Chapter Nine

The funeral is about to begin and everyone starts taking their seats in the old wooden folding chairs in the grave site. Sitting in the very back row are two people, almost isolated. No one is interacting with them at all. As if they don't exist. Sitting in the back is a man and a woman. Well so it appears. The two people in the back row are Jonathan, as a ghost, and a reaper named Stacey. 
"This is what it's like to be dead?" asks Jonathan.
"People gathering to mourn you, they move on, you need to as well Jonathan." says Stacey.
"Is that why you came here? To help me move on? Is it some kind of process?" replied Jonathan.
"Not really here to help, I'm here to take you there. Whenever your ready Jonathan. I'm done chasing you. You've ran much longer than you should have. It's time to crossover Jonathan." says Stacey.

"But my family needs me" says Jonathan.

"Not anymore Jonathan, I promise the Gods are watching over your family, they may not have liked you, but they respected you. Do you honestly think if Geovany wanted you in Mount Olympus you wouldn't be there? He told me to let you wander for a few days." says Stacey.

"Is Geovany upset with me?" asks Jonathan.

"Well you did betray your people for a Demon. So I think it's safe to assume. But I really don't know what's going on. I don't dabble in the affairs of Angels. All they do is write my checks." answers Stacey.

"I think i'm ready." says Jonathan.

"Good, i'm glad you're ready." says Stacey.

Stacey stands as does Jonathan. Stacey snaps and as simple as that a door that looks like any other door appears in the middle of the grave site. 

"All we have to do is walk through the door" says Stacey.

Jonathan nods in agreement and walks toward the door. Stacey opens the door. Through the door is a wonderful field full flowers, trees, animals, rainbows, and anything else you could imagine would be in Heaven.

"This is Heaven?" asks Jonathan.

"A part you've never been to before. Mount Olympus. It's where the Gods reside along with fallen Angels." answers Stacey.

"Only the Gods can go back and forth in it?" asks Jonathan.

"Once you're in, you're in. Death is the only certain entry method if you aren't a God." says Stacey.

"Well how do you get in?" asks Jonathan.

"I am a Reaper Jonathan, we don't play by your silly Angel rules. Now, are you ready?" says Stacey.

Jonathan couldn't help but have second thoughts of walking through the door, but his only chance at happiness was going into Mount Olympus. April stops crying for a moment when she starts hearing a chatter through the service. When she turns around she sees Jonathan, the door, and the Reaper. She can hear them. April turns back to the funeral service thinking maybe she is just seeing things. Thinking things she wishes she would see. When she turns back she realizes the man giving the service has stopped talking, and even stopped moving. She starts looking around, everyone has stopped talking, crying, and moving. April stands up and looks back at where she thinks she sees her father.

"Dad!" April exclaims.

"April?" Jonathan says in confusion.

"Daddy, your okay!" April says running to her father.

"What are you?" asks Stacey in confusion.

"What do you mean? I'm his daughter! Did you bring him back to us?" says April.

"No human can do what you have done." says Stacey.

"Listen honey" Jonathan interjects.

"I don't know how you did what you did, but you have to tell Raven about it. But whatever you do, do not tell your mother." says Jonathan.

"Aren't you coming with me daddy?" asks April.

"I wish sweetie. Tell everyone I love them when the time is right." says Jonathan.

"Jonathan, it's time." says Stacey pointing towards the door.

"No!" exclaims April! 

"Please Daddy! You can't leave me, and mom, and Shelly, and even Raven." says April starting to cry.

"Please don't cry darling. You're going to grow up to be a very important person among the worlds, I just know it." says Jonathan smiling.

Jonathan hugs April one last time and walks with Stacey through the door. The door closes behind them and the door slowly fades away. April thinks about what her dad just told her and walks back to where she had been sitting. Just as she sits down time unfreezes and everyone began crying and moving uncomfortably right on cue. The m an delivering the service picked right back up where he was. April begins thinking to herself attempting to figure out what is going on.

"Am I dreaming?" 

"There is no way that could have been Dad."

"Maybe i'm like Dad and have some weird powers?"

"Raven said he was an Angel, but what if i'm a Demon?"

April gets lost in her thoughts for another five minutes or so and the service begins to wrap up. Only the immediate family are permitted to stay for the actual burial. Marsha, April, Shelly, and Jonathan's parents stay behind even though they aren't too fond of Marsha because she is a human. Raven waits in the car for Marsha and the girls. 

"There is only one upside of our son's passing. He doesn't have to deal with that b***h of a wife, and those putrid things he called kids." says Jonathan's dad.

"Really? Do we have to do this here? You're about to lay your son to rest finally and you want to bicker about how much you hate me?" says Marsha.

"Well maybe if you weren't the w***e in the grocery store, you wouldn't have tricked my son with sex" says Jonathan's mom.

"We met at the zoo I work at. What are you talking about you old bat!" says Marsha.

"If you wouldn't have gotten pregnant he would've left you to come home eventually." says Jonathan's father. 

"I didn't know he was an Angel on the run. Okay? Happy? I didn't even know he was an Angel until our wedding night." Marsha says starting to cry.

"You think if I known my life would've turned out like this I would've gone through with it? No. But he told me on our wedding night. That means we were wed locked. Which to me, means something. It means you stand by that person. The person you kissed in front of witnesses. I love Jonathan. I always will. Until the day I die, and then I meet him again. Because then i'll get to fall in love with him at first sight, all over again. Marsha says as she walks away with the girls.