Early Arrival

Five thirty in the morning, the lobby was empty and yet it's as if I was not alone. The magnificent glass sculpture Dale Chihuly was shut off to conserve energy so inevitably you can hear any slight sound in the marble lobby. I dread night shift. It makes me lazy. I hardly accomplish anything in the morning for the vampire in me just sleeps through the day. And yet this time around I prefer to stay awake in the night. More than six-hundred arrivals for the next day. I had my almost 12-hour sleep the whole day and two gigantic cups of coffee to keep me energized for the battle. They all left me to do their assigned chores while I stayed focus on my latest craze of inquiry: what happens when we die?

I've been currently getting obsessed with life after death. My friends told me to let it go and just live like a normal person. But I cannot help wondering what happens when the soul is separated from the body? Anyway as the morning slowly creeps in something was strange. I turned around and found no one else but my own shadow. But after like a minute or two, it hit me again. Someone was there behind the door. A strong presence screaming for attention. I stayed looking at it until a strong smell of dead flowers and candles fill my nostrils. I closed my eyes and just let go of the thought. I would be happy to see her anyway.

Day off came like eternity already lapse. An old friend told me something happened to him that early morning around half past five. He said he saw a woman standing right next to his nightstand looking at him. She stayed there for awhile until the sun came peeking through his curtains. She looks familiar until he saw her photos tucked in one of my books I lend him a month before. " I think it was your mother, I don't know what she wants, but she did not scare me. She was not angry nor sad, maybe she just want me to tell you she's just right here".

"Well then, I'm glad, there's no need to be sad".

If I have only known, I will stay where she was. Moving on is hard and remembering is torture.