I have awakened in a dark, tight place. The air reeks of a rotten smell. I notice that there is a door above my head, and push up, hearing rocks and dirt hit the soil above me and seeing a bit of light as the door has opened, I crawl out of the hole in the ground. The crow, from the night with Hexe in the van is sitting on my tombstone. It's been decorated as well, for my birthday. So it is September 10th, but of what year? The crow leads me to the place I died, a green cross is in the grass where I landed that fateful night. I stand there for a few minutes in disbelief, then in a few minutes a car, looking a lot like a cross between the batmobile and Kit in knight rider drives by and I get a look at myself in the black shiny body of the car. My face is pale from where the exhaust pipe burned me, and my lips are black, in a permanent smile, and there are lines on my eyes, I look rather like a harlequin jester. I know one thing, I'm hungry, and there is only one thing I want, my mom's home cooking. I head down the road to my mom's house, hoping she is home and has cooked something.

When I have reached mom and dad's house, I knock, I'm disappointed to see that the doorknocker I got them for Christmas the year before I died is gone, but it's okay. Mom answers the door, and about turns white. "ELIZABETH!" She says my name like a stranger's name. On the couch is my neice, Wendy, all grown up and beautiful like her mother, smiling as she and my other two neices Misty, Ashely, and my cousin Leeanne sit and work on what looks to be flower bouquets. No, Wendy can't possibly be old enough to be getting married, can she? I ask my mom what year it is, and am shocked to learn that 15 years have passed since my death. Mom busies herself in the kitchen, rather like a woman who just saw a ghost.

She wraps hot dogs in bread dough to make pigs in a blanket, and Wendy stands and walks to the kitchen to help her, by setting the table. As mom calls us all to dinner, dad walks in. Dad hasn't changed at all, that's for sure, still a tall, strong man with broad shoulders who looks even bigger and stronger standing in the door frame followed by two of the cutest dogs I have ever seen in my life. As we sit down to eat, Wendy fills me in on what has happened. Misty has just graduated from dental school and has her own office in Akron, Ashely is getting married in a couple months to a marine, who personally Wendy couldn't care less is engaged and getting married the upcoming weekend to her middle school love, my nephew Rusty is a senior this year and is considering proposing to his girlfriend at her reception, which Wendy couldn't be happier about. My sister Jolene is now the head cook at the local middle school, my brother in law Puck, is now the manager of a factory, my brother Allen has lost his wife not even 2 years after my death to a stroke, my other brother William is married to his girlfriend Samara and has two more children a boy named Chris and a girl named Lacie. As I finish eating, my crow claws at my shoulder and digs "OW!" I yell as it scratches. He leads me away, I bid them all goodbye as I walk ou the front door.