Afterlife - Douglas Clegg [23]
Julie fought back tears as she felt the intense warmth of her mother’s cheek pressed against her own.
7
Mel made some coffee, while Julie and the kids sat around the living room as if they had to entertain her mother. “The one thing I’ve learned about life,” her mother said with that wiser-than-thou voice. “The only thing, really, is that it’s about accepting loss.”
“We were talking about that in my coffee group,”Mel said.
“Your coffee group?” Julie chuckled, with a little too much condescension in her voice. “God. My God, that sounds like 1950s with white gloves and cute little casseroles. You mean the church ladies?”
Mel must’ve been working to keep a kind look on her face. Julie was impressed.
“The altar guild. My friend Elaine lost her husband to cancer three years ago. It was her faith that really pulled her through. There really is no death.”
“You’re only in that group because you have the hots for Father Joe,” Julie blurted, and then quickly apologized.
“It’s not like Episcopal priests can’t marry,” Mel said, shrugging.
“We all go to heaven,” Livy suddenly said, her small, wise voice a bit of a surprise.
“That’s right, honey,” Mel said.
“I don’t know,” Toni said. “A lot of people believe different. Death is just a problem of our vision. You know, how we see things upside down? How our eyes work? Our mind works that way, too. We go on. We
just can’t see it.”
“Not your ghost crap again,” Mel said, a bit under her breath.
“If you have your sexy Jesus, Mom can have her spooks.”
Mel shot her a look, then glanced at Livy, as if to say, what kind of talk is that around your daughter? “Wait just a second, sweetie,” Toni said. “They’re not spooks. And I’m only a lapsed Catholic, not a heretic. I believe in heaven.” She motioned for Livy to come sit on her lap.
Livy looked a little frightened, but Julie gave her the nod. Livy went over, and climbed aboard the Gramma Express. “Spirituality doesn’t start or stop with a church or a dogma. What is out there is out there. I’m not going to sit here and say that one group has cornered the market on the truth of existence.”
“Is daddy a spirit-chew-aliddy?”
Toni kissed her granddaughter on the top of the head. “Different people believe different things, sweetie. Some people believe we come back as newborns. Some people believe we go to heaven. Some people believe we never really leave. Some go, some stay, some come back. Like when babies are born. Maybe they’re old souls.
Who knows?” She kissed Livy on the top of her scalp. “I think you’re an old soul, sweetie.”
“Wow,” Livy said.
“I bet in your last life you were a brilliant doctor like your daddy.” Then, Toni looked over at Matt.
Matt had his camera on and it was aimed at her. “I’m on Candid Camera.”
“I like when you talk about this stuff,” Matt said, fiddling with the lens.
“Okay,” Toni said. “I think I was a sherpa in my last life.”
“Is that like a shepherd?” Livy asked.
“Mom,” Julie said, sternly. She felt a severe headache coming on.
“What? Reincarnation’s as valid as anything,” her mother said. Then, she gave her that look that Julie hadn’t seen in years—it was one of her “Take a life
lesson” looks. “You want to live a happy life, Juliet, you start thinking about what comes after. It’ll put a lot of things in place for you.”
“It’s like a nice fairy tale to tell kids,” Matt said, “but the truth is, there’s nothing after you die.” He spoke so suddenly that it was like a shock through the room. He pivoted the camera around to look at Julie. “It’s like the fairy tales about wicked stepmothers.”
Toni chuckled. “That’s a zinger, Matt. Do you ever come out from behind the camera?”
Matt put the camera down and stared at Julie and then her mother. “Talk talk talk,” he said. “That’s all anyone does. My father dies and it’s all about blah blah blah.”
He got up and stomped out of the room as if he’d been insulted.
“Teenagers,” Livy said, as if she’d heard this from her mother.
“Shouldn’t you go to him?” Toni asked, hugging Livy. She had an expression on her face that was halfway