Read Final Call for Free Online

the bed. He looked
around the room at all of the people standing around. His four children were
sobbing. His dear Lucinda was holding his hand to her cheek and crying.
    “Wait a minute here,” he bellowed at
the top of his lungs. “I am not dead! I forbid it.”
    “I can just hear Daddy,” his eight-year-old
daughter, Vivian, said, sniffling back the tears. “He’s asking God for more
time, telling him that he’s not ready to go yet.”
    Sixteen-year-old Rudy shook his head,
“Oh, no, he would be demanding that God send him back. He wouldn’t be asking
for anything.”
    “Now, Rudy, Vivian,” Lucinda said
softly. “You must still show respect for your father.”
    Alvin, his fourteen-year-old son cried.
“I don’t want him to be dead. Mommy, what’s going to happen to us?”
    Lucinda put her arm around the boy and
pulled him close. She placed a kiss on his forehead. “Don’t worry, Alvin, the
Lord will provide.”
    “No! No! No! No!” Hezekiah yelled. “I
am not dead. This is just a mistake. I’m here, right next to you! Tell me you
can hear me.”
    Rachael, his ten-year-old daughter,
looked around the room. “Momma, I thought I heard Daddy’s voice,” she said in a
whisper. “Could Daddy be a ghost?”
    “Daddy said there’s no such thing as
ghosts,” Alvin countered. “Don’t be stupid.”
    “Alvin, be nice to your sister,”
Lucinda reprimanded gently. “I think we’re all a little overwhelmed right now.”
    Dr. Polley ,
who’d been standing at the back of the room, came forward. “He died quickly,”
he said. “I don’t know if that makes you feel any better. He didn’t suffer.”
    Hezekiah turned on the doctor. “How do
you know whether or not I’m suffering?” he asked. “How do you know what I
feel?”
    Lucinda nodded and patted the doctor’s
arm. “Thank you, Doctor, that does make it a little
easier to deal with.”
    Dr. Polley placed his hand on hers. “If there is anything I can do…”
    Lucinda smiled at him. “You’ve been
very helpful, thank you.”
            “Tell him to bring me back,”
Hezekiah yelled. “Tell him to take those damn defibrillators off the wall and
bring me back to life.”
    He realized he was swearing, but at
that point, he really didn’t care. “I’m not dead! I can’t be dead! I’ve got too
much to do!”
    “I’ll have the nurse call Walker’s
Funeral Home,” he said. “They’ll pick up Hezekiah’s body and then you can meet
with them about the funeral.”
    “Oh, no, don’t let them take my body,”
Hezekiah pleaded. “Don’t let them bury me. I’m still here! I’m still alive.”
    “Mommy, we can’t let them bury Daddy,”
Rachael cried. “We can’t put Daddy in the ground.”
    Lucinda hugged the little girl, tears
glistening in her own eyes as she took a ragged breath. “Oh, darling, Daddy’s
up in Heaven now,” she said. “He’s looking down on us from his reward in the
sky. His body is just what’s left once his spirit has gone on. Just like the
butterfly that leaves its cocoon. Daddy has moved on and is bright and
wonderful in his glory.”
    Hezekiah leaned back against the wall
of the hospital room, tears streaming down his face. “I’m dead,” he cried. “Oh,
dear Lord, I’m dead.”   

Chapter Seven

 
    Mary saw the ghost stagger out of the
hospital, a lost and dazed look on his face. She jumped out of her car and
hurried to meet him. “Are you okay?” she asked.
    He turned to her and she could see the
dark tracks of tears on his cheek. “I’m dead,” he whispered, his voice
cracking. “I’m dead and I didn’t make it to heaven.”
    “Well, that doesn’t mean you won’t,”
Mary explained. “It usually just means you’ve got some unfinished business and
God is letting you tie up loose ends before you leave.”
    “Who are you?” he asked. “And why are
you following me?”
    “My name is Mary, Mary O’Reilly. I have
a special gift; I can communicate with people who