Betsy takes her hair down and combs it before braiding it again. She has to look perfect. She hasn't been so nervous since their very first date.
Before she can even finish her hair, there is a knock on the door. "Just a moment!" she calls as she grabs a ribbon to tie in her hair.
She hurries to the door, and can see through the window that it is not the surprise caller, it's Marian. "No, no, no, no," she says to herself, putting her hands over her mouth. She'd usually be happy to see her friend, but in the circumstances, Marian is the last person she wants to see. She hesitates, and Marian sees her through the frosted glass and waves.
Betsy takes a deep breath and opens the door. "Hi Marian," she says, putting on the most normal smile she can manage. She's struck more than ever how Marian Kreese has the exact same blue eyes and hair that curls just like her son's.
"Betsy, dear, I brought you your cookbook back," Marian says.
Betsy smiles and thanks Marian as she passes the book back, and wonders if she can get away with saying she is in a hurry and cutting the conversation short. She had no idea that many years ago looking up John's mom in the ghost phone book would lead to an afterlife-long friendship. No, she can't be so rude. "Did you try the cherry pie recipe I told you about?" she asks.
"Not yet, but I have copied it down. I will be sure to share it with you when I do make it," Marian says.
"That's very kind of you," Betsy says, and looks over her friend's shoulder to check for anyone coming. Ponytail said they were heading over immediately.
"How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't been over to see you in a while, I know we don't need to sleep, but it's still so difficult to get out of bed some days. Silly, isn't it?" Marian says, and laughs nervously. "You look a little pale, are you quite alright?"
"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Betsy says, although her voice shakes a little. She hates to lie, but she has no idea how Marian will react to this situation. Marian goes through phases of watching her son obsessively on ghost TV and avoiding any mention of him. It's best that she doesn't know about what's going on. Betsy will tell her once it's all blown over.
But it's too late. Suddenly two other ghosts zoom up and appear on her doorstep. She recognises Ponytail from the photograph John sent her of him and his army buddies, but the older man in modern clothes she doesn't know, he must be the one known as Snake.
Marian turns to look at them and gasps. "I know you two from somewhere, your faces are so familiar." she says, and frowns. "Were you friends of John's?"
"He was," Snake says.
"The name's Ponytail, ma'am, nice to meet you," Ponytail says, giving her a little bow. "And you must be Mrs Kreese, right? What a surprise to see you here!"
Marian laughs. "Less of the Mrs," she says. She holds a hand out to shake his, and he bends to kiss it.
"Yes, I remember seeing you on ghost television. You looked out for my son during the war."
"I don't know about that, ma'am, I'd say he looked out for us more than the other way around," Ponytail says. "Now if you don't mind, we're really in a hurry, so-"
Marian takes hold of the permit that he's wearing around his neck. "You're very privileged having one of those," she says. "Betsy and I were planning to go and visit John before they changed the rules."
Snake leans over and whispers something in Ponytail's ear, and Ponytail shakes his head.
"I'm so sorry, ma'am," Ponytail says. He turns to Betsy. "Miss Betsy, it's wonderful to meet you in person. And if I may say, you are even more lovely in real life than your picture suggests."
Betsy giggles as he clasps her hand and kisses it. "Johnny told me you were a charmer," she says.
"I don't know either of you, but I'm Snake," Snake says. "You ready to go?" He takes his permit from around his neck and passes it to Betsy. They all watch as the names change from Snake's and Terry's to Betsy's and John's.
Betsy looks at permit. Seeing their names together makes it seem real finally. Her heart skips a beat. She had expected she would be watching John on the ghost television for years to come, hoping he would stop making self-sabotaging choices.
"Oh, that's how it is, is it?" Marian says, clasping her hands and twisting them together. "The boys must be in major trouble."
Ponytail and Snake nod their heads gravely.
"If only they had let us go and visit when we planned to," Marian says. "We could have fixed things for my John much sooner, stopped this calamity from ever brewing."
"Yeah, pretty dumb, right?" Snake says. "So what if the living world gets overrun with ghosts? Who cares? It'd be way better if we were allowed to go whenever we want."
"Yes, it's so unfair," Betsy says. "We were so upset when they told us we couldn't go."
"Strange that they would choose you and not me to go and see him, but the Ghost Council have their ways, I suppose. Not that I resent you for it, Betsy dear," Marian says, but Betsy catches the anguish in her voice.
"Maybe you should go instead?" Betsy says. She desperately wants to see John and try to help him, but Marian is his mother and a dear friend of hers, and she hates to see her hurt.
