The Magpie Effect - The Magpie Chronicles Book 1 (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 18.2

That was it; a few simple words. The only concrete evidence that Mona had ever existed at all.  Over the next century the wind, rain and snow would wash away her name and then there would be nothing left at all. The scene revealed more about Mona than I'd ever dared to ask.

"Your birthday," I said after what felt like a perpetual silence, "it was only a two weeks ago. Why didn't you tell me?"

Mona shrugged. "What use is a birthday when you're dead?  It's not like you could have bought me a friendship bracelet or anything. I'm going to be seventeen forever, now. Or until I move on to whatever's next, at least."

We drifted into a swampy, cushion-like silence. It sucked me down, piling me heavy with remorse. Out of the mist, a realization occurred to me. "And the other date, when you died... that's next week!"

"Yep. But don't worry, that's just another day on the calendar, too. Not even my family had visited in ears."

"But Mona, next week marks thirty years since you died. Surely that has to mean something?"

"Nope." She was trying to sound detached from the whole thing, like the gravestone belonged to somebody else entirely, but I could tell from the heaviness of her stare that it was bothering her. "It's just another reminder of everything that's happened. I'd rather just forget."

"Then why did you bring me here? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm honoured that you feel like you can share this with me. But if all this just serves as some horrible reminder, why bring me here at all? Why would you want to put yourself through coming here again?"

Mona's expression softened. "Because you're my friend. My only friend. The past thirty years have been the loneliest thing that an entity can possibly experience, and I never thought I'd ever speak to another human being again. So I just wanted to share this with you. You know like when friends share secrets, or little personality traits that nobody else is allowed to see?"

I begrudgingly thought of Debbie, of how she sometimes tried to put me in a headlock or how we could watch whole movie marathons and recite whole scenes by heart, dispensing the character roles between the two of us. I nodded, my chest suddenly feeling as though it were filling with water. 

"Well, it's sort of like that, I guess. This is a side of me that I wanted to show you."

I didn't know what to say. I realized, with a giddying sense of revelation, that the only secret I really possessed, was the one that I shared with Mona. The one that had brought us together in the first place. It was the one thing I hadn't told Debbie. What did that say about our friendship?

Mona let out an uncomfortable giggle. "This is so silly, I feel like I'm showing you a really embarrassing old photo."

"Listen, no matter how good friends we are, I will never show anybody my baby photos," I said, trying to inject some comedy into the oddity that this morning had turned out to be. "I look like a cabbage."

Silence festered in the surrounding mist. The whiteness intensified, and I could tell by the creeping temperature that the morning sun was doing its best to wheedle its way through.  Mona's grave seemed to repulse it, so that I felt as though we were standing in a clear dome, pressed in on each side by the haze.

"Mona," I began, a question forming on my lips.

"Yes?"

"How are you still here?"  Mona winced, and I hurried to clarify myself. "What I mean is, I've seen spirits before, and they always hang around just for a little bit to do whatever it was they remained to do, and then they move on. How come you haven't done the same?"