CHAPTER II: FREE KEITH

IF SHE wasn’t with Gian, Akira would’ve looked like she was out of her mind, getting worked up over something that no one else could see.

This child appeared like – for lack of a better term – a hot mess. His hair was disheveled and his lips were dry and cracked, tiny nails the color of bark and almost-blue bags under his eyes. Overall, he just seemed like a very sleep-deprived kid.

Akira held Gian’s hand as she let the boy lead them around the cemetery. Obviously, this happened a lot and Gian was used to it, but he still asked anyway.

“How old is he?” Gian questioned as they make a turn. The boy held up five fingers happily.

“He’s holding up five fingers,” Akira replied, and when the slightest beam from a far light post shone on them, she added, “His skin is yellow.”

It was unmistakable. All strays that Akira had encountered may be translucent to the eye under illumination, but she was certain this boy’s skin is jaundiced when he passed away. She felt her heart sink once the boy pointed at his grave, two women standing next to it.

Akira and Gian approached and read the writing on the marble.

Keith Von R. Cruz, our beloved little angel.

“So young,” Akira began, and the women smiled sadly. “I’m sorry.”

“We’re still trying to wrap our head around it. It’s only been a year,” One of them replied. “Our Keith already had liver complications ever since he was a baby. He was gone before his body could wait for a match in the transplant list.”

“We’re so sorry to hear that,” Gian answered.

“Anyway, can we help you? Are you parents of Keith’s friends?” The other woman asked. She was trying so hard to be peppy, even though Akira could tell that they both found it hard to speak about the boy. “You both look too young to be parents.”

“We aren’t.” Akira laughed uncomfortably. This was the hardest part of being a bridge between the living and the dead – explaining herself and trying not to sound insane. “I’ve met Keith today… and he wants to deliver a message to his parents.”

Keith, watching from the sidelines, gave her a two-thumbs up and a merry smile… As merry as he could do it, at least. The boy’s lips looked like it was going to be torn in two. The women stared at Akira like she belonged in a nuthouse… as expected.

“Please leave us alone. We’ve lost a son and we have no time for practical jokes,” The first woman said, but before they could shove Akira and Gian away, she translated for the small stray intently watching.

“He says he misses you too, every day,” She started, shocking the boy’s parents. Keith could barely express himself but he pushed with his message so hard, and Akira kept on going. “He still listens to you reading The Little Prince before bedtime and misses Mama’s mashed potatoes.”

One of the women began crying and the other held her close.

“He says he loves you, and that the chocolate bar was the best gift ever.”

The women bawled their eyes out and Keith mumbled a soft thank you to Akira. He waved and began to fade, like a camera coming out of focus, becoming more and more transparent by the second. And when the women have contained themselves, Akira knew the boy had left for good.

“We’re not really sure what to make of this,” One of them declared. “I don’t know how you know all that.”

Akira shrugged and the women bid them goodbye after a ton of thank you’s and hugs. Gian was just shaking his head in disbelief. They went back into the car and he spoke as he turned the engine on.

“It wouldn’t be All Soul’s Day without you freaking people out,” Gian said, earning a scoff from Akira. “Did he leave? Did you see him go to the light?”

She nodded and buckled her seatbelt. “I guess the kid just really wanted a proper goodbye.”

“How are you? How do you feel?”

“I’m okay. Children always have the easiest requests.” Akira shifted in her seat and Gian stepped on the gas. “I’m happy I got to help him.”

“You sure you want to give that up?” Gian asked carefully. “Helping strays, I mean… like your own personal charity.”

“You know how draining it gets.” She crossed her arms and threw him a blank glance. “Plus, do you really want a freak for a partner?”

“Four years and you’re still asking me that,” He stated with a huge smile plastered on his face. “For the record, I don’t think you’re a freak. And if you are, it doesn’t bother me.”

Akira scrunched her nose. “Still, I don’t want you burdened with the responsibility of taking care of me every time they go overboard. It’s too overwhelming sometimes.”

“I can take it,” He answered, and then stopped himself. “But if the gift going away will give you serenity, I’ll support you a hundred percent.”

Memories of Akira’s past breakdowns flashed in her head. She went through years and years of experiments to make her sixth sense go away, asked several religious and paranormal experts for help, even practiced spiritual exercises… meditation, prayer, whatever was available.

You would think that with a hundred unique versions of sacred scripture that existed, Akira could just read them all before bed and close the eye permanently… but if one deity couldn’t take it away for her, who’s to say that the other versions of the same deity could?

At some point in her teenage years, she simply gave up and learned to live with it, studied all the nooks and crannies of the gift. Akira memorized how to be amongst the dead no matter how terrifying they may appear, and some of these strays are really, really, terrifying… but she had to keep her composure every waking hour as to not alarm anyone.

Not the living, because Akira didn’t want to be deemed crazy and irrational.

There was actually a short-lived period in the past wherein Akira tried to put the gift to good use, and willingly helped bring closure to the strays who crossed her path. The catch is, when you’re a philanthropist for dead people, they latch on before you have any idea if they are good or bad, if they will be grateful or abusive.

So, not the dead either, because Akira didn’t want to get involved in whatever pickle they had in their past.

The spirits visible to her were lost ones, still roaming the surface, attempting to make sense of their deaths and the fact that they were no longer part of this world. A stray could absolutely go to the light on their own. It was really just a matter of acceptance and being at peace with their fate, but a lot of these ghosts found it hard to let go.

There were too many of them than you could count in a day and Akira couldn’t help all of them (and she honestly didn’t want to), so she just kept to herself and let them find their own closure.

“Thank you,” Akira mumbled. “For being here.”

Gian stepped on the brake to a red light. “Always.”

Akira’s eyelids fluttered close and she snoozed for the rest of the trip home.