Chapter Eight

"Where's his living self?" He demanded, looking around for Hector.

"Where's Jesse?" I shouted. I couldn't care less if everybody woke up. It certainly sounds like that, though.

"Outside. You'd better hurry up, though, or you'll be too late," Paul said, smirking.

I ran outside, to see Jesse sprawling on the floor. I had dropped his miniature in a hurry, and Paul, finding it, had exorcised him.

I ran to his side, trying not to cry. "Jesse, don't leave me…"

OK, I cried. I've never loved anyone as much as Jesse. I mean, so what if Susannah and Hector had a happy ending? It's not Jesse and me. No, it's not.

Jesse motioned for me to come closer. I did, and heard him using his last (OK, not breath. Glow) to sing, "Oh Susannah, don't you cry for me; I come from Alabama, for our own happy ending."

And then he was gone. Not even a shimmer was left. I couldn't believe it. Paul had blasted Jesse to the Great Beyond. Just like he did to Mrs. Gutierrez.

"You know what, Paul?" I shouted, standing up. The people's voices were nearly reaching us now. "I'm going. You can stay here for eternity." And then they were on us.

I didn't stick around to find out. I clutched Jesse's miniature and thought of home. And fell on my knees. That's because I hadn't closed my eyes when I thought of home. Oh no. I was keeping an eye on Paul. So I saw him getting shot. In the eye. Which was totally disgusting.

"Jesse!" I heard my voice calling. I glanced around and saw Susannah. Paul was looking accusingly at me. I glared at him and reached to touch Susannah's shoulder.

"Susannah, I—" But then I was sucked into Susannah's body. We were whole again.

Susannah's body stiffened as she realized what was happening. As she became me.

"All right, Suze? I don't know how it happened. You were both here together, and suddenly you became one. I don't know how it happened—"

Jesse. Jesse was lying on his stomach in the grass beside me, totally unmoving, totally not…

Glowing.

He wasn't glowing. That means I succeeded. Well, not yet.

He was alive. Jesse was alive. Only he didn't seem too alive just then. I reached out and felt for a pulse on his wrist. There was one,

but it was faint. He was barely breathing.

"I think we screwed up, Suze. You weren't—you weren't supposed to bring him back."

But I was calm. Because I knew what would happen if I didn't bring him back. I was supposed to.

"Go to the carport," I said in a low, even voice. "And inside the house through the door there. They never remember to lock it. Hanging on a hook by the door are my mom's car keys. Get them and then come back and help me take him to the car."

Paul looked down at me like I was a crazy woman.

"The car?" He sounded dubious. "You're going to… drive him somewhere?"

"Yes, you fool," I snarled. "To the hospital."

"The hospital." Paul shook his head. "But Suze—"

"Just do it!"

Paul did it. I know he thought it was futile, but he did it. He got the keys, then came back and helped me carry Jesse to my mom's car.

Paul was driving while I continued to hold Jesse's head in my arms.

At the hospital, they came running out with a gurney when Paul went in to tell them we had an unconscious man in the car. They hooked Jesse up to an oxygen mask while the emergency room doctor grilled Paul.

I was already off in the car. I knew they couldn't save him. Because he have no soul. I need to find Jesse. The question was, where was Jesse?

In the basilica. I found him sulking on the floor.

"Susannah!" He looked up when I approached. His look of relief immediately changed into anger. "Did you went after Slater? After I told you I could take care of myself?"

"Jesse," I said, "you must come to the hospital with me."

"Are—" Jesse looked at me all over. "Are you hurt?"

"No. But you are."

His dark eyes were emotionless as I continued. "Please come with me. I brought your body here. You must enter it, so you can be alive. You see, I came from the future. I future where you lived until seventy. But it was a future without me. And that future you, Jesse, told me you'd rather die than live without me. So we came back. To save you. But, the future Jesse died. Future Paul exorcised him. So if you want to live here, please come with me. If you want."

Jesse reached up and laid a hand on my arm. "Let's go," he said.

"Jesse," I said, "I can drive back myself, OK? If you want to come with me because you want to live here, that's fine, but if you just want to walk me back to the car, believe me, there's no need to."

Jesse just said, "Susannah. Shut up."

And then I drove him to the hospital. He was silent the whole way. Just those brooding dark eyes kept glancing at me. When we got there, I showed him his real self, which was lying motionless on a hospital bed, hooked up to an oxygen mask.

"Susannah," he whispered. "What… how did you do this?"

"Well, go on. Enter it. At least your soul and body could be reunited at last."

Jesse, with a last look at me, touched his body. He only had time to mutter a "querida" before he was sucked down into his body, like smoke pulled into a fan. And then he was gone (I mean, the spirit Jesse. His body was still there.)

Then Father Dominic came back (I had called him when Paul did not know what to say to the emergency room doctor), and said, "Don't worry, Susannah, it's all taken care of. Jesse will get the tests he needs."

"It doesn't matter," I said.

"Don't give up hope, Susannah," Father Dominic said. "Never give up hope. It's all we have, you know. You did what you did because you loved him, Susannah. You loved him enough to let him go. There's no greater gift you could have given him."

But I wasn't even looking at him. I was staring down at Jesse on the bed. "Father Dominic," I said, interrupting him. "Look."

Colour that hadn't been there a minute before had flooded Jesse's face. His chest was rising and falling rhythmically now beneath the blanket that covered him. A pulsed thrummed visibly in his neck. His eyelids fluttered, and his dark confident gaze reached mine (OK, confident that he is alive, yes, but green, not dark), eyes that weren't just seeing me, but knew me. Knew my soul.

Jesse lifted up a hand, plucked aside the oxygen mask that had been covering his nose and mouth, and said just one word.

A word that caused me to turn smugly to Father Dominic and said, "I told you it doesn't matter."

"Querida."