The Ferryman (7 page)

“I’ll bet it helps to be married to Fortune,” Karen whispered as she finally looked away, recalling the gentleman’s face.

“You think he’s all warm and fuzzy?” Fate asked. “He’s not. He was only trying to make an impression on you. Fortune frowns as often as he smiles, and you don’t want to be in his line of sight when he does.”

Karen began to wonder why Fortune had appeared. She had spent her whole life without seeing him, but for some reason she had personally met him today. Perhaps his visit wasn’t simply because he’d heard his name. What if he was looking for a reason to meet her? What if he wanted to know what Fate was doing? Maybe he was curious about their relationship. Did he know about the job Fate had given her to move souls between worlds?

“Don’t trust him,” Fate cautioned in a softer tone. “I don’t.”

Karen got back into the car and drove it slowly back to the rental agency. She thought about the events of the day and made a promise to herself that she would do her best to help Claude live. What she wanted most at that moment was to hug him and make sure that she didn’t get in his way. She was glad that she had met Scott, and she was glad that he kept smiling and didn’t suffer when he passed into the next life. It had actually been a good day, but perhaps that was due to Fortune’s presence. He was magical.

Karen now felt more optimistic about finding a way out of her current job, because she knew that Fortune understood Fate and how to get under her skin. If he knew her that well, then he must also know how to break an agreement with her, Karen reasoned. It was clear that Fortune could very well hold the keys to her freedom.

Episode Four

Outwitting Fate

She’d had a few days off from Fate’s interference, and it had been a good weekend for Karen. Earlier in the week she’d found an intramural sports team for Claude and enrolled him. He’d been to several practices and his first soccer match took place on Saturday. It was a good distraction from her contract to move souls, and Karen had temporarily forgotten her obligations to the Universe. The events of the weekend had helped her to forget that she was still a slave to Fate.

Most of the time Claude forgot which end of the field to kick the ball, but the other children were just as confused, and all of them were having fun. For most of the game Karen stood at the sidelines, holding an inhaler in her sweaty palm, ready to rush onto the field at a moment’s notice. The game was incident free and now that it was over she felt chills every time she recalled the smile on Claude’s face as he ran over after the game and hugged her. It wasn’t one of those short obligatory hugs. It was strong and exploded with Claude’s excitement. Karen smiled to herself.

During the past week she’d quit her job at the cable company and spent as many hours as she could searching the books in the library and various Internet websites to learn everything she could about Fate, but there were very few facts. Most of what she found were philosophies or myths. The same was true of Fate’s husband Fortune. Nevertheless, Karen decided to continue searching for a way out of her contract with Fate so that she could stop performing the duties of transporting the deceased into the afterlife. After all, even myths had some basis in reality, so the stories on the Internet, as ridiculous as some of them were, might still have been of use to her. All Karen needed to do was locate that kernel of truth which could gain her freedom.

On Monday afternoon Karen decided to attempt an experiment. She stretched out on the park bench and felt the hot surface through her thin clothing. She was dressed in dingy yoga pants and a torn t-shirt. She was doing her best to appear homeless and felt that it was easy to do when you’d been living on next to nothing for so long. As soon as her head was resting comfortably on the hard wooden surface, Karen closed both of her eyes and placed a highly polished silver dollar on each one. The metal felt cold in contrast to the warm summer air, and it soothed her eyes. Then she waited, feigning sleep on the bench and hoping that someone else would steal the coins from her eyes.

A half hour went by. Then another. Karen began to wonder if her homeless appearance was bringing about too much sympathy for anyone to attempt taking the coins from her, but she continued to wait. After all, if taking coins from the eyes of a corpse was what brought her into this contract, she reasoned, then having coins stolen from her own eyes may be the key to releasing her from the obligation to serve Fate. So she stayed in position and waited another hour.

“That won’t work,” Fate said sharply. The sound of Fate’s voice startled Karen, and she sprang upright. She fumbled to catch the coins as she squinted into the afternoon sunlight, but the metal disks slipped through her fingers and clanged on the asphalt pathway in front of her. She scrambled to retrieve the metal dollars before addressing Fate. She’d spent too much time polishing the coins to let them go easily. When she finally looked up, her eyes were still adjusting to the light, and she had to shade them with her hand.

“How do I know that you’re not lying to keep me in this job?” Karen demanded.

“You don’t,” Fate said as she adjusted the shoulder strap on her black sleeveless dress. She was wearing a matching wide brimmed hat that was tilted to one side. A small strand of simple white pearls rested against the smooth skin of her collar bone. She had her weight settled on one hip, and with one arm at her side and one adjusting her strap, she looked like something out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s or as if she were ready for a day at the races.

Sometimes, Karen thought to herself, it seems a pity that I’m the only one who can see Fate.

“You’re not wearing boots,” Karen commented as she studied Fate’s feet. She looked back into Fate’s eyes and continued, “I guess you don’t have as much shit to deal with today.”

