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breathe through your mouth,” I
told Jason and Jessica.
    “I’m afraid I might taste it,” Jason
said.
    Jessica and I started laughing like
crazy.
    Once the stones were cleared away I
returned to my station behind the counter. After a few minutes I
noticed Jason was still spraying.
    “Knock it off!” I shouted. “Now it
smells like lemons and ass in here!”
    Jason roared with laughter, and I heard
Jessica’s giggle from the back.
    As Jason joined me behind the counter I
asked him: “Do you remember what it was like before you took your
human form? When you were in that purgatory you guys talk
about?”
    “No.” Jason shook his head. “Some of
the incarnates remember, some don’t. I only know what others have
told me. They say it’s like nothingness. You know like…that you
exist but you don’t have a form.” He furrowed his brow. “I heard
one of the born knowings say you can see the whole universe at the
same time. Almost as if you were everywhere at once and nowhere at
all, both at the same time. Once you decide where you want to go,
you’re born.” He quieted, then whispered: “Sounds like hippy
bullshit to me, but whatever it is, I went through it and will do
it again.”
    “Humans don’t have a choice,” I said,
as if reciting a truism. “They are automatically reborn in another
human body.”
    “ Yeah,” said Jessica as she
emerged from an aisle. “They don’t know what hit them. Just bam!
They’re dead, and the next second they’re born.” She looked at the
portable DVD player. “Your movie is over.” She turned the power
off.
    Jason detected a scent and frowned.
“Fucking trolls. This place is going to stink for a
week.”
    He was right. Nobody liked trolls. In
the pecking order of our world trolls were at the
bottom.
    Jessica shuffled through the CDs and
picked one by The Used. The girl with the strange aura had worn a
Used hoodie. What did her music collection look like? A stupid
thought. My mind seemed to linger on her more and more. What made
her choose Earth? Was it her decision? And what could she
be?

Chapter 5
    FAILING GRAVITY
     
    The next day was Wednesday. I was
anxious to see the girl again. I hoped she would come back but I
didn’t want Jason to know that. Jessica called and said she
wouldn’t be in. Jason was in and out, stalking back and forth like
a tiger between the apartment and the store.
    We’d just had a dusting of snow when I
saw Chris coming across the parking lot carrying a flat rectangular
box.
    Once he got in the door Chris came
straight to the counter and laid the box down.
    “What’s this?” I asked.
    “Jason come over here,” Chris
called.
    Jason came from the back where he’d
been rearranging books.
    Chris took the top off of the box.
“Your gun came in.” He grinned at Jason.
    “Oh! Fuck yeah!” Jason picked up the
enormous weapon.
    “Holy Shit Jason!” I said. “Are you
trying to overcompensate for something?”
    “Desert Eagle 500,” Chris said, beaming
down at it.
    Jason unzipped his hoodie, pulled out
the .45 Glock that he kept in his shoulder holster, and replaced it
with his new toy. He walked back to the apartment smiling
ear-to-ear.
    “I picked something up for you too,”
Chris said. He reached inside his coat, pulled out a shoulder
holster, and handed it to me.
    “Wow man. Thanks!” I said.
    I stripped off my hoodie, put the
holster on, then pulled my Colt .45 from under the counter. It fit
perfectly. As I was pulling my hoodie down over the holstered gun
Jason reappeared, bouncing down the aisles, crowing: “Oh hell yeah!
This is fucking awesome!” Chris laughed at him. Jason came around
the corner, drew the gun, and pointed it at my head.
    “Jason! Put that shit away!” I
shouted.
    Jason just laughed. He held the gun up,
examining it.
    “Oh! I almost forgot.” Chris pulled
something black from his pocket and tossed it at me.
    I caught it in midair, opened my hand,
and saw a silencer. “Chris! Holy…How did you