What Dreams May Come Read Online Free PDF Page B

leave me so incredibly apathetic? I should have been screaming with terror. Instead, I could only stare at the plaque, at my name, at the year of my birth and the year of my death.
    Slowly, an obsession started gathering in my mind. / was down there? Me? My body? Then I possessed the power to prove it all beyond a doubt. I could travel down there, see my corpse. Memory flickered. You can see inside it if you try. Where had I heard those words? I could see inside what ?
    Knowledge came. I could descend and look inside the casket. I could see myself and prove that I was dead. I felt my body easing forward, downward.
    “Mom?”
    I looked around in startlement. Richard was approaching with a thin, young man with dark hair. “Mom, this is Perry,” he said. “He’s the one I told you about.”
    I stared incredulously at the young man.
    He was looking at me.
    “Your father is here, Richard,” he said, calmly. “Sitting near the plaque with his name on it.”
    I struggled to my feet. “You can see me?” I asked. I was stunned by his words, his gaze directly on me.
    “He’s saying something I can’t make out,” Perry said.
    I looked at Arm, anxiety returning. / could communicate with her; let her know I still existed.
    She was staring at the young man, her expression stricken. “Ann, believe him,” I said. “Believe him.”
    “He’s speaking again,” Perry told her. “To you now, Mrs. Nielsen.”
    Ann shuddered and looked at Richard, speaking his name imploringly.
    “Mom—” Richard looked uncomfortable and adamant at once. “—if Perry says that Dad is here, I believe him. I’ve told you how he—“
    “Ann, I am here!” I cried.
    “I know how you feel, Mrs. Nielsen,” Perry interrupted Richard, “but take my word for it. I see him right beside you. He’s wearing a dark blue shirt with short sleeves, blue checkered slacks and Wallaby shoes. He’s tall and blond with a husky build. He has green eyes and he’s looking at you anxiously. I’m sure he wants you to believe he’s really here.”
    “Ann, please,” I said. I looked at Perry again. “Hear me,” I entreated him. “You’ve got to hear me.”
    “He’s speaking again,” Perry said. “I think he’s saying— near me or something.”
    I groaned and looked at Ann again. She was trying not to cry but couldn’t help herself. Her teeth were set on edge, her breathing forced and broken. “Please don’t do this,” she murmured.
    “Mom, he’s trying to help,” Richard told her.
    “Don’t do this.” Ann struggled to her feet and walked away. ”Ann, don’t go,” I pleaded.
    Richard started after her but Perry held him back. “Let her get used to the idea,” he said.
    Richard looked around uneasily. “He’s here?” he asked. “My father?”
    I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to be with Ann. Yet how could I leave the only person who could see me? Perry had placed his hands on Richard’s shoulders and turned him until he faced me. “He’s in front of you,” he said. “About four feet away.”
    “Oh, God.” Richard’s voice was thin and shaking.
    “Richard,” I said. I stepped forward and tried to grasp his arms.
    “He’s right in front of you now, trying to hold your arms,” Perry told him.
    Richard’s face was pale. “Why can’t I see him then?” he demanded.
    “You may be able to if you can talk your mother into a sitting.”
    Despite the excitement Perry’s words created in me, I could stay with him no longer; I had to be with Ann. His voice faded quickly behind me as I started after her. “He’s moving after your mother,” he said. “He must want to—“
    I could hear no more. Anxiously, I followed Ann, trying to overtake her. Whatever a sitting was—a seance?—Ann had to consent to it. I’d never believed in things like that, never even thought of them. I thought about them now. Perry had seen me, actually seen me. The thought that, with his help, Ann and the children might also see me, perhaps