The Girl Who Was Buried in Her Ball Gown

I moped around within the mirrors, avoiding the ‘dance of the ghost swarms’ as best as I could, hoping I’d find Toni somewhere within. If I watched the dancers for too long, I would feel as if I would fall out of the mirrors and into, who knows where; they made me dizzy. So, I just rested and wept. No one seemed to notice, or even care.

I thought about: Martin, Dad, Nikki, Auntie Annie, Pohane and all the other damn stupid stuff that had happened in my short life – uh, death.

Oh, I so wished I knew what to do! I wished I knew why I was in this mess and when it would all end! HOW would it all end? And poor Toni, and Sophia; what had happened to them? Did Sophia survive the op? Would I ever see Toni again? I did not know.

If only I could just remember, if there was that ‘all so important flash of light’ for Toni, or not? It seemed so critical, an important part of this strange new (old, I suppose) world. Where was my flash of light? What was the alternative? So many unanswered questions.

I didn’t want to check on Sophia, because I didn’t know how she fared and whether her new heart – Toni’s heart – had been accepted into her helpless body; not yet! Not with those filthy creatures trying to drag me off to – I guess – hell!

I could feel those tears welling up again, damn it! I needed to do something! I felt restless again. I needed to get out of there; do something to de-stress myself. That’s when I saw within one of those millions of mirrors, a smaller mirror, with a fast–moving montage of land, road, trees and hills rushing past. Speed! Aha! I wanted to see what that was and so I jumped in.

There was no doubt about it, it was invigorating. I climbed out of the mirror slowly, grabbing hold of the edge like a sloth. Everything had already passed me, so my guess was that I was looking to where he had been, not to where he was going. And it was night time; the moon was full and I could see it peeking its round head above the distant hills, casting an eerie glow between bursts of the rolling trees and land, as they torpedoed past. He quickly passed through deep dark shadows, leaving them behind in his dust.

Yep, sure enough that was it. I was looking behind the male rider, just a few inches away from me and so I needed to pull myself through the mirror and up over the edge of the machine’s handlebars, turning myself as I did so. I felt the vibrations rattling through my hands like the tingling of a low pulsing electrical current. It felt good and powerful! My ears filled with a loud drone. Baaap! Baaap! Baaaaaapppp!

I had never been on a motorbike before and right off I was loving it. I think I would have loved it even more, if it was blowing through my hair and causing it to fly all over the place; a horizontal streak of red. That would be nice, but I could only imagine the wind blowing upon my face, making my eyelids peel back. Well, maybe that wouldn’t be so nice. No, I wasn’t so excited about the eyelid thing. Ahh well, them’s the breaks for us ghosties. Whatever, it still felt good; de-stressing, could it get any better?

I wondered what the rider would have thought, if he had known he had a passenger sitting on his handlebars at this speed. I’d love to get inside his mind and find out.

I wonder? Could I? I’ll try it, I thought. I knew that in Maori culture, if you were to hongi someone; that is, pressing noses together with them and your foreheads, you are both sharing breath, or manawa ora. Your spirit. Maybe I could call it, mind-melding, like the Vulcanians on Star Trek. It had to be worth a try. So, I gave it a go.

If only someone had a ghosta-scope, this would look absolutely hilarious! Imagine a teenage, red-headed chick (damn the hair!), astride some motorbike handlebars, in a ball gown! And then leaning into a motorcyclist (hmm, he wasn’t too bad looking either), with her hands wrapped around the back of his neck – you can never know if you’re gonna fall off! And here’s the funniest part… pressing her nose up against the rider, at 150km per hour! What a scream!

Bloody hell! I hope there aren’t too many cops out tonight. Great party but I’m pissed off about Helen, and Mark. Bloody stupid!

Oh–my–Lord. It worked! His thoughts had a male voice, I suppose it was his own voice. It was scrambled and staccato, but there were definitely discernable sentences to it. I wondered, what about Helen and Mark?

Man, I’m cold, that wind is getting right up my sleeves and into my jacket! I wish I’d worn the other one. Got to get home! Too much to drink tonight. I’ll go through Railway Road; less likely to see any cops that way. Don’t want to lose my license. Mark should have known better. I’ll bloody give him an earful tomorrow at work. I suppose I should be taking it easy on these gravel roads. I got to keep my eyes… oh - shit! What the hell is that? No! Brake you idiot! Braaakkke!

