Chapter nine

Sudden Death

For the next year, the Farley Street families were all plagued by their own issues – troubled homes, difficult children, marital discord, and more. The following winter, the Tartals and the Copelands decided to put all their issues behind them and planned to spend the Christmas holidays at Boyne Mountain Resort, a year-round vacation destination and the perfect getaway not far from home. The resort was dressed in full holiday style with lights, candles, the most festive decorations, and all the traditional goodies. There was an ice-skating rink and miles of ski, sleigh, and snowmobile trails in and around the resort.

Coconut and Mrs. Braganza kept each other company, and the twins were having a blast building an impressive snow fort. For the first time in years, Nora agreed to accompany her family on the trip. The kids of Farley Street had finally been reunited after years with Nora’s return to the fold. This brought some of Zeke’s childhood joy back. He was beyond happy. In fact, all the children were happy to be in each other’s company — laughing and carrying on, playing different sports, and ringing in the holidays. They even threw Zeke a surprise birthday party on Christmas Eve. For him, life had never been better.

He was turning fourteen and wanted to feel what it meant to be an adult. He and Nora spent a lot of time together, drinking hot cider and talking for hours. He could see a deep sadness in her eyes, and he wanted to help her. Like it or not, Zeke was becoming a child of light. He could not bear to see others in pain. Thus, he felt drawn to Nora and her pain.

As they became closer, Nora confided in him that her father, Nigel, was in a relationship with another woman, and it badly affected her life as well as that of her brothers. Gael’s aggression and anger stemmed from watching his parents quarrel at home, and Kai tried to find an escape by simply ignoring everything.

Nora’s experiences resonated with him. They had very similar lives. He, too, had a dysfunctional family. Ben Tartal, who was always upset with his children and his wife, turned to alcohol for respite. Zeke could see the growing distance between his parents and the pain it was causing his mother. Leia’s aggression probably stemmed from their marital discord as well, while Maya turned her anger inward. Nora disclosed how much she hated being at home, and Zeke could relate to the frustration and anger. He felt her sorrow, yet at the same time, was happy to be in her company. Little did he know, the Fates had much darker plans.

For the first time in his life, Christmas didn’t bother him. The Christmas party at Boyne Resort was the best thing he had experienced in years. Ziggy found herself a perfect cozy branch on a snow-covered cherry tree nearby, while Zag had the opportunity of a lifetime to get royally snockered with the free-flowing champagne.

For the next few days, the Tartals and the Copelands took advantage of all the amenities of the resort. The boys played hockey and the girls practiced figure skating routines. Audrey, Lydia, and Nora relished a full spa day with massages, facials, and mani-pedis. Ben and Nigel tooled around on snowmobiles, and everybody took to the slopes to ski and snowboard. They dined on venison and elk, and since Michigan was fast becoming a reputable wine-producing region, they drank only the finest local wines. There was an old grand piano in the lobby, and everybody sang Christmas carols with carolers all decked out in traditional Charles Dickens costumes.

On New Year’s Eve, everybody was in the mood to party. Zeke was looking forward to the evening. He would finally ring in the New Year with Nora, a secret wish he harbored for years. Dressed in his only suit, he entered the ballroom and saw Nora in a beautiful evening gown. Her sleek, auburn hair was flowing in beach waves and her skin was as soft and delicate as an English rose. She had an ethereal smile on her face, and he was beyond thrilled to see her. He tried to talk to her, but all she said was, “We can always talk later, Zeke. Look how beautiful everything is. Let’s dance.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the dance floor. They danced for just a little over ten minutes before Nora excused herself and scurried out, but for Zeke, those ten minutes were a lifetime.

• • •

It was well into the evening, and all the guests had joined in the merrymaking. The party hall was heavily crowded, but Nora was nowhere to be seen. She had left Zeke on the dance floor and just vanished.

“I have a hunch she ditched me on purpose,” he said to himself.

He looked for her in every corner of the ballroom. He ran out and began searching for her all over the resort, but there was no sign of her. Nora had disappeared without a trace. At the stroke of midnight, when the world was happily cheering and ringing in the New Year, he was gripped by a sudden sense of fear that left him frazzled. He rushed back to his hotel room to compose himself, and after a few minutes, Maya burst into the room, hysterical.

“Maya, what’s wrong?” he asked, rushing to her side.

She buried her head in his chest and sobbed. She couldn’t utter a single word, but then she motioned for him to follow her. He grabbed his coat, and with one arm wrapped around her shoulders, he guided her through the hotel and out the side door. They started walking towards the snowmobile trail when a flash of color grabbed his attention. He recognized his mother’s long, emerald-green coat and he immediately felt a lump swell up in his throat. Something was wrong — horribly wrong. He could sense it.

As he hurried across the parking lot towards the commotion, a bitter, winter wind blew snow crystals into the air that stung his face like sharp, poking needles. He pushed his way through a crowd of people who were chattering in silent whispers. “Mom!” he yelled, but his voice was choked in his throat. “Mom!!” he tried again, even louder this time. She turned towards him, and even at a distance, he could see the tears streaming down her face. She held up both hands as if to stop him from coming any closer, but a bright stripe of yellow propelled him forward. The entire area in front of them was cordoned off by the police while EMTs rolled a gurney out of the back of an ambulance with the lights still cycling.

“What’s going on?” he questioned, looking from the officers to his mom and back.

“Please, Zeke, go back inside. This isn’t something you need to…” her words were cut off by an ear-piercing wail.

“Nooooo!!!!!” A woman tried to force her way beyond the policemen. Her blood-curdling shriek was the most gripping, horrifying sound he had ever heard. It was Mrs. Copeland collapsing into a police officer’s arms; her legs simply gave out in the deep snow.

