Dying wasn't what she had expected it to be. All her life she had been told that death wasn't anything to be afraid of because you would finally get to be with the Lord. She had spent her whole life striving to do what the Bible told her so that she would make it into Heaven and be truly happy. She was told that true happiness was not on Earth but in the afterlife.

Now she knew-she knew why people were afraid to die-because it wasn't fun at all. She always thought the good souls went to Heaven after they died. She was not sure if they just waited around until Judgment Day or what, but being doomed to roam the Earth as a spirit until that day comes or forever seemed awfully harsh.

As days, months, and years went on, Maude was starting to lose her faith. How could she believe in a God if she was being doomed to suffer like this? If there was no Heaven, she would rather not exist at all, but she existed as a ghost. Being a ghost was not fun in the least; floating around, unseen by anyone. She could see her family, but they couldn't see her. She could see her youngest son so troubled and conflicted about religion, and she wanted to help him, to get him to see that he had nothing to worry about because there was no Heaven, after all.

She knew she couldn't present herself to him, but perhaps she could speak to him. Maybe he would hear.

However, she seemed to have given him the wrong impression for both of her sons quivered and whimpered in their beds upon hearing their dead mother's voice. She made her way to Ned's bedroom to try to talk some sense into him instead.

"Neddy . . . There is no God! It's just a meaningless void!"

"M-Maude?" the man opened his eyes, rubbing them in disbelief. "What are you talking about? Of course there's a God."

"Don't you think I would know better than you? I'm dead, Neddy!"

Ned furrowed his brow. "There is a God, Maude. My word, you must be stuck in Limbo or something!" He gasped. "I knew we shouldn't have given into our urges that one night. I hope I still have a chance."

"Neddy, listen to reason."

"I won't hear any of this gosh dar-diddly-arn nonsense, Maude! Dying has made you loony. There is too a Heaven; you just didn't make it for some reason. Maybe there's still a chance for you but not with that attitude, darlin'!"

Frustrated, Maude screamed, passing right through Ned in anger before flying out the window and up far into the sky, desperate to find proof of Heaven. She could have sworn she was flying for days and still found nothing but a vast emptiness. What were all the Bible stories for then if there was nothing really there? She supposed it was to give everyone something to hope for, something to keep their spirits up while in reality, death was terrible, and there was no reward.

At first she had thought maybe she was just being punished, but that couldn't be it for she would surely be in Hell right now. While this seemed like a living Hell, it wasn't how the Bible had described Hell so she supposed that did not really exist, either. You die, and you exist as a spirit, roaming the Earth, bored. After all that striving to go to a place that was nonexistent.

The only thing she could hope for was seeing her family again one day; then they would know the truth, and they could live like this together. At least she would have some company. She floated back to the Flanders house, but before she decided to settle somewhere inside, she a thought occurred to her. Being a ghost, she could haunt people, and there were a couple of people she knew she wanted to get back at. One was Homer Simpson, not only for obvious reasons, the terrible things he had done that had affected them as his neighbor, but also it had to do with her death.

The last thing she remembered was being knocked off the grandstand at the race track and hitting her head. She was barely alive, but she remembered hearing voices. Something about ambulances not being able to come through because of a car. She heard the name Homer J. Simpson. So, not only had he been the reason she had fallen in the first place, he was the reason she could not have gotten medical help. It infuriated her now that she had had a lot of time to contemplate it.

Another person she wanted to teach a lesson was a woman named Ginger Flanders. In death, she had learned about the Las Vegas trip Ned and Homer had taken from listening to conversations. Someone had mentioned it, and it really worked her nerve. She did not blame Ned exactly, though she was disappointed in him. But she wanted to do something about Ginger. A good haunting should be enough, and it better be, for that's all she could do as a ghost, unfortunately.

She hated being so limited to what she could do these days, but she would make do. God or no God, she would just await the day she could actually see and talk to her family again. She hoped that day wouldn't be too soon, though. She wouldn't wish this life on anyone. And if there was a Heaven, which she still had a little hope for, she hoped that her family made it because they deserved that more than anyone.