Chapter Twelve: The NDE Drug

Therese woke up late Sunday morning, unable to recall her dream. She took Clifford out, fed and watered him and Jewels, and then noticed Puffy’s body was not in his cage. She ran downstairs again.

“Where’s Puffy?”

Richard and Carol had already eaten, but a plate of pancakes waited for her.

“He’s right here.” Carol pointed to a floral box on the counter by the kitchen sink. “A scented candle came in that box, and it still smells really nice. I put Puffy in there last night so, so you wouldn’t have to. I would have cleaned his cage and put it away, but I wasn’t sure whether you wanted me to or not.”

“Thanks,” Therese said. “I want to do it myself.”

“I dug a hole,” Richard said from the sofa across the room. “Out by one of the elms. We could bury him there, if you’d like.”

Therese smiled, her eyes welling, just a little bit. “That would be nice. I’ll go get dressed.”

She threw on some jeans and a t-shirt and came back down.

The three of them went outside in the back of the house beneath one of two giant elm trees and committed Puffy to the earth. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” Therese murmured. Her dad had bought her the hamster four years ago. Puffy’s death was one more thing separating her from her parents. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand as her throat constricted, and she felt inexplicably angry at Richard and Carol.

Richard covered the hole up with dirt while Therese and Carol watched on. Then he patted the earth down, leaned the shovel against the tree, and said, “There we go.”

The three walked back into the house.

“Did you have fun last night?” Carol asked. She went back to doing something on her laptop.

Therese started on her pancakes. “Yeah, I had fun. We all did.”

As she ate her breakfast at the countertop, Therese told her aunt and uncle she was headed over to the Holts to groom Stormy, and Clifford would be going along, too, if that was okay.

With their blessing, she and Clifford walked down the three-quarter-mile path to Jen’s house along the dirt road separating the mountain homes from Lemon Reservoir. Clifford stopped to pee on nearly every tree, so Therese had to keep saying, “Come on, boy.”

She felt a little nervous about seeing Pete today.

But Pete was as friendly as always and immediately put her at ease. The whole family was already out with the horses. They didn’t offer trail rides on Sundays, so they looked forward to finishing up their chores and taking the afternoon off. Jen asked Therese if she wanted to go shopping with her.

“Maybe. What are you shopping for?”

“Nothing. I just want to look at dresses, to get some ideas for prom.”

Therese rolled her eyes. “I guess I can go with you, but you do realize prom’s like, light-years away from now?”

Jen laughed. “I guess I’m excited, you know?”

Therese stroked Stormy with a soft towel as Jen worked on Sassy. She couldn’t believe how big he was getting. He nuzzled her hand.

The whole week went that way. Carol and Richard were supportive, Pete was easy to talk to, Jen asked her to do things with her, and Therese felt surprisingly okay with Puffy’s death. She cleaned and put away the cage. She wasn’t ready for a new hamster, but she stored the cage in the basement just in case she felt differently one day.

Thursday, Vicki called to say she had the stuff. They made plans to get together Friday night.

Richard drove Therese to Vicki’s apartment after supper and helped her carry her sleeping bag to the door. After Richard left, Vicki told Mr. Stern they were going to her room to listen to music. Mr. Stern was half asleep in his recliner in front of the blaring television. The girls didn’t have to worry about him interfering in their business.

Vicki injected Therese and then herself using two different sterile needles. There was a slight pinch, and then a little burn, and then nothing. The two girls lay back on Vicki’s bed and waited.

“I’m scared,” Therese said.

“It’s gonna be awesome,” Vicki reassured her. “But this time, I’m jumping on the raft as soon as possible.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to see each other on the other side?” Therese asked.

“I hope so. If I see you, I’ll grab your hand.”

“Maybe we should hold hands now,” Therese suggested.

“Um, sure, if you want.”

Therese took Vicki’s hand.

“Do you feel anything yet?” Vicki asked.

“I think so. Just a little. Oh.”

“What?”

“I feel so peaceful.”

“See what I mean? Oh. Now I feel it, too.”

Therese could no longer speak, and she could only vaguely feel Vicki’s hand in hers. She felt herself float up toward the ceiling, and now she looked down and saw her own body lying beside Vicki’s on the bed. This is so weird. Then, right beside her on the ceiling, Vicki appeared holding her hand, but their bodies still lay on the bed. So, so weird, Therese thought again.

She decided to pray to Hermes, to tell him what she was up to. “I’m going to tell him off tonight, Hermes. I’m going to tell him how he broke my heart and how I never want to see him again. I’m going to the Underworld so I can tell him to his face.”

She found herself in a dark tunnel. She couldn’t see Vicki, but she could vaguely feel her hand in hers. A bright light shone at the end of the tunnel, so she half-walked, half-floated toward it. The walls of the tunnel looked like granite, and she wasn’t sure, but she thought there was a very small spring running through the bottom of it. Her feet didn’t feel wet, but she thought she could hear herself sloshing through the stream. When she finally reached the end of the tunnel, she recognized the Styx River in front of her. She was at the very same bank she had come to the night her parents were killed.

