Between the Lanterns(64)

“You old dummy,” Samantha said, her voice somehow sounding full of sadness. “It’s alright, though. I was always with you, sweets. In the SameSoul.”

August’s unfocused eyes regained a momentary shine as he said, “So that was you, every time I cooked… and just now? That feeling… it was you the whole time?”

The wooden automaton did its best approximation of a shrug, and Samantha’s beautiful voice said, “It’s hard to explain, sweets. I was aware of you… your presence… and when you cooked I felt happy. Sometimes I felt this other presence, too. It was trying to pull me somewhere. Somewhere I couldn’t go just yet, not without you. I don’t know. But just now when you were thinking of not putting the SameSoul into old Woodrow, I knew that you had to. I… I tried to yell your name, I think. Like I said. It’s real hard to explain.”

August felt a peaceful and warm sensation wash over him, but it was getting hard to see… and to breathe. August began gasping for air. He felt everything going numb, starting down at his toes. August realized that he was dying.

“Sam,” he said quietly but desperately, “does that mean that there is a hHeaven? Is there something after this? Will I get to see you again, babe?”

The gentle, wooden hands wiped tears from August’s face, and her gentle voice said, “I’m sorry, sweets. I don’t know.”

August Lurie closed his eyes. But before his final breath left his lungs, Samantha Lurie leaned close and said, “But we’re going to find out together.”

Opening one last time, August’s eyes beheld their final sight ever. His wife was holding a little black box in her hand.

“I love you more than there are stars in the universe, August,” Samantha said.

August’s voice caught in his throat, but he croaked through it, and said, “I love you more than there are grains of sand on every beach on every planet in this and all other universes.”

As the last rattling breath finally escaped from her husband’s lungs, Samantha Lurie, or Woodrow… or maybe both of them… crushed the little black box to dust.

The Tesla generator outside of town suddenly shut down and all of the lights in New Dothan went out instantaneously. Seconds later the town’s new solar array, one the size of a football field, powered on for the first time. And all of the lights in New Dothan came back on, except for two.


THE END