Chapter 4 - Life Hopper

A warm, pulsing, soothing vibration surrounded her senses.  She felt like she was inside her own heart.

Without warning, Cameron felt her heart seize wildly through her throat.  Her arms felt tight, her he’d felt like it was about to pop off.  The hospital room and  scene below her started to vanish, overcome by dense fog.  She was now acutely aware of the warm vibrant red haze that had enveloped her.

She could smell and  taste a phantom earthy acrid spice in the air.  It was on the tip of her tongue and maybe her nose. She couldn’t tell if it was something that was actually there, or if it was from a memory she had as a child.  It reminded her of the water she drank from the water hose out front of her parent’s home during the summer.

When she looked around, she could see her old neighborhood.  There was a sense of sadness there.  Abandonment.  The houses, weathered over the last eight years, were standing remarkably tall.  The yards were pristine. And yet it still seemed abandoned.  No birds.  No crickets or cicadas.  No cars driving down the street.

She saw her dad’s old rusted green ford parked out front of her childhood home.

The house was still coated with fresh white and blue paint.  The back yard gate slightly ajar from where the dogs used to sneak out and where the neighborhood kids used to sneak in.  They had the best back yard pool in Little Mexico.  That’s what they called the neighborhood when she was growing up.  The rose bush that cascaded their fence and the honey suckle bush were in full bloom.  Cameron loved the smell.  She could remember it.  Taste it.

She glanced at the back yard.  The large barnyard shed and deck her father built stood prominently.  The old makeshift swing she had built as a kid was worn down from wear and tear. The board her dad had lifted when they had to bury Cameron’s puppy remained raised, not completely sealed.  Old fence pieces were strewn behind the barn where Cameron used to build forts when she wanted to play but didn’t have anyone to play with.

The cover to the pool filter was laying on its side.  The water hose Cameron used to clean the filter with was sitting there, running rapidly.  Cameron went to lift it to finish hosing off the dirt.  But she couldn’t lift it.  She could feel it, but it didn’t budge.  This wasn’t her world right now.  Just a dream…a memory.

She walked to the screen door where the house swallowed her whole.   Inside the living room, Cameron saw her mom’s bubble wrap sitting next to the rocking chair.  Her mom had quit smoking cigarettes when Cameron was 8 and she used the bubble wrap to keep her hands busy so she wouldn’t smoke anymore.

The wall that her dad had renovated when he converted the garage into a dining room had large bulging cracks running down where a door used to be.

Her mom’s record player, movie stacks and candles hung decoratively next to the thirty gallon fish tank.  One of mom’s thousand piece puzzles lay strewn across the kitchen table.

The spot on the carpet where Cameron accidentally spilled wax was still fresh.  Well actually, it was wax that was on fire because Cameron would play with it as a kid….dad had never told her mom about it.  And Anne never said anything so Cameron just let it go.

She thought to herself and realized she must have been back in the 1990s.  She hadn’t seen her old home in years.  It looked exactly as she had remembered, except a little smaller.  The kitchen that overlooked the backyard was as yellow as ever with the yellow and black speckled linoleum flooring.  Her parent’s computer desk nestled with the printer and a rowing machine.

Down the hall were three rooms.  Her parent’s room was familiar, cold and dark.  The fan blew at a tornado whirling speed. So fast it was moving the rocking chair.  Heavy curtains rested on the windows to keep out the light.  Her mother, Anne, worked overnights and needed total darkness and lots of cold air to sleep during the day.

She eyeballed her room.  The carpet was still a bright vibrant green.  She mused to herself.  Daddy must not have changed out the carpet yet.  She looked out the hall way and realized the rest of the carpet was still brown and furry.  Ugh, she hated that carpet.

In Cameron’s room she could still see the stain where she had spilled some water and juice.  She was afraid to tell her parents she spilled it, and instead told them the dog did it.  Those poor dogs weren’t allowed to be inside anymore after that.   

The wall next to her window had brown spots from where a grass snake had gotten wound up into the electrical and cooked itself.   

Her trundle  bed was stretched out and she could see where she had built a fort with the sheets between the beds.  She liked to build forts.  She would see the most magical worlds in there.

Cameron smiled, a flood of memories rushing back to her.  The good memories.  Not the bad.

She peered inside the guest room where her dad would sleep whenever her parents had a fight.  The carpet was a very bright blue.

At one point her mom used to sleep in there too until one night, a baby cockroach marched into her ear and caused a major ruckus.  They had to run up to the hospital and the bug fell out of her ear in the waiting room in front of a dozen strangers.  To this day Anne could still remember their faces.  And she never slept in that room again. Nope.

As Cameron reminisced, she drifted north towards her old school.  She observed her old childhood friend’s home and walked across to her old elementary school.  Her mom had also gone to the same elementary school.  It held a lot of sentimental memories for all the town natives.

As Cameron walked up to the playground, she saw a young girl playing by herself.

Cameron remembered her from the news.  She was a girl that had gone missing back in 1996 and had been found murdered a few days later in the creek next to the Trinity.  Her name was Amber.

