placed his over Alfie's and it felt like a bag of ice cubes were dropped onto his palm. "Close your eyes, and I'll close mine too." Alfie closed the world off with his eyelids and focused on clearing his mind. His head was a cluttered place, and he needed a space to think without interruptions.

It took a few minutes until Alfie's mind was in the spiritual realm, and Dorinto was standing right next to him, looking around but seeing nothing but darkness. "Don't ask where we are," Alfie said and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. "You should already know."

"Ah, the place I call... the nothing place," Dorinto said proudly.

"Creative," Alfie grumbled before moving to the left. Something was pulling him that way, and he knew it was Dorinto's exit. As Alfie's soul drifted through the land of the dead, his body sat peacefully in the office, surrounded by scented candles.

They wandered for a while in silence as Dorinto thought about random memories. He thought about when he was a kid and how he loved his parents. Dorinto thought about when he met his wife, when he watched the sun rise and set on his first holiday abroad, and when he was truly happy. When Dorinto first died, it quickly dawned on him that material things didn't matter. When he looked back to when he was a teenager, he didn't remember the clothes he wore; he remembered the times he laughed or the times he cried, the friends he made and the lessons he learnt.

If he realised sooner that he should care more about the people he loved than the things he owned, his life might have been a very different one, and in a much more positive way.

"Almost there," Alfie said quietly. Ghosts were always forced to remember their lives right up until the very end, in case there was a part of it they were still clinging onto and couldn't cross over.

Dorinto breathed a very calming breath and smiled, knowing he was ready to go. It was his time, and he would finally see what happened on the other side. Most people didn't even believe in ghosts, and that was only the first step.

Alfie's mind was growing tired, but he had wandered with ghosts for days, and his body was a mess when he came out of the spirit realm. So, he knew he could handle a few more minutes, and Dorinto's exit was close enough that it was making Alfie's skin tingle, but of course, that was only in his mind.

"Are we here?" Dorinto asked when they eventually stopped. Alfie kept wanting to shiver, but that was the effect of being so close to the crossing over stage.