Chapter 5

I knew I was in for a little chiding from Marilyn and my other friends for saying, "How the hell did you know his name was Kim!"

What happened surprised and pleased me at the same time. It reminded me how new I was at being a Spirit. It showed how little Spirits of the living or for that matter Spirits of the newly deceased understand about the after-world.

Tammy passed over to me, "I told her ... You know ... Privately ... Just like I'm doing to you now."

I felt, "Gee, you'll have to teach me that."

Immediately I got a soft, yet direct answer, "It will happen in due time. For now," she offered, "Let's concentrate on helping Kim adjust.

"Later I'll help you how to work out the private conversation and private thought thing."

Casually thinking directly of her I thought, "Thank you," and got the reply, "That's a start.

"Oh," she added, "You're welcome."

I laughed to myself, unsure whether or not the others could hear me and Tammy talking. No one reacted with a look toward me so I assumed I'd either been successful in couching my thoughts or they'd ignored me.

A soft force moved me around the end of the table settling me into the chair next to Tom. Interesting, I thought. No more shoving to be in line. Just move things around and insert yourself where you want to be. I knew the one to do it had to be Tammy our friendly Poltergeist.

My assumption was correct when she, chair and all, wound up next to Kim replacing me. She adjusted herself so she was facing his left side and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked over to her. Surprise showed in his eyes acknowledging he'd not seen either of us move.

Quickly his look softened when she smiled at him saying, "We're here to help you understand all of this.

"But believe me and the Others: You are not dead."

Kim continued to shake. We all understood he was partially in fear of having died and partially because he was thrust into our throng after a bright flash.

Everyone knows the saying, "Walk toward the light," when referencing advice given to the dying. It was going to be interesting finding out what Marilyn and Tammy would say to convince him he was not really dead.

"This is all very unsettling," he said after a while as he started to calm down. "But why am I here?"

Tammy explained, "We were concerned you were so upset."

She raised her arm gesturing toward us as she said, "We ... Will and the rest of us ... felt it would be easier for you if you were here among friends."

"Is Will your leader," Kim finally asked.

"In a way," Tammy told him.

"Like you, we've all gotten transplants from him. I'm Tammy." Then pointing to her side she added, "I received a skin graft from Will, right here.

"I'd been seriously burned as a child. I was finally able to afford to have it repaired. My scarring was pretty bad. I'm in the hospital healing right now."

We all could see confusion still ran rampant through his mind. Shaking his head and raising his uplifted palms in the air he asked, "If you're in the hospital how can you be here?"

That just set us all laughing once more. Although we quickly purged the mirth from our minds set off by his statement. We realized Kim was beginning to formulate the idea again he was dead and the joke was on him.

Tammy abruptly cut his thought off. "Look Kim: You're a Spirit ... Kim's Spirit.

"Rest assured Kim your HOST is very much alive.

"We're Spirits just like you. Thanks to Will our hosts are recovering from our transplants. All of us, including you, we all have that same connection to him.

"As I said, all of us here received transplants from Will."

Pointing to the other girls she continued, "Next to you, Marilyn received new corneas. Stacey over there received Will's other kidney and Valerie his heart.

"Our hosts are recovering in their hospitals."

"What about HIM?" Kim asked pointing to Tom.

"I was killed by the same guy who killed Will," Tom piped up. "So, Will and I are Kindred Spirits and YES, we are the only dead one's here. Marilyn, Stacey, Tammy and Valerie are very much alive and well, like you, because of Will."

Marilyn put a soft hand on his shoulder. "Unfortunately, Tom was dead for such a long time before he was found that none of his organs were able to be transplanted."

"Oh," gasped Kim. "Sorry Tom. I didn't know."

"That's OK," smiled Tom. "We all get another chance. I'll just have to wait a while. But all in all, this part here isn't so bad.