Fog curled around her, but she recognized the river flowing in a narrow gorge between two huge and creepy granite mountains. Her bare feet sunk into the itchy mud. She held on to Vicki, who stumbled beside her, to try and keep their balance. Tall blades of grass as high as their knees grew in tufts along the shore, tickling her bare legs. She wondered if she should have worn jeans and if it would have made a difference. She seemed to be in the shorts she had worn to Vicki’s. Mosquitoes swarmed over one area of the water. Three large boulders leaned in a cluster on the left side of the shore against the base of a steep, massive wall of rock. Where was Charon?

Vicki tugged her across the sticky mud and tall blades of grass to the edge of the river, where Charon and his raft came into view. Without saying a word to the old, stooped man, Vicki jumped on board, pulling Therese with her.

Therese fought the urge to greet Charon by name as he gave them a look of confusion before towing them across.

The fog swirled around them like the tentacles of a gray octopus. Therese was surprised she wasn’t cold or nervous. She felt completely at peace and couldn’t wait to tell Than what she had come to say.

In fact, she felt so peaceful, that she found it hard to be angry. She had planned to scream her angry words, but the contentment swooned over her like a glittery beam of warm sunshine, and the anger dissipated into the fog.

She recognized Cerberus as they approached the huge black iron gate. She couldn’t stop herself from saying sweetly, “Hey, boy. Hi there, Cerberus.”

His three huge heads panted happily, and he wagged his long, dragon-like tail.

“You know him?” Vicki whispered.

Charon glared at them, so Therese said nothing.

The big gates creaked open, and Charon hovered just at the entrance.

“What are you waiting for?” Vicki asked the old man.

Then suddenly the contentment vanished from Therese, and she filled with dread as some kind of commotion took place around her. Cerberus’s three huge heads barked ferociously. She couldn’t quite tell what was happening, but she felt herself lifted away from the raft, and she could make out through the fog Charon leaving. She wondered if the drug could be wearing off so soon. Then someone shouted, “Grab her! Don’t let her escape this time!” and big bodies were pushing and pulling Vicki away from her. Another had grabbed Therese and pulled her still further away from the gate. It was Hermes.

“You can’t go through the gate,” he said, panting from the struggle. “You’ll piss off Hades for sure and never win his heart.”

His wooly black hair blew in the gentle breeze up here away from the fog, far above the river. His dark eyes and dark beard were barely visible in what seemed to be obscured moonlight. His winged helmet gleamed, though, and so did his white teeth, which were gritted.

“It was foolish of you to come here. What made you think you could get away with this?”

Then she realized Vicki wasn’t with them. “Where’s my friend?”

Hermes shook his head but made no reply. Panic overcame Therese. She pushed herself free from Hermes and flew down to the gate. She saw Than holding Vicki against her will on the other side of the iron gate, which he was just now closing.

“Vicki!” Therese screamed, trying to push the gate open again. But it slammed shut in her face. “Than! Give me Vicki! She’ll die!”

Than held on to Therese’s struggling friend. “I’m sorry, Therese. Vicki has to stay here.”

“No!” Therese threw herself against the iron bars of the gate, screaming at the top of her lungs. “No! Please! No! I beg you! I’ll do anything! Take me instead!” She was tortured by the thought of Mr. Stern losing his only child on the heels of his wife’s suicide. “I beg you, Than! If you love me, take me instead!”

“I have no choice. She’s angered my father. She came through once before and cheated death. He won’t let her do it again.”

“But there’s got to be a way! You can’t let her die! Please! Her father will be so miserable! Please, Than!”

He shook his head again and backed away from the gate.

The anger Therese had felt over Than rekindled in her chest and she gave him a ferocious look. “I hate you, Thanatos! So you’ve been too busy to worry about me? The other night you were just doing your job? Well, I came down here to tell you to your face that I hate you and I never want to see you again! Stay out of my life! And send someone else to collect me when I’m dead!”

Hermes was there beside her now, trying to calm her down. He took her in his arms and allowed her blows to hit his chest rather than the iron bars of the gate. “I hate him!” she cried. Then she pleaded with Hermes, “Isn’t there anything you can do to save my friend?”

“Even gods are limited by the will and actions of others. There’s nothing I can do.”

She looked through the gate at Than, who backed away, looking miserable. Vicki had stopped struggling, and her face reminded Therese of the blank expressions on her parents’ faces the night she saw them in the Underworld. Therese realized Vicki must be dead already, and she wailed as loud as she could in the foggy air.

Than locked eyes with hers, his face contorted with pain. “When I said I’d been busy, I meant…”

But Hermes was pulling her back before she could hear the rest of Than’s statement. Back they went from the river, from the muddy bank, through the dark granite tunnel. She floated for a brief moment on the ceiling and then popped back into her body. She opened her eyes and found Vicki lying beside her, dead.