She looked up from her castle she was building on the playground.  She saw Cameron watching her.

“Hi…” she said to Cameron, her voice small, young, sweet.  She didn’t look at Cameron directly.

“Hi…I didn’t expect to see you.  What are we doing here?” Cameron asked, gazing around the playground.  It looked exactly as she had remembered it as a child, only the equipment was much smaller.

There were still see-saws, merry-go-round, metal slides, and the basketball court.  There was also a small semi-spherical play structure.  The super geo-dome climber.  Cameron did a double take.  When she was a kid it was massive. She would climb on top of it and “rule the world”.

“I’m waiting…” Amber replied.  Her tiny hands drew beautiful stars in the gravel. They seemed to shine brighter with her touch.  She was calm.  Cameron surveyed the playground some more.

“What are you waiting for?” Cameron pried.  There wasn’t much out there.  The air seemed clouded by yellow dusty light on a hot summer day.  The sun’s rays bounced with vigor off the metal slide.

“For you.   I help people that are like you to find their way to the Life Hopper,” Amber explained.  She had a slight childish lisp.  She looked over at the sparkling semi-spherical play ground apparatus.

“It’s at our old playground?” Cameron asked bewildered.  “And what is a Life Hopper?”

Amber stood up excitedly, her little body bouncing with energy.  No longer calm and composed.  She wore a pair of blue jeans with red and yellow roses embroidered on the pockets.  She had a lavender top with long sleeves, polka dotted with purple that sparkled like royalty.

She was someone important on this side. Where were they though?  Cameron still looked around confused.

“The Life Hopper takes people like you to go to see the Soul Generator. “ Amber said, as if Cameron knew what the Soul Generator was.

“Soul…Generator…”. Cameron said it slowly as if it would help her comprehend what she was hearing.  “People like me? Are you like me?” Cameron asked inquisitively.  “What makes me like me?” She continued.  She was confused, but she really enjoyed getting to talk to Amber.  She was funny.  Kind.  A gentle spirit.

“You and I are not the same.  People like me have unfinished business.  I wasn’t supposed to die, but I did.  I have a different purpose now.” Amber passed to look Cameron in the eye so she knew she was tracking.

“You have lived your life.  You served your purpose.  When they’re ready, they will release you and you will go to the Life Hopper and your soul will be regenerated and re-distributed.  There is a lot that happens behind the scenes, but ultimately this is what it looks like for you”.  Amber stated, pulling out a map like flowchart. Cameron was stunned.  It looked like she was about to run through a computer defragment program.

“I can’t leave yet.  I’m not finished.  I just had my baby.  She needs me.” Cameron told her utterly panicked.  Amber looked at her apathetically and shrugged.

“It’s not up to me.” She looked on at the Life Hopper.  “We can still talk though while you wait.  They haven’t made their decision yet.” Amber told her.  She skipped over to the see saw.  “Want to play?” Amber asked.  Cameron nodded her head and perched on the other side of the see saw carefully.  She weighed much more than Amber and didn’t want to hurt her.

“Who is they?  Where are they?” Cameron asked, searching the horizon for any sign of life.  She didn’t even hear the birds or insects.  Her nerves were becoming unsettled.

They both gently pushed off the ground in tandem, one after the other, building a silent rhythm that triggered thousands of twinkling lights around the playground.

Now there was life!

Cameron  gaped in awe.

The sky lit up like the aurora borealis.   

She could hear the birds and insects chirping from worlds away now.

The cicadas tickled her soul as if speaking a language she knew but couldn’t quite understand.

She looked at Amber and then the see-saw bewildered.

Could a see-saw really do all that?

“The Guardians of Aspire protect the world order.  In a little while, I’ll take you to them,” Amber said, enjoying her position at the top of the see-saw.

“Want to see something cool?” Amber asked her, grinning from ear to ear.  Cameron smiled and nodded.

“Everything I’ve seen so far is pretty cool,” Cameron observed, her eyes knowingly looking around impressed.

Amber hopped up and walked over to Cameron and gestured for her to stand up.  Cameron obliged.

They walked over to the swings.

“I want you to push me as high and hard as you can”, Amber said jumping on the swing.  Cameron happily entertained her.  She started pushing the swing.  At first there was nothing unusual.  But then, the ground started to tremble,  then quake.  The trees began to shake.  Birds by the thousands were flying out of nowhere.  They were clear, translucent, barely visible and sparkled radiantly with the sun.

A siren like song began to play.  Almost like a gentle whistle in the breeze.  An announcement.  As if to say someone would be coming soon.

Normally, this would terrify Cameron.  She had never seen an earth quake before.  Or the landscape white washed to an almost twilight glow.  But this time she felt pure adrenaline as her curiosity got the better of her.  She didn’t want to stop, she wanted to see what would happen next.

The swing drew higher and higher to the apex.  And without warning Amber screamed in delight, let go of the chains and leapt towards the sky.  She looked at Cameron with a huge smile.  “See!!!  Is this so cool?”  She giggled as she floated twenty feet above Cameron.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cameron said in awe.  “How did you do that?” She asked Amber.  Amber floated gracefully to the earth, the quaking now subsiding.

