Waltz of Her Life

Lauren smirked. "Not long. You know there's no such thing as time on this other, side, don't you?"

"Yes, I know," Linda said. "And you don't have to eat, either, and you can choose what you want to look like."

Lauren reached out and touched her arm. It continually amazed Linda how real all actions such as those seemed. "Before you flicker off, I just had to say something," she started, in a tone more serious than she'd ever heard in Lauren, either before or after she died. "That whole thing with Seth proposing to you is bullshit."

"How do you know about that?"

Lauren smiled with an evil arch of her eyebrow, exactly the way she did when they lived in the dorms together. "We can see everything."

"Is it on a whole bunch of big screens or something? Can you switch the channel and see different things happening in different places on earth?"

"Something like that," Lauren replied. "But I don't want to tell you too much and make your head blow up."

Lauren was still holding the hand of the little girl, whom Linda officially recognized. "Who's this?"

She gave a big, unearthly, beaming smile that caused her whole body to glow, starting at her face. "This is your daughter. I mean, she will be."

The girl lifted her small, free hand and said "Hi."

Linda took a closer look at her. "You're kidding me." When she took a long look at her, she realized that the girl didn't look like her or anyone else in her family. She was red-haired, with large, pale blue eyes. But how could she point this out without seeming insensitive.

"I know," Lauren said, seeming to read her mind. "She doesn't look a think like you. Her name is Hannah. She was a little girl in Connecticut in the 1960's but drowned in a lake there. Now she wants to come down to earth again and she wants you to be her mother."

Not knowing what else to do, Linda got down on her knees so she could look at the little girl on her level. Hannah smiled warmly at her. "Thank you for choosing me," Linda said, and opened her arms. The girl leaped against her, wrapping her small arms around her neck and hair." Linda laughed with delight.

When she stood up again, she found Lauren still smiling beatifically. "I was so glad to see that you were awake," she said. "I've been dying to have Cindy come meet you ever since I found out."