The Other Side - J. D. Robb [102]
“Oh, thank heaven. For a minute I thought . . . ” Vanessa glanced down at the scene of twisted wreckage, then caught sight of the mangled, bloody body lying on the passenger side, still held firmly in place by her seat belt.
The front and side airbags had inflated before having been shredded by tree limbs, looking like giant balloons with the air gone out of them, swaying gently in the breeze that blew through the shattered windows.
Vanessa pointed. “That woman looks like me.”
“And that guy looks an awful lot like me.” Ted indicated the lump of bloody flesh trapped behind the twisted steering wheel. The driver’s section of the car gave a sickening lurch before sliding farther downhill until it came to rest several hundred yards beyond the rest of the wreckage.
“Oh, darling. I don’t understand. What’s going on here?” Vanessa reached for her husband’s hand, needing the comfort of his touch to assure that she wasn’t hallucinating.
He drew her close, wrapping his arms around her, before glancing over her head to where the two bodies still lay. Against her temple he whispered, “I can’t be certain, but I believe we’re dead.”
“Don’t be silly. We can’t be.” She pushed a little away to look up into his familiar, beloved face. “If we were dead, would we be able to speak and think and feel? I can feel your arms, Ted.” She tightened her grasp. “Can you feel mine?”
“I can.” He gave her one of his rogue smiles. “And you feel really good, babe.”
“So do you.” She couldn’t hold back the little sigh. “So. What do you make of this?”
“There’s no denying that our bodies are there in that wreckage.”
“If that’s so, why aren’t we . . . gone?”
“I don’t know. I guess it means we’re still us, only . . . different.” He took in a deep breath, struggling with dozens of conflicting emotions. But the one that seemed stronger than all the others was an overwhelming sense of peace. Of knowledge. Of acceptance that everything was as it should be. “It means, I think, that we’re now in the spirit world.”
“And this is it? This is all there is to dying? Just . . . stepping outside ourselves?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I thought there’d be rays of white light. And angels. Or guides of some sort, to show us what was expected and how to behave in this new place.”
“You rang?” The woman’s voice came from directly beside them, though it took them a moment to see her.
When they did, Ted gave an excited shout. “Gram!”
“Hello, Teddy. My, haven’t you grown up to be a fine, handsome fellow. I was allowed to see you occasionally, so I’m not at all surprised. You see, I was one of your angels during your lifetime.”
He kissed her cheek, marveling that she hadn’t aged since he’d last seen her more than forty years earlier. In fact, she was as lovely as the portrait of her as a young debutante that hung in his office. “I thought I saw you once, when I was dreaming.”
“You were troubled. It was during that time when the doctors were running all those tests on little Tyler, and I wanted to comfort you.”
“I remember waking up and feeling at peace with everything. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She dropped an arm around his shoulder. “I was gone before you and Vanessa married, so we’ve never been formally introduced.”
“Gram, this is my wife, Vanessa. Darling, this is my father’s mother, Sarah Graham Crenshaw.”
“How nice to finally meet you.” After hugging her, Vanessa held out her left hand. “I’ve been wearing your ring on my finger since the day I married Ted. I feel as if I’ve known you all my life, Gram.” Vanessa smiled. “I hope you don’t mind if I call you that? It’s what Ted always called you when he spoke of you. And always, I might add, with great affection.”
“The feeling is mutual.” Sarah Crenshaw dropped a hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “I was always so pleased that you wanted to wear my ring. My Thaddeus gave me that ring the day we wed, and it never left my finger until the day I passed into this other world.” Her tone warmed as she turned to her grandson. “Welcome to the other side. I’ve come