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another block he asked her. “Are you cold?”
    She didn’t answer correctly. She said, “I have never been so close before.” And then gasped, “To so many.”
    What the hell did that mean? Paul almost blurted out, he restrained himself and as they crossed to the next block he adjusted his arm so he could drink his hot chocolate.
    She froze. “Can we go back?”
    “Yeah sure.”
    They turned around and her eyes were back over her shoulder, looking back down where they had been heading. She started to speed up and the increase in speed almost tripped Paul as he dodged roots that had fought their way through the sidewalk.
    “Melinda, what’s wrong?”
    “There’s just too many of them. There shouldn’t be that many here, not in Richmond.” She shook her head as if she wasn’t responding to Paul at all, but verbalizing the conversation she was having in her head.
    “Who? What?” Paul had a hard time adjusting to Melinda’s pace.
    “It’s getting close to midnight.” She spoke with such a strong tone that Paul knew she was talking about the souls’ last day on Earth.
    He almost said her name, called her back, but he didn’t feel like he knew her well enough to grab her and stop her. They were already up the steps and into his apartment before she stopped. She gnawed through her gloves at her finger and stood, looking more like she was pacing back and forth, deep in thought. Paul fought his keys out of his pockets and eventually had to remove a glove to unlock the door. He swung the door open and was greeted by the roaring heater.
    Paul was irritated, how had the night gone so wrong, he was going to get a nice bit of sleep before his early morning hike and he could only top that by seeing Melinda again, now he wished he’d settled for the Z’s.
    “You think I’m crazy,” she said.
    What could he say? He chose silence, which is never the right thing to say to a woman.
    “It creeps me out what I believe.” She continued in his silence, “I’d love to be like the rest of you, never knowing the better. But I can’t. I cannot let them go on to the next life in confusion, lost, angry, scared. I learned how to speak to them.” Paul took the couch this time. Almost as a challenge, come sit beside me, I’ll get what I want out of this night if you’re going to act nuts. Then I’ll have to move out and change my phone number, he thought . Right? He turned to his friendly shadow, which had returned sitting, waiting.  Must’ve been the angle he was at before that had made it look as if it were gone.
    “She wants to cry,” Melinda said. “The old me wants to cry.”
    “Are you okay?” He knew that was opening a can of worms. “You said someone you knew died recently…” Still playing the caring, sensitive guy, give it up ! No matter how pristine and elegant a beauty she may be, Paul was not willing to deal with crazy, yet against his better judgment, he continued to play that role.
    “Robert was the guy I wanted to marry,” she said. Her shoulders drooped and she collapsed into the recliner. “I know that must be awkward for you. But you’ll know what I mean when you meet that person. It sounds stupid to say soul mate, and that’s not what he was, he was just the kind of guy I wanted around me. I’d do anything to have him back.”
    “You said it is a soul’s last night on Earth, is there any way to, I don’t know, reach him, say goodbye?”
    “I don’t want to say goodbye.” Melinda’s face jerked away, she faced the wall like a pouting child.
    Paul looked at the clock, dreading the moment it struck midnight. Would she burst into tears and make him drive her home? Would she keep him up the rest of the night telling him about how her dead dream guy used to make her waffles and cupcakes? It was 11:51 p.m.
    Outside it sounded as if the wind was howling, but Melinda told Paul otherwise.
    “You hear them, they all want in. None of them want to leave.” There was the rattling of doors and