When he screamed, I recoiled so fast; his mind was in a blind panic and it rattled around inside my own head.

He hit the sheep so hard and then flew over the handlebars. The bike crumpled and shot up into the air as I heard the thud! The sheep also went flying, it would definitely be dead.

A moment later, another thud – multiple thuds actually – as the bike flipped and rolled out into the paddock. The baaap baaap halted abruptly. The headlight, and tail lights were still aglow and I could see the rear wheel still spinning flat–out in the red and amber lights.

I don’t know where he had sailed to, but it was some distance away, and then I saw him way down the road, sliding and tumbling in the gravel at an impossible speed. I thought he would be killed from the impact of the road. He’d certainly be busted up inside, that’s for sure.

The gravel road had a sort of ‘S’ bend to it, there were drains on either side and rows of Toi Toi bushes. Great clumps of them, waving their feathery branches on the breeze. He rolled and tumbled around the corner and out of sight.

I ran over to him to see if I could help. As I leaned over to look at his crumpled form he looked at me; “What the hell happened? Who are you? God, I feel pain all over.”

“Just relax okay, let me help you.” He must have been unconscious to be able to talk with me. I had to roll him over into the recovery position; the gift that the humongous angel, Peniel, had given me, was very easily applied.

“Who are you honey? Am I in heaven? Ahh, you’re an angel, that’s it. You look hot – shit! I shouldn’t say that about you. Oh bugger… I did it again, oh, just shut up Brian!” Oh, my, I certainly felt hot right then, as my cheeks glowed to the same colour as my hair, while I listened to his muddled conversation; damn you, whoever you are.

Oh no, now it was my time to say ‘bugger’ as I realised what I had just thought of. I wished I hadn’t. ‘Damn you’, suddenly took on a whole lot more, ominous meaning to me as my brain slowly registered the words.

“I’m so sorry ahh, Brian, for what I just said, well… ahh… thought; I mean just then.” But it was useless, as he recovered back into consciousness, no longer able to register my existence there beside him.

He tried to sit up but fell back down as the pain took hold of him again. Some headlights came into view, from the same direction as Brian had travelled from. I heard the car come to a halt, stirring up the dust with its heavy braking.

The car doors flew open and then slammed shut after the occupants got out. About four of them, they started calling out, “Bloody hell, is that Brian’s bike?”

“Shit! I think it is. Brian!”

“Where are you?”

“Oh God, look! That bloody sheep must have been on the road!”

“Who the hell lets sheep out at night?”

“You idiot! It probably got through someone’s fence. Brian!”

“Brian! Where are you mate? Hell, where is he? We’ve got to find him.”

I tried to call out, “Over here!” But they couldn’t hear me anyway. What should I do? I was stumped. I just waited beside him and then I heard another vehicle approaching, a ute, from the same direction as the first vehicle. I heard it slow as the occupant took in the event upon the road. Brian was having another go at getting up and he had managed to get his helmet off somehow; stuffed if I knew how.

“Brian! Where the hell are you mate?” The vehicle didn’t stop, it merely crept past the other car. Brian was up on his bum, dazed, with his head down and his hands on his face, getting ready to call back to his friends.

“Come on, mate! Can’t you yell out or something? Is he over near the bike?”

“No, I can’t see him. Hell, that sheep looks totaled. Brian, come on mate. Brian!”

The ute had passed the other vehicle and – I don’t know why, but it sped up. Oh no, I could see what was about to happen. “Stop! STOP!” I had to smoke myself up, make myself visible and immediately! “Stop!” I jumped up onto the road and waved my ‘now visible arms’ frantically, yelling with a silent voice, “STOP!”

I heard one of Brian’s buddies yelling in the distance. “Johnny, look over there. I can see someone, it’s a girl!” Good, they could see me at least. And then I recognised the number plate of the ute.

“Yeah, I can see her too. Where did she come from?”

“Hey, maybe Brian’s over there?”

“Shit! She’s going to get hit by that bloody ute. Hey, idiot! Stop! He’s motoring! He’s swerving. Shit! He’s hit the girl!”

I cried out, “STOP!” Oh… my… God! This was worse than I could have ever imagined, “DAD! STOP! DAAAD!”