Marian looks at her and bites her lip, looking conflicted, like she hadn't expected to be presented with this choice.
"Well one of you go, will you? We ain't exactly got all the time in the world here," Snake says.
Betsy holds the permit out to Marian, but Marian pushes it away. "No, you go, dear," Marian says. "I'm not sure he'd want to see me anyway. I wasn't the best mother to him."
"That's not true! You did your best, I'm sure he knows that," Betsy says.
"He only mentioned you once to me, but it was clear he missed you very much," Ponytail says.
Marian pats Betsy on the shoulder. "Send him my love, dear," she says. "And tell him I wish I could have been there for him more."
Betsy nods, blinking back tears. "I will," she says.
Snake enlists the help of some of his friends to stage a distraction. Snake tells the guards he lost his permit and starts arguing with them when they refuse to let him past. While this is happening, a group of his friends try to sneak past them, and while the guards are apprehending them, Ponytail slips past them with Betsy.
It's very strange to be back in the living world, and in another country no less. She recalls the times when she and John would lie on the beach and talk about the future, all the things they wanted to do, places they wanted to see.
Ponytail takes her to the venue where the competition is being held. He keeps looking over his shoulder as if he expects someone to come after them. Betsy isn't sure what will happen to them if they're caught, but if there's a chance she can make things better for John, she'll take any risk.
Betsy is sure that at some point John spotted her in the crowd, there was a slight change in his expression before he turned away. She and Ponytail part ways when the last match is over and people are leaving the venue. He goes after Terry, and she follows John back to his hotel room.
She lingers by the door, not quite sure how she should approach him. She once thought long and hard about this, many years ago when she and Marian were supposed to come visit him. After so many years, she's not sure how he will react to seeing her. She knows he still keeps her picture in his wallet, but she's seen him look at it less and less as the years went by.
Taking a deep breath, she moves into the room. John is sitting with his back to her, sharpening a knife, the fabled eunjangdo that his teacher gave to him.
"Johnny?" she says as she approaches him.
The knife slips from John's grip and he gasps and puts his cut finger in his mouth. He looks up and sees Betsy, and the eunjangdo and the stone he is using to sharpen it both fall to the floor.
"Guess I'm losing my damn marbles too, huh?" he says.
Betsy shakes her head. "No, it's really me, Johnny."
It's unclear if he believes her. He drops his head. "I let you down. I promised I'd come back to you, and I didn't."
Betsy had hoped for a different reaction than that. She wouldn't have minded if he had moved beyond missing her terribly, but knowing he feels bad and somehow blames himself for that horrible twist of fate really hurts. "That wasn't your fault!"
John carries on staring down at the floor. "I also promised I'd come back a hero."
"You did what you thought was right. Not just for you and me, but for everyone. I've always been watching over you, so I know-"
John looks up at her. "Then you've seen me do a lot of things I'm not proud of."
Betsy wraps her arms around herself. "Johnny, everyone makes mistakes. That's why I'm here. Okay, I admit, I wanted to come and talk to you again too, I wanted that so badly. But the real reason I'm here is to stop you from making another mistake, one that you won't be able to forgive yourself for."
"What kind of mistake?"
Betsy shakes her head. "I didn't want them to tell me, but I could tell that it was something terrible, Johnny! A lot of people are going to die! You don't want to go down this road, believe me. I've seen ghosts regret what they did in their lives so badly that they can barely sit with themselves!" She thinks of John's mother, for one. She wants to tell him something about his mom, but not like this.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it doesn't matter now. It's too late for me, doll-face, don't you worry yourself about me. I'm an old man, I'll be with you soon enough."
"I miss you so much, but I don't want that," Betsy says, clenching her fists. "You still have things you need to do down here. You still have a chance of happiness. I want to see you happy, Johnny."
"And I was, with you. Those few years we spent together were the happiest of my life. I've never forgotten them. Since then, I've done my best to help others and show them the right way, but, a chance of happiness, you say? No, that died when you did." He smiles like he thinks there is some sort of glory in his suffering.
"You think that's what I wanted? You think that's what your mom wanted? To watch you waste your life being miserable and alone?"
"Waste my life, have I?" John says, getting out of his chair and turning his back to her. "Well if you've just come to criticise me, you shouldn't have bothered."
Betsy goes to him and tries to lay a hand on his shoulder, but of course, she can't. She'd love nothing else than to pull him into a big hug. "No, Johnny, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she says. "Nothing makes us happier than to watch people we love living happy lives. We don't want you to be sad forever."
