Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
SETH LINDBERG
“I’ll get right back to you. Bye!” Click.
He slumped back down to the bed, then wrapped his
arms around his knees. After a long sigh, he glanced
over to Lila’s side of the bed.
Well, no more sex, he thought, feeling gloomy.
He shook his head. What a selfish thought. Lila’s
probably freaking out wherever she is, what with being
dead and all. Anders had some idea of what it was like
to die just by his profession, but you couldn’t go wrong
thinking there might be something more once you
were actually dead. He hoped she was okay. She was
strong, though, he knew she’d pull out of it all. She was
like that.
But, man. How would this change their relationship?
Probably a lot, in different ways. Would she hang
out in the house? She could probably stay employed
with Orpheus if she wanted to. Her employment options
now were frankly limited, if she even wanted to
keep a job. But, what a huge change.
Death could really ruin a relationship. He’d seen it
before. Like Agent Watson, dating one of the administrative
assistants, what’s-her-face, the blond one. She
was with someone else two weeks after he died. He was
devastated.
Anders shook his head. Tragic. He got up and
lumbered into the kitchen to dig into the six-pack a
little more. Popping open the top, he took a swig and
tried to remember the advice of one of his therapists,
long ago. Something about working things out by
listing the possible good points of any major, unexpected
change. See it in a better light.
Were there any good points to Lila being dead? He
thought hard about it. Well, he reasoned, since I spend
the great majority of my life these days in those sleeper tanks,
it’s almost like I’m dead anyways. It’s not like she won’t be
spending less time with me. Hell, she might even spend more
time now.
( 86 )
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