“Zeke, I don’t want you to…” Audrey tried to say.

But, for the first time in his life, he disobeyed his mother and pushed past the onlookers. There, half-hidden by the ambulance’s open door, was a huge splash of red bleeding fast into the dry snow, a pile of shattered glass, and the twisted carcass of a snowmobile.

“Don’t look,” a familiar voice said, and a soft hand landed on his shoulder. “You don’t want to remember her this way.”

It was too late. He already understood what lay before him. It was Nora. Amid the twisted wreckage of metal and glass was a clump of auburn hair he had once wished to touch.

“Oh, God.” His legs started to shake, and his knees buckled. He had gone into shock. One of the security guards lifted him up out of the snow and escorted him back to the lodge. Lydia was beyond hysterical and Audrey not that far behind. Nigel tried to hold it together, but after a while, he couldn’t contain himself any longer and broke down in tears, his face buried in his gloves. Ben immediately came to his side to comfort him. Kai and Gael were nowhere to be found.

Everyone was dumbstruck. What in the world happened? It wasn’t until much later that the truth came out, and things started to make sense. Nora had sneaked out of the party to spend the night with her new boyfriend. He was a few years older than her, the friend of a friend. She had a bad habit of getting carried away by what people like to call the bad-boy persona: foul-mouthed, bike-riding tough guys with muscles and tattoos that made her feel more like a grown-up than she actually was. This time, however, it proved fatal. They’d gone to a rave at a warehouse nearby and had gotten high on drugs and alcohol when the boy decided he wanted to go snowmobiling in the middle of the night. In a loaded state, the boy thought he was going over a snow mound but instead drove straight into a parked car buried under a thin blanket of snow. They both died instantly. The impact was so destructive that Nora broke her neck, and the boy’s spine was severed.

Nora’s sudden death pushed Zeke into a state of complete shock. His soul felt trapped inside a body that had forgotten all its functions. His senses were totally numb. Even after watching blankly as her body lay dead on the snowmobile trail, he couldn’t cry. He couldn’t feel anything. It was like everything had frozen in its place, and his heart wasn’t beating anymore, but he was still alive — and a part of him did not want to be.

• • •

When the shock finally receded and he started to somewhat understand what Nora’s death had meant, he went into a state of severe depression. He started to perform badly in school, turned into an absolute social recluse, and began spending hours at Lakeview Cemetery where she was buried. He would simply stand by her headstone and not say anything. He didn’t even cry.

It was during this period of darkness in his life that he began to question everything about life. He started to question his own sanity, and he began thinking about the possibility that Zig and Zag were just figments of his broken mind. He questioned himself, too. He would spend hours wondering who he was and what his purpose in life was. He lost touch with his spiritual self and was taken in by doubt and confusion. Why did he feel all these things? What did all the signs around him mean? Why had Zig and Zag chosen him of all people? These questions took hold of his mind, and their answers would come through revelations and trials that would make him so much more than just an ordinary boy.

As May rolled around, he had the dream again. He was flying above the clouds early in the morning when he heard Nora’s voice. He leaned forward and looked down from the sky to take a full panoply of the miles and miles of apple and cherry orchards, along with the maize and wheat fields around his city. He plainly saw the cornfield near his home where he played as a child. He could see the magical maze from where Zag had once popped out and pounced on him. Only this time, Nora wasn’t hiding inside the labyrinth anymore. She was flying beside him. They both had wings like angels. Her hair fell over her face and blew in the wind like a wave in the ocean. As he looked down from the clouds, he could see a strange sign that read ‘Z’ carved out of the corn maze. They flew down to get a closer look. Just then, Zag popped out of the Z, waving his hands. Zeke turned around to look at Nora. As she smiled, he could see a beautiful rainbow-colored halo encircling her. She was at peace.

• • •

The next morning, he woke up feeling fresh and light, as if a heavy load had been lifted from his chest. Nora’s death had triggered a deep longing in him to know more about death and what came beyond. He sat there, pondering his vision for what could have been hours, until finally an answer came to him. It was as if this was all meant to be. He understood what his dream meant. She was safe. She was happy. She was home.

That evening, he felt pulled to Lakeview Cemetery again. Only this time, he wasn’t driven by a sense of despair, hopelessness, or loneliness, but by an inner knowing of something special he was about to see and learn. His intuition was right. The sun had set, and it was slowly getting darker. He sat there for a while, watching the flowers and birds and noticing the epitaphs written on the different tombstones. A soft breeze blew over him. He could suddenly feel someone touching his shoulder. He looked around and saw Nora standing beside him. She wore the same gown she had worn at the New Year’s Eve party, and she was smiling at him.

“Nora! Is this really you?” he inquired, wanting confirmation that his eyes weren’t tricking him.

She didn’t say anything. She simply smiled and nodded. Once he became aware of the wings of light emanating from behind her, he knew this dream wasn’t just a dream. He had met her on a different plane. It existed in a higher dimension, only seen and experienced with the cosmic mind. In that moment, he knew he wasn’t responsible for her death. It was just a story playing out in the physical realm to help him come to terms with the deeper truths of life — truths people either shy away from or fail to see and recognize. Triggers are often sent to us by the universe to help us on our journey, so we can expand our hearts and open our minds.

Nora did not say a word, yet he heard her voice. “Death is nothing but a catalyst, my dear friend. We come to the Earth plane to experience the pains and the hurts so we can transcend them and perfect our souls.”

“It all makes sense in my mind, Nora, but I miss you terribly, and I’m lost without you,” he replied.

Nora looked at him intensely, then she finally spoke. “I have a message for you from the Source: ‘Your mission has begun. You will need to go out on a limb to find the truth you seek.’ That truth for you is now, Ezekiel. Good luck and may God speed you on your journey.”

Then she vanished.