“That’s what assistants are for,” Fate retorted. “That’s why I hired you, for example. You might want to look into getting a pair.” Fate scrunched up her nose as she surveyed Karen’s outfit. Karen’s gaze drifted down, and she wiped one of her moist palms on her own ragged attire.

“I’m not really dressed for anything,” Karen said as she slipped the silver dollars into the pocket of her yoga pants.

“You never know when you’re going to do something, and you never know when you’re going to do nothing. But you should always know better than to leave the house dressed like that. Even when you’re doing nothing you should be well dressed.”

“There’s more to life than how a person looks,” Karen said as she narrowed her eyes into a fierce expression, but she recalled her situation and bit her tongue from saying any more. Neither she nor Claude had nice clothes, and although she now had some money she had been hesitant to purchase more than what was necessary because one never knows how long a bit of money will last.

“Go on,” Fate said with a smirk. “Teach me a lesson.”

“It just shouldn’t matter what a person wears or what people look like,” Karen replied.

“It shouldn’t,” Fate agreed, “but it does. So you can carry a torch for the cause, but the reality is no one will listen to you dressed like that.”

“I was going for a homeless look.”

“I know.”

“I don’t think it worked.”

“I know.”

Karen glanced around the park and inhaled the scent of freshly cut grass mixed with wild onions. It was a weekday afternoon and there were college kids strolling about. She also saw a few mothers with small children, and an occasional businessman in a suit meandered through the park talking into his phone or Bluetooth headset. Karen watched a little girl playing in the sandbox and wished her life were that simple again.

“So, who am I looking for?” Karen asked as she stood up, faced Fate, and set her mind on the task at hand. “I know you didn’t come here to compliment me on my wardrobe. What’s my next job?”

“How efficient you are!” Fate clapped her hands together as she grinned, her white teeth too brilliant in the sunshine.

“I just want to get this over with and get on with my life.”

“You may be so busy trying to get your life over with that you forget to enjoy it.”

“I don’t need advice from you,” Karen snapped.

“Don’t you?”

“I need you about as much as I need to be handcuffed to a wild rhino in heat. Your lessons aren’t as valuable as you think they are,” Karen barked, and this made Fate laugh.

“You really shouldn’t be so entertaining,” Fate said as she attempted to catch her breath. She leaned over and placed both her hands on her knees as she breathed in gasps. “If you stay this much fun I may never let you go.”

Karen resisted the urge to slap Fate. Would anything happen if she did? Maybe. Maybe not. Slapping Fate across the cheek would feel very satisfying, but how long would the satisfaction last? And what could Fate do to retaliate? Karen didn’t know, and the thought left her feeling uneasy. If she wanted to outwit Fate, she would need to learn patience. No strategy would be effective without it.

“I’m glad my struggles are entertaining,” Karen said dryly. She waited several moments for her blood pressure to recede. After a few deep breaths she felt calmer. “The purpose of your visit,” Karen said and motioned with her hands to hurry the point. “What was it that you wanted?”

“Not here,” Fate replied. “The park is lovely, though. It’s unfortunate that the work is elsewhere.”

“Would you like to take my car?” Karen offered as Fate took her by the arm, and Karen felt the odd sensation that she was free-falling for a moment. She felt weightless and somewhat dizzy. Worried that Fate was taking her into another time or dimension, she tried to cry out but couldn’t get enough air to scream. Then it felt like her whole body was being pulled through a drinking straw. Her stomach lurched forward and went through first, followed by the rest of her body folded backwards. She felt uncomfortably elongated and hoped her bones weren’t breaking from the pressure of being squeezed.

Karen stumbled and nearly fell, but she braced herself and took a moment to plant her feet firmly before looking around. As she was swaying and regaining her balance and before she could focus on her surroundings, she was distracted by the smell of something rotting. It was so foul that it overpowered all of her other senses. She blinked several times and the graffiti ridden brick walls and trash dumpster came into focus. She was in a downtown alley. The hot summer sun was baking the waste into a bacteria-laden mess with a scent more sour and rancid than the average politician’s soul, Karen thought. She winced at the sharp pain which shot down the back of her neck each time she turned her head. She reached up to massage the injury.

“Oh, that will be sore for a few days. Maybe a week or two,” Fate remarked casually. She didn’t appear to notice the filthy surroundings or act concerned that any of it would stick to her.

It must be nice to know the future and be fully aware of what would hurt you and what wouldn’t, Karen thought.

“You could have warned me,” Karen replied as she surveyed the alley in which they had landed.

“Certainly not! You’d tense up and really be injured then.”

Karen looked away in disgust. This was when she spotted the ghost. He was sitting in a doorway tipping a bottle back and draining the contents. The liquid poured through his vaporous body, but that didn’t dissuade him. He threw the glass bottle aside and started on another.