Interlude – Conversations Beyond the VeilAt first Zoey swore that she was dreaming. Her body felt weightless, as if she were drifting on a breeze. There was no sound as she turned her head, no sensation as she flexed her hands.
What had happened? Where was she?
I know I woke up this morning. I made breakfast, fed the twins, kissed Andrew goodbye before heading off to the station...The rest of the day's events came back to her in a sudden rush of thought. Her crew had been called to a terrible fire on the southern side of town. From the very beginning they knew it would be a tough battle, but she never once could have imagined the sheer intensity of the blaze and the damage it had already done. Zoey remembered the sound of cracking wood and crumbling drywall as the roof began to buckle...the shouts of her fellow firefighters as they began to flee...the plaintive whimper of the frightened toddler that stopped her in her tracks.
The loud crash, the heavy weight of the ceiling that pinned her to the floor...and the searing heat of the flames as they drew ever closer to her prone form.
Then...nothingness.
Zoey surmised that she had to be in the hospital. There was no other place that she could possibly be. But if that was the case, why didn't she feel anything? Why didn't she hear any sound?
She chanced opening her eyes and saw only shadows. Was she dreaming...
...or was she...?
No...it couldn't be.“It would explain the weightlessness,” she said out loud. Zoey was surprised when her voice sounded hollow, like a soft echo. Dazed, confused, and more than a little unnerved, she slowly stood up. At least, she thought she stood up. Zoey couldn't feel any sensation whatsoever in any part of her body.
Wait...why was her body glowing
orange?
That was when she caught sight of a strange glowing figure floating toward her. It seemed otherworldly, yet there was something oddly familiar...a comforting warmth that she couldn't quite place. As the figure approached its features became more visible; this was clearly a man, or at least the spirit of one. Zoey let out an audible gasp when she realized exactly who it was.
“Granddad,” she breathed. “Is that...really you?”
The figure smiled. “Yes, sweetheart, it's me.”
Zoey wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in the crook of his neck. While it felt wonderful to see her favorite grandfather again, the fact that she was face-to-face with a ghost did not set well in her mind. Her weightlessness, not being able to feel anything, meeting her dead grandfather...there could only be one explanation for it all.
“So this is it then. I really
am dead.”
“Yes...and no,” Ethan replied. “Your heartbeat has stopped, so I suppose that you are clinically dead, but the doctors are still working feverishly to save you. And if I know these doctors, they're not about to let you go without a fight.” He paused. “You know, it was very selfless, what you did for that little boy.”
“I couldn't just let that kid die, Granddad.”
“I know you couldn't, sweetheart. That's just who you are, who you have always been. And now there's a four-year-old boy who gets the chance to grow up because of you.”
“I was afraid he wouldn't make it. After that part of the ceiling fell I couldn't move. I just kind of pushed him through the small opening that was left and hoped for the best...” Zoey's voice trailed off as she thought of her own children. “Celestine and Hadrian...they're about the same age. I just can't imagine if it had been one of them.”
“They're beautiful, by the way. The twins.” Ethan smiled. “I watch over them, just as I promised on that last night."
“Yes, they are. I love them so much. I just wish you could be there with them in the flesh. They would just love you.” Her face fell. “And now...they're going to have to grow up without either one of us, aren't they?”
Her grandfather sighed. “That, dear Zoey, is not for me to say. Whether I am here to keep you company until you are called back or here to escort you into the great beyond...I do not know. There is only so much that a sim's body can take. We're not exactly designed to withstand the force of a collapsing ceiling.”
“Or that intense of a blaze.” Zoey sighed deeply. She had always known the risks of her line of work, the possibility that she may one day face a blaze that she could not conquer. No one in the past sixty years had died in the line of duty, and now it seemed she might be the first. “What is happening now?”
Ethan closed his eyes for a moment. “They're still attempting to resuscitate. It looks like Cynthia is bringing out the defibrillator.”
“They have to shock me? That can't be good.”
“Not particularly, but I've seen many, many cases where it does its job.”
Zoey took a deep breath. “I am almost afraid to, but I have to ask...how is Andrew?”
Ethan shook his head. “Not handling it well. He was in the room with you when you coded. As you can probably guess...the family is very concerned at this point.”
“They're not the only ones,” Zoey confessed. “I mean, I'm not even thirty. I didn't expect that I'd be faced with...my own demise so soon. What is this going to do to Andrew? To Mom and Dad? To Grandma?” Her voice cracked with emotion. “But then at the same time I feel guilty for even
thinking about myself. I...I know that eventually Andrew will move on. Maybe he will even find love again. Mom and Dad will heal over time, but there
would be no second chance for that little boy. It would be a four year old standing here dead instead of me. I...don't think I could live with that.”
Zoey's words were punctuated by a sudden jolt of energy coursing through her body.
She
felt that.
“Wh...what's happening?”
“Your heartbeat. That's what is happening,” Ethan replied with a smile. Zoey felt a tingling sensation encompass her body as a rainbow of sparkles swirled around her. The last thing that she saw was her grandfather's smiling face as he waved goodbye.
“Tell your grandmother that I love her.”
“I will. I love you, Granddad.”
A short while later...“We were able to get her heartbeat back. It is, however, tenuous at best,” the doctor explained. “We have stabilized her as best as we can, but her body has endured significant trauma, and we don't know how long she was deprived of oxygen when she was trapped. It...doesn't look good, Mr. Goth.”
Andrew gazed through the window at his wife, his eyes brimming with fresh tears. “Can I see her?”
“Yes.”
Zoey was lying in the midst of a tangle of tubes and wires, the plaintive beep of a heart monitor serving as an all-too-clear reminder that her life was dangling by a mere thread. Reverently Andrew brushed a strand of hair away from her face and kissed her on the cheek.
He sat down and took her hand in his, shivering subconsciously at her cold and clammy touch. This was his beloved wife, his childhood best friend, his high school sweetheart, the mother of his two beautiful children. So vibrant and full of life only this morning...and now only barely alive.
“Zo...come back to me,” He pleaded. “I don't want to have to raise our babies alone. They need their mommy.
I need their mommy. I...I love you, Zo.”
“I love you too.”Andrew sat up sharply, his heartbeat racing. Did he just hear...?
“Zoey?”
His wife responded by slowly opening her eyes.
“Sorry I scared you," she softly spoke.
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(A/N: Thank you all for reading.
)