John sighs. "When people say that their departed loved ones are watching down on them, I guess they think that it's a comfort. But apart from a few tournament wins, there's been nothing worth watching in my life. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather you didn't watch."
Betsy looks down at her hands, trying to find the right words. Johnny had always been a bit reserved and reluctant to share his feelings, but no more so than a lot of other men. But time and circumstances have changed him, made him colder and more pessimistic. When she spoke to Ponytail on the ghost phone, she was so certain that she'd be able to reach John, but now doubt is creeping into her mind.
John bends to pick up the eunjangdo and the sharpening stone. He turns the knife over in his hands. Betsy wants to ask why he's so intent on keeping the blade so sharp, what he intends to do with it, but she's afraid of the answer.
"If there's one thing I wish for you, it's that you didn't turn away from people. That's what's brought you to this situation, Johnny!" she says, feeling tears start to fill up her eyes. "That's why this… terrible thing is going to happen. You never used to be like this. I know your life has been hard, but you were never like this before."
John gives her a sad smile. "Not everyone has been so nice to me as you, sweetheart. You're the only person who's ever cared about me."
Betsy shakes her head, tears splashing on her cheeks. "That's not true, and if you look deep in your heart, you'll see it isn't. You mom loved you very much. She told me she wished she could have been there for you more."
There's a flicker of some emotion on John's face, but he quickly shuts it down. "You know I don't speak about my mother," he says.
"Maybe you should!" Betsy says. "You had it hard enough without people treating you the way they did. They were wrong. The world hasn't been kind to you and it wasn't kind to your mom either."
John grips the handle of the eunjangdo, as if ready to strike at some unseen enemy. "You've got that right. The world isn't kind, so why should I be? Why should I forgive the transgressions of others, when they will never do the same for me?"
"But don't you see, someone needs to end this cycle of violence. Fighting doesn't solve anything, and you don't need to fight!" Betsy wipes her face and blinks back fresh tears. "There's kind people around you right now who care about you very much."
John narrows his eyes. "I don't suppose you'll appreciate me calling your bluff, but do go on, who?"
Betsy looks at him in disbelief. It's obvious to her. She can sympathise with him, but she can't understand how he can look at the world in such a bleak way. "You really don't know?" she says.
"No," he says, and the word hangs between them. He takes out the eunjangdo's sheath and slots the blade into it, then sets it down.
"Da-Eun, for one."
"But she-"
Betsy cuts him off before he can say something dismissive. "Wouldn't be here with you if she didn't have absolute faith and trust in you."
"She's here to spread her grandfather's teaching methods to the world, nothing more."
"That's not all. She's here with a friend," Betsy says, and when John looks at her blankly, she adds, "You."
"I suppose she is an old friend, technically," John concedes.
"Your student, Tory, she cares about you too."
"No, I'm sure-"
"She looks up to you, Johnny. She was so upset when you brushed her off when you were in jail. She just wanted to help you. And she wants to make you proud, I've seen her training, she wants so much to be like you."
John looks down at his hands, and rubs his knuckles. "Is that so?" he says, a reluctant smile forming on his lips.
"It is. I know it's hard to see these things when you're not used to looking at the positives."
"Like Kim, she's here. She's on my team. And I suppose that means something."
Betsy smiles and nods. "Johnny Lawrence too."
John laughs. "Now you're just screwing with me."
Betsy shakes her head. "You're both as stubborn as each other."
"But I've tried to talk to him on multiple occasions. He's made it clear that he still hates me."
"I think you both harbour some resentments, which makes it difficult to make progress. Keep trying. I know you'll come to an understanding eventually."
John smiles, but Betsy isn't sure he believes her. "So tell me, how do you know so much?"
"There's not much to do in the afterlife, so us ghosts often become experts on the lives of our loved ones," she says, and feels a tightness in her chest at the injustice of it all. "Oh, if only we could all share our wisdom with them, what a world we could create!"
"Not much to do, huh? You're really selling it to me," he says with a smirk.
"I'm not trying to, Johnny. I want you to go on living for as long as you can do!"
"But apparently my fate is sealed," John says, throwing up his hands. "That is, if a certain someone is to be believed. Hell, if you're here and not just a figment of my screwed up imagination, maybe he wasn't talking out of his ass."
Betsy holds up a finger to emphasise her point. "Which brings us to the person who cares about you most of all. Terry."
