Stevie was my age, too. She and my uncle had passed away so young.
“I’m happy you finally made it,” Aunt Stevie said, and she gave a laugh. “I think it’s great you arrived with abang.”
The joke made my lips twitch. Her weird sense of humor would make us get along just fine.
“Did you know I was coming?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Of course.” Aunt Stevie stirred the pot. “Everyone has the date written that they’ll die, Ava. We saw that you were about to show up and made sure to prepare for your arrival.”
She took the pot off the stove and dumped the food into a dish. She served it as Uncle Ezra put out plates and silverware, and I sat down at the kitchen table. All my senses were still working— though I wasn’t sure if I needed them— and damn, whatever she had made smelledgood.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a casserole made of corn, squash, and beans. It’s your uncle’s favorite. He’ll eat half of it himself, so get yours while you can,” Aunt Stevie teased. Uncle Ezra wrapped a hand around her hips and tickled her middle while she beat him off with a dish cloth.
“Can we… eat here?” I asked. I didn’t think spirits needed food.
“We don’t have to eat, but we can for pleasure,” Grandpa Liwanu said. “And the spiritual food here will nourish your spirit, now that you’ve made the transition from there to here.”
I took a bite, and ancestors, I almost died again. It was just cooked vegetables, seasoned and donned with some kind of cheese, but it was far better than the most elaborate dish cooked at a five-star restaurant on earth. Every bit was savory and satisfied the core of me. I cleaned my plate in minutes, and felt satisfied— not stuffed, but not hungry either. Uncle Ezra wolfed down his food— ancestors, so much like my brother— while Aunt Stevie had a modest helping.
My grandpa didn’t eat, which didn’t surprise me. He seemed like the kind of soul that stuck to the basics and didn’t go out of his way to do things that were unnecessary.
“You look really good,” I told Aunt Stevie. In life, she’d had the same disease my dad had, and had looked ill in so many of our pictures, even in the ones where it was obvious she was having a good time. She’d been sicker than my dad was, and had died from her illness shortly after Uncle Ezra passed away in the war.
It was weird thinking in those kinds of terms here. The same people that hadpassed awaywere sitting right here in front of me, eating food, talking and laughing like such a thing had never happened at all. Death seemed pointless and meaningless here.
“All diseases and illnesses are cured in the Ancestral Lands, but you already knew that,” Aunt Stevie said with a shrug. “Sickness is an earthly thing