Somewhere Under The Rainbow

As the afternoon wore on, Will grew more and more antsy, repeatedly checking his watch and paying very little attention to the baseball game being carried out below. He jiggled his leg and glanced around at the people sitting nearby, trying to guess which one of them was the unsuspecting H. R. Bafford. The fat man to his right who was scarfing down a hot dog as if his life depended on it? The skinny blonde woman who was obviously not at all interested in sports and had only come because her boyfriend wanted her to? What if it was the six year old boy two rows down tugging on his dad's sleeve to get him a soda?

"Relax, new guy," Julie said after what seemed like ages. "Quit being so jumpy. The ETD is 4:16, so we've got another hour and a half before the poor sap kicks the bucket. Just relax."

Will forced out a long breath, leaning back in his seat.

"If it makes you feel any better, I was real nervous too," Julie said, lacing her hands in her lap and propping one leg up on the seat in front of her.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Yep. More than you, actually," she said, glancing up at the sky.

"What was it like?"

"It was…" She paused, chewing on the inside of her cheek in thought. "It was awful; it sucked." She shrugged. "The guy showing me the ropes was kind of a dick, and the reap was the victim of a bear mauling, so…yeah, it sucked on multiple levels."

Will winced. "I'm sorry."

Julie shrugged again, flapping a hand. "It was more than forty years ago," she said. "Just know that after your first reap, it only gets easier."

Will swallowed. "Forty years?" he echoed. "How long does this job usually last?"

"However long it takes. Remember, Rachel said we don't know we're done until we are."

"Well, that's stupid."

"You're telling me." Julie sat up as one of the New York ball players slid into home and half the stadium erupted into cheers, the other into boos. "Goddamn Yankees," she muttered.

"You're a Sox fan?"

Julie shrugged. "I'm from Boston originally. I got transferred here about ten years ago."

"Transferred?"

"Yeah. Happens every once in awhile; usually when someone fills their quota and the last reap was a kid."

"Why's that?"

"Kid reapers are automatically assigned to the Pets Division," Julie answered, taking a gulp of her Pepsi.

Will frowned. "What about Charlie?"

"Charlie was a fluke – an upper management fuck-up. Also happens every once in awhile."

"Huh," Will said in thought.

"So when'd you first ask your parents about the D-word?"

Will twisted his head to look at her in confusion. "What D-word?"

"You know," she said. "Death."

"Oh, uh…" Will thought hard, trying to remember. "I dunno, I'm not sure I ever actually asked my parents about death. Learned about it from other places, I guess."

"Well, my mom just about had a heart attack," Julie said, glancing up at the sky again. "Started rambling about how I wouldn't need to worry about it until I was older than she was." She gave a small dry chuckle. "Boy, was she wrong."


Slowly but surely, the minute hand crept around the face of Will's watch at a dreadfully glacial pace.

"It's 4:09," Will stated impatiently. "Shouldn't we be looking for this guy?"

"Relax," Julie said again. "We are looking for him."

"Okay…how?"

"By studying. Gotta learn to listen, rookie. Think reverse crime scene."

"None of what you just said makes sense."

Julie huffed through her nose. "Just shut up and observe, dammit."

Will sighed, turning his attention to the surrounding crowd. He heard no H names being called, no "Hey, Mrs. Bafford, thanks for the hot dog", and he had no fucking clue what he was supposed to be looking for.

4:13.

He shifted anxiously in his seat, his fingers tapping on his knees.

4:15.

"Hey, Henry! What took you so long?"

Will and Julie's heads snapped up, following the shout to a man completely decked out in NY Yankees merchandise as he carefully made his way down the steps with his arms full of popcorn and soda. "What do you mean, what took me so long?" he called back to the man who'd first shouted from the row directly behind Will and Julie. "I had to get all this shit for ya; it's your goddamn fault you ordered three fucking Diet Cokes. Jesus."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner," Julie muttered under her breath, immediately jumping out of her seat and casually striding up the stairs. Will watched, wide-eyed as Julie brushed by the man, her hand subtly sweeping lightly over his shoulder. Her fingers were followed by a trail that shimmered very slightly, and an odd look crossed the man's features, as if he sensed that something was wrong. And just as quickly as the encounter had begun, it was over, and Julie was standing on the upper landing, thumbs hooked in her pockets as she waited for the man to die.

Will's body tensed as he imagined the guy tripping and snapping his neck on the stairs, or possibly choking on the wad of gum he was chewing. He checked his watch again. 4:16.

A pigeon flapped through the air above, and suddenly, the guy sputtered and cried, "Oh, what is this shit? Goddamn it!" as a milky white substance dripped from his hair towards his eye. "Fucking sky rat!" Half-blinded, he lost his footing on the next step, and his armload of snacks and drinks scattered and spilled over the concrete as he tumbled down towards the ball field. And kept tumbling.

People in the nearby stands shrieked or stood up to gawk as gravity worked its magic, but Will jumped out of his seat and ran up the steps to join Julie, more than a little freaked out. All day, he'd gone along with the stunts and freaky explanations that Rachel had offered without really absorbing any of it. Now, he'd been slammed hard into Acceptance, and he was starting to truly believe that all of this was real. And the only thing running through his head was shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT.

Once Henry R. Bafford had hit the bottom of the stairs, he reappeared on the landing where Julie and Will were standing, staring dazedly down to where his body lay obscured by the crowd now gathering around it.

"Holy shit," he said. "Am I dead?"

"Yep," said Julie. "Come on." Grabbing him by the upper arm, she led him in the opposite direction, and the three of them climbed up the stairs. Will was trying his best not to look back.


A/N: Leave a review and let me know what you thought :) Oh yeah, and you can follow me on Twitter now, at Palolatte. Or just follow the link on my profile, if you're as lazy as I am.