Page 91 of Starrily

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Simon found Callie perched on a log, a few steps off the path that ran around the cabins. He sat beside her and, when she didn’t react, asked, “You can see me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Didn’t want to make another confession and have you not hear a word.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Now wasn’t the time to repeat his speech. What did it matter how he felt, when everything was falling apart?

“Where’s your wife?” Callie kept her gaze forward.

“Shanna is waiting at the cabin, and she’s not—let me explain.”

“Explain what? A resurrection?”

“You already know of my condition. Youknowsomething is up.” He leaned forward, trying to catch her eyes. “Is it so hard to go one step further?”

“Fine. Tell me.”

He took a deep breath. The story was a mess even in his own head—everything jumbled up until he was no longer sure what had really happened. But with Shanna’s information, he could at least fit some pieces together.

“My name is Raleigh,” he said. “I used to be a middle school science teacher. We even visited the place where I used to work—the Valley Middle School.”

“Where I talked to the kids,” Callie said, keeping her voice flat.

“Yes. That was my life. Very normal, as far as I remember it. I liked science and teaching kids about it. I bicycled to workalmost every day. I owned a cat. I read comics and watched Christmas movies even when it wasn’t Christmas.”

Callie looked away and wiped her eyes.

“About four years ago, I was walking home in the evening. My bike had broken down, and an event at school went late. A man came from an alleyway …” His throat closed up, panic rising at the memory. “The details slip me, but he tried to rob me—I don’t think I fought, because it’s smarter to give them your wallet—but I remember pain, so much searing pain, and blood, and darkness.” He closed his eyes as if that could help the memory disappear. “Next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital. But I wasn’t Raleigh anymore. I was Simon.”

“You got”—she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying—“reincarnated?”

“Not exactly. I was pulled into another body. Simon had died from his injuries in the car crash. I’d been dead for about a year at that point. But I suppose my soul, or my ghost, whatever you want to call it, was still floating around. When Shanna attempted the ritual, it pulled me, and not the actual Simon, into his body.”

“You realize how crazy this sounds.”

“Absolutely. Why do you think I didn’t tell you before?”

“So you’ve known all this time?”

“I remember my life as Raleigh. I remember nothing of Simon’s life, save for what I’ve created since I woke up in this body.”

“So you’re not Simon.”

“I … I’m me,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t know how much of me is Raleigh, and how much is Simon. I know I used to be different, back in my own body. More cautious. More quiet. I think I still cracked a lot of bad jokes, though.”

He thought he saw a flicker of a smile on her face.

“When I woke up as Simon and realized I had a new life, it was like a gift. One I couldn’t throw away. I should’ve been dead, and yet, I wasn’t.”

“So you decided you’d try to kill yourself with every possible dangerous activity imaginable?”

“No.” He turned toward her and laid his hand on hers. Slow; tentative. She didn’t pull away. “I decided I’d live. I’d make use of every single minute and do everything I ever wanted, but never dared to.”

“I still can’t believe it.”