Ghosts we leave behind

prologue

✞

Something changed in Nora Albert the year her grandfather died. If she had known, she would have realized that the passing of Henry Miller was just one of many omens about the dark year ahead. Visiting her old hometown after college felt surreal to her after years of being away. But the news of Henry's death and what it had done to her family, compelled her to make the difficult decision.

The graveyard called out to her like whispers in a dream. The fog settled around the grounds like the underbelly of a beast. It was early February when she made the trip. The pockets of her beige sweater were over stuffed with both new and used tissues. Frost clung to the deadened leaves and branches as the temperature continued to plunge that harsh winter.

There weren't many people at the graveyard and she was nervous. She wasn't expecting to see so many new graves being dug.

Finding Henry Miller's grave, she made her way to the front of it and stood there. Dead flowers and used incense sticks lay sprawled over the gravestone. She dusted them off, angry that they weren't disposed of properly. She then pulled out a small bunch of yellow flowers from her bag and laid them at the foot of the grave.

Nora looked to her side where a gentleman appeared to be praying over a headstone. He was murmuring with his eyes closed, hands clasped firmly together and his body swaying back and forth slightly.

She quickly looked back at the grave in front of her, not wanting to seem rude for staring.

Nora Albert wasn't a religious person. She couldn't remember the last time she'd prayed. Maybe she'd uttered His name when she thought she was going to drown at her swimming class nine years ago.

After that, life had happened and her faith had slipped somewhere into the cracks. But now that she was helpless and unsure where her best friend had gone, the looming possibility of an afterlife haunted her. And if there was any chance that she'd be able to see her grandfather again then her only hope was to make it to heaven one day, too.

Nora stared at the grass beside her and decided to kneel down. It made her feel better to be closer to him. Perhaps he could hear her better that way, too.

She was anxious as she played with her fingers in her lap. It felt strange to her as she tried to talk to God. The man who'd previously been praying near her was long gone, giving her the privacy she needed.

"If you can hear me," she began, looking around in case someone was eavesdropping.

"I know you watch over me," she lowered her voice. "I miss you so much."

Shriveled up leaves continued to fall from the trees as a gentle breeze blew past, cluttering at the base of the trunk. Nora pulled her sweater more securely around herself.

"I really," she paused. "I really miss you. If you could just show me a sign that you can hear me, that you're still around."

The breeze came to a halt and it was somehow more silent than it was before.

"And don't worry, I'll look after Nan," she said with a sad smile.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Nora stood up and dusted off her clothes with the back of her hand. Wiping away some stray tears with the back of her sleeve, she took a last long look at what was her grandfather's final resting place and turned away.

Walking out of the graveyard, she couldn't shake off the unnerving feeling that she wasn't leaving alone.