John swallows, then shakes his head. Betsy waits for him to say something, but he doesn't.
"Before I died, all I knew about what you were going through out there was from what you wrote in your letters, and I know you couldn't write very much. After I passed and saw it with my own eyes, my heart broke for you. The only comfort was that you had a devoted friend by your side. He made you a promise."
John is silent for a long moment. "A promise that meant nothing. He broke it. And when I gave him another chance, he broke it again," he says hollowly. "He sent me to jail, Betsy! I could have died in there. You know I can hold my own in a fight, but a whole gang took a dislike to me, and they had weapons. And he took my dojo, my students too. And you expect me to what? Forget about that? I can't. So that makes me the bad guy?"
"Everyone makes mistakes, Johnny." Betsy sniffs. "Look at me. Took my eyes off the road for one moment to fix the radio, and that was it for me. I know I was the only one waiting for you and you had no-one to come back home to, and I'm so sorry."
John shakes his head. "You have nothing to apologise for, sweetheart," he says softly. He approaches her hesitantly, and holds out his arms.
Betsy moves towards him, letting herself believe for a moment that it isn't true that ghosts can't touch living people. He encircles her with his arms. "Sorry," he says when he accidentally goes through her a little.
She reaches out and hovers her arms around him, the closest they can get to hugging. If she thinks hard enough, she can remember the warmth of his body against hers, how comforting it was when he pulled her in tight. It felt like there was nothing in the world he couldn't protect her from. Tears fall from her eyes.
"The mistake was mine," he says, his voice catching in his throat. "I wasn't drafted. I could have stayed home with you, we could have got married. My employment prospects were slim, but we could have figured it out."
"Don't say that," Betsy says. She can't honestly say she hadn't wished for exactly that herself, but it hurts to hear John say it. It brings her no comfort to hear him regret his entire life.
"I love you, Betsy," he murmurs, sounding like he's getting choked up. "I've never loved anyone else. It sounds like a line from a bad movie, but it's true."
"I love you too, Johnny," Betsy says, and allows them a moment to just be together.
They end their simulacrum of an embrace, but remain close to each other. John tries to wipe away Betsy's tears, which is such a sweet gesture that it makes her cry even more.
"But I've moved on to another place," she says, tears streaming down her face. "You need to move on too."
"You're here now, and so am I." His eyes are wet and he keeps blinking, but his expression is serious.
"Yes. But I'm dead. I can't stay. Please Johnny, you need to focus on the people who are still alive. Make up with them, while you still have a chance."
"If that's what you really want, sweetheart, I- I'll try."
Betsy smiles through her tears. "Do you really mean that?"
"I can't make no promises, mind you. Other people are not as understanding as you are."
"You've got all the time in the world to make up with everyone else, but please, forgive Terry. You have to be friends again, that's the only way to stop what's coming."
"I really don't know that I can."
"Johnny, please. I know it's hard, but just make the effort. If you reach out to him, it'll go well, I promise you. He cares about you so much more than you realise. You two could be happy together."
John narrows his eyes. "What are you suggesting?"
"He loves you, you idiot!" Betsy says, then covers her mouth, ashamed of her outburst. "Sorry. He's always loved you, you're the only one who can't see it."
John shakes his head. "No. That can't be right."
"I think you know it is, if you're honest with yourself."
"I don't believe you would lie to me. But what do you expect me to do with this information?"
Betsy isn't sure if John is being dense, or if he's asking for permission. She's never seen John drunkenly cry over Terry, the way Ponytail told her Terry did, that's not John's style. Heck, she didn't know his intentions towards her until she asked him if he wanted to go steady on their third date and he told her he considered that they already were. "That's up to you. I just want to see you happy. Just… whoa." Suddenly her head spins and she feels a weird pressure like a thunderstorm is coming.
John tries to reach out to catch her, but his arms go straight through her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a… weird feeling," Betsy says. "I was trying to say, just follow your heart."
The unsteady feeling passes, and then comes back again and Betsy finds herself sucked back to the afterlife at a sickening pace.
John stares wordlessly at the space where she just was.
Meanwhile, Ponytail is talking to Terry, filling him in on their plan and discussing their next moves.
Ponytail feels something pulling on his head, and from the descriptions he's read in books he knows this must be what being sucked back feels like. But it isn't even late. Which can only mean one thing. "Oh no, this isn't good," he says.
"What? What isn't?" Terry asks as Ponytail is whisked away. He reaches an arm out into thin air. "No, wait! Ponytail! I wasn't done talking with you!"