A Gift or A Curse

She unlocked the front door of her shop with Jimmy watching behind her back. She rolled her eyes when Jimmy showed his teeth everytime she turned around.

“You know, this shop could use some new decoration. Maybe if you paint it in like, bright orange or something, people would-”

“Why are you still here?”

Jimmy glanced at her. “I told you, I need a favor from you.”

“I can’t help you. Go find someone else.”

“That’s the problem. You’re the only one who can see me.”

She closed her eyes. She didn’t ask for this to happen but it happened anyway.

“Have you actually tried going to someone else?”

“Believe me. I practically went through them.”

She felt shivers went down her spine again. Felt goosebumps all of a sudden. Never in a million years she would thought about standing here talking to a ghost. And a weird ghost at that.

“You don’t believe I’m dead, do you?” he spoke suddenly making her flinched.

She stared at him and backed off slightly when he stepped closer, trying to keep some distance between them.

“You have internet right? Look it up.”

Blake glanced at her computer behind the counter and back at him again. He raised his eyebrows once, asking her to do so. She went over to it eventually and opened Google site.

“Type in; The Rev.” he ordered.

“The – what?”

“Rev. R. E. V.”

She typed it in. A lot of information came out. The first link was a wikipedia link and a bunch of pictures. She clicked on one of those pictures. Her blue eyes then darted to Jimmy.

“Why are you even in Google?” she asked curiously.

Jimmy snorted a laugh as he leaned on the counter. “You’ve never heard of me, huh?”

She shook her head, but then continued to click on one of those links. It was a blog dedicated to him. A fan blog. The writings were sad and they were all mourning about his passing.

“You were…famous or something?”

“You seriously never heard of me - of us, before?”

“Should I?”

Jimmy laughed softly to himself. If Blake was a fan of them then this would be a whole lot easier.

“Why God? Why did you sent me here? She doesn’t even know who I am!” Jimmy wailed dramatically while looking up to the ceiling.

“It says here, you were in a band called…Avenged…Sevenfold?”

“You damn right I am. Well, I was.”

“You were their drummer.”

“Hell yeah! Wait, I already know that. Why are you keep-”

“They replaced you with someone else.”

Jimmy stunned for a bit. “That sons of bitches! Who dared replace me?!”

Jimmy jerked his head to the monitor and saw the latest picture of Avenged Sevenfold. It was a poster photo shoot. He missed doing photo shoot with the guys. There was an unfamiliar skinny guy in there. His hair was curly and his eyes were round. He looked a bit like Michael Jackson before surgery.

“Damn these motherfuckers. I gotta know who that is. I gotta go back and see them play! Come on, Blake! Help me out here!”

Blake shifted in her seat, a bit taken aback by his vulgar speech.

“I can’t. I don’t have any money.”

She pulled open her cash register and there were only a couple of 20 or 30 cad in there.

“Use my card! I still remember my number.”

“You think your card can still be used? After you died?”

Jimmy’s face fell, his mouth dropped open. He hadn’t thought of that before.

“Damn it, being alive sucks! So does being dead!”

Blake laughed watching him being frustrated like that. She laughed without knowing. Jimmy quickly turned to her. He saw her blue eyes glinting and sparkled when she laughed. She even had dimples on her cheeks. Just like Matt’s.

“You laughed.”

Her laughing stopped suddenly.

“You look so cute when you laugh.”

Her used-to-be-pale-face now went red, blushing from his comment. But Jimmy didn’t seem to mind about it. He just babbled on and on about not having money is sucks.

The bell on the door suddenly chimed.

Mr Elmer went in. He went straight to the counter, ignoring Jimmy who was standing directly beside him. Blake felt nervous all of a sudden. She kept glancing over at Jimmy and then at Mr Elmer who was flipping through a magazine on the counter.

“Hi Mr Elmer. How are you today?” She greeted the elder man sweetly. Jimmy stunned for a while, watching her smile and her sparkling blue eyes softly glinting at him.

“Ahhh I’m as always Ms Quinn. My wife is nothing but a pain in the ass.”

“Really, what did she do to you this time?”

“She talked to me.”

Blake laughed softly and Jimmy just stared at her. She felt a bit uncomfortable.

“What kind of magazine today?”

Mr Elmer just shrugged. He reached for a book which just in front of Jimmy. His hand brushed Jimmy’s forearm and Jimmy winced a bit.

He felt that.

But Mr Elmer just ignored him. He opened the book and read on. Jimmy waved in front of him. He was still being ignorant. Jimmy tried poking, and his index finger just softly buried into Mr Elmer’s shoulder.

He gasped.

“I’ll take this book then. Here you go.” He put the money on the counter without Blake having the chance to state the price, and just went out of the shop just like that.

Blake took the money and put it in the cash register.

“This is 1000 cad! Mr Elmer!” she went out of the counter and chased Mr Elmer down the street. But he was nowhere to be seen. He went missing just like that.

She went back to her shop and saw Jimmy was still in shock.

“Er, he gave me 1000 cad.”

“I touched him.” He said, staring at his own hands.

Blake stopped walking. “What?”

Jimmy looked up to her. “I fucking touched him.”

“Stop it with the ‘f’ word. It’s not nice.”

“No, seriously Blake. I touched his shoulder. But he can’t see me.”

Blake gaped at him, he seemed really shocked. Their eyes locked for a moment.

“He gave me 1000 cad.” She raised the money in front of him. Jimmy’s mouth broke into a smile.

Notes