Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Ghostopia, Chapter 48: The First Escape

"Lucas was all worked up, jumping and yelling, telling me how he couldn't believe he had found something so amazing. So I decided to follow him there the next day to see what the big deal was. Of course, we dragged that reluctant Greg along as well."
"Before I continue, let me ask you something," Nelson stopped suddenly. "How was your first Ezisa meeting like?"
"I told you about it, didn't I?"
"Not in detail. How did you feel?"
"Um...it was totally weird. I had no idea what was going on, and then boom! I was part of a secret society."
"That's it? No sense of joy, relief, or maybe even accomplishment?"
"Not at that moment."
"Well, maybe that's because you haven't been dead long enough. You don't want to go back to the living world badly enough yet."
"You're wrong," Darren snapped back. "I didn't at first, but last night I had a dream. I was at my graduation ceremony all over again, hanging out with my friends, about to ask Emily for a photograph. You know, moments before I died."
"Ah, flashbacks to your final scenes of life," nodded Nelson. "That's what usually happens after the novelty of being dead dies down."
"You can imagine what great hope discovering Ezisa brought to me," he continued. "You see, just like you my life was taken away from me at the worst possible moment - my mother had become sick and I'd found myself a job to pay for her bills. Too bad the gangster life caught up with me before I got out of it."
"And there we were - me, Lucas, Greg, a few others, and the Ezisa leader, talking about how being dead sucked enough without the discriminating policies in Ghostopia. This leader was a tremendously bright lad, the sort you could see becoming famous in the future. This guy, James, had enough connections to know where exactly the four records were and how and when to steal them. Incredibly, we carried out all four operations in the same night. All four were successful - the Spooks were really lousy back then. By the following night, we were ready to make the big jump."
"And you did it?" Darren asked disbelievingly.
"We did it. We re-entered the living world."

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