“All will be revealed when it’s time to be revealed,” Amber lilted, grabbing Cameron’s hand.  Cameron felt a jolt of ticklish electricity run through her fingers as she looked down and realized she had hands again.

Amber’s skin now seemed to glow, a beautiful radiant purple when she met certain points of the twilight.

The two walked hand in hand along the pathway to the old school library.  The library was also much smaller than she had remembered.

Camerons eyes were drawn to the domineering and voluminous quilt she and all her classmates had made when she was a grade schooler.  The quilt loomed over the library windows like a giant cascading mountain.

She glanced to the right and saw some of her favorite childhood books.  Goosebumps, Amelia Bedelia, Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Babysitters Club.  The books sat next to each other neatly on the shelf like they were brand new.

“Cameron?  If you had to do it all over again, would you?” Amber asked out of curiosity.  She was looking down at her hands, picking at the embroidery on her jeans.

“Well…” Cameron paused and thought to herself ashamedly.  She didn’t really have much to tell Amber.  She hadn’t really gone out and explored the world yet and she wasn’t exactly the most mature person to be reporting back on earth.

Cameron knew college, bars, boys and work.  “I’m not too sure.  I think I also have some unfinished business,” Cameron replied.

Amber shrugged.  “Maybe they will let you stay with me.” She said sweetly.  Amber loved having friends.  Cameron shrugged.

“I really need to be with my baby though.  But I am really glad I get to talk to you.  I’ve thought about you ever since you disappeared.” Cameron told Amber.

Amber nodded her agreement.

“What was it like after I left?” Amber asked curiously.

“You don’t know?” Cameron asked furrowing her brow.

“They wouldn’t let me see momma after it happened, she was too sad, they didn’t think I could handle it. “ Amber said sadly.  She missed her momma.

“You and I  didn’t know each other when you were alive but you were friends with my neighbor, Cassie.” Cameron started.

“I remember when you went missing.  I was twelve.  I remember walking down to Braums with my friend Cathy.

And my mom came and picked us up and told us we needed to go home and stay home.  She said there had been a kidnapping.

There were cops everywhere.  Even psychics.  The whole town was looking for you.  The parents wouldn’t let us go outside to play after that.

It became scheduled play dates, mostly inside.” Cameron told Amber, recalling the frenzy.  Amber looked sad.

“Thank you for telling me,” Amber said sullen. There was another long pause between the two.  Cameron’s fingers traced the lines of the quilt that her and her classmates had put together so many years ago.  It was surprisingly soft.

“Your mom never stopped looking for the killer that did this to you.  They started a nation wide alert because of you.  You and your mom saved thousands of lives,” Cameron told her.  Amber perked up when Cameron mentioned her mom.

“They still hold a vigil for you every year at the old WinnDixie”.  Cameron finished. Amber gleamed.

She was happy to know that people still thought about her and she hadn’t been forgotten completely.

“I miss my mom.  I want to see her but they said I can’t yet.” Amber said sadly.   “They said it’s not her time.  But when it is, we will go to The Life Hopper together.”

Amber said happily, looking up at Cameron.  All these years she had remained a child.  She was still a child at heart.

“What do you do for fun while you wait?” Cameron asked her.  Ambers eyes lit up like she was about to tell the most amazing story.

“I have tons of friends.” Amber bragged.  She wiggled excitedly, her fingers dancing up and down her arms.

“And we have tons of puppy’s and kittens to play with.  We spend a lot of time on the rainbow and in the lights.  I like to play on the flowers and ride on the backs of bumble bees.” Amber replied giddily.

Cameron was amazed.  Could such a world exist under their very nose?  She smiled, her heart at ease knowing that Amber was happy even though she was still waiting for her family.

“I can fly when I want to.  I love going to the zoo.  And I never have to sleep.  And I’m never hungry.  There is always food.  And my tree house is amazing…” Amber said, closing her eyes, her voice rasping to a whisper to convey her awe.

“I live there with a bunch of friends.  It swings.  And it sings.  Thousands of birds live there.  And butterflies. My room is so colorful.” Amber boasted.  Cameron smiled.

“It sounds like a dream,” Cameron encouraged.

“It definitely is.  And they play Taylor Swift on the radio,” Amber giggled and nodded.  Cameron mused silently.  Taylor Swift radio in heaven?

The two quieted for a moment, staring at the library collection in awe.

The two picked out a book and Cameron and Amber took turns reading it.  It was Amelia Bedelia.

A thump could be heard down the hall.  Faint voices and steps started echoing from the first grade and kindergarten court yard.

Amber and Cameron looked at each other, their eyes knowing.

“That’s them,” Amber whispered.

Quietly they wondered out of the library down the hall past The Reading Rainbow couch and teachers lounge.

What they saw was astonishing. What was once a court yard now appeared to be a large war room.  Several spirits chittered and were having a serious discussion.

They were talking about Cameron and her baby Brooklyn…