Epilogue

Marilyn told Stacey to stop Percy’s Time Warp and shooed us all out of his apartment saying, “Let’s get, Back To The Future!”

OK, that’s not what she said. It was, “Let’s get back to Randolph Industries Ninth Floor. We can celebrate there.”

“That was fun,” Stacey said as we all materialized in the Conference Room. We each settled in a chair around the huge table. I leaned back and propped my feet on top of the table.

“We should do this more often,” added Tammy.

“But what about Tom?” I thought.

“What about Tom?” Marilyn asked.

“Look,” I started. “He really didn’t mean to kill me. Yeah, he wanted me hurt enough so I was out of commission for a while, but he paid dearly for that. The killing part was not his idea.

“You guys are Spirits of the living and I’m sure you won’t want to hang with me all the time. Be realistic here. Your bodies have things to do and you’ll want to be with them.

“I know we’re connected, and any time you need me or I need one or all of you, I know we can get together. But, Tom on the other hand ... well, we can keep each other company all the time.”

Then, almost pleading with the girls, but in a firm voice I asked, “How about it?”

They all thought for a second and came to realize how I felt. I’d pretty much forgiven Tom. He’d been a friend after all.

“OK,” they acquiesced. “If that’s what you want,” filtered though into my head from the group.

I know it was Stacey controlling things, but as we sat there Tom, wrapped in his Black Baseball Suit, floated into the room and settled himself right in the center of the table.

“I know you heard us Tom,” Marilyn said. “Plus I’m sure you know what we did to that hit man.”

It was almost humorous watching the black wrapped baseball look like it was nodding. Tom was obviously saying ‘Yes.’

We all thought, “Expand and Release the Bindings” and slowly Tom emerged as the ball enlarged and the binding fell away leaving a pile of black confetti around him. He was genuinely appreciative as he sat there on the table, quite wrinkled, rubbing himself to get rid of the residual pain he was feeling.

Looking at me with a genuine sadness and gratitude, Tom uttered softly just one word that said it all, “Sorry!”

“I think we can make this work,” I told him motioning for him to sit in the chair next to me.

The four new friends of mine glanced at each other and I felt they really were torn between staying and getting home.

“We’ll get together real soon,” I assured them. “We’re connected in a special way.”

As they started to mist, I saw Marilyn wink at me and then she said, “Me first!”

I heard round after round of “No Me!” from the girls as they faded.

I put my arm around Tom, shook him and then thought, “Maybe another mystery will present itself. We were pretty good with this one.”

From each and every last one of them Tom and I could distinctly hear, “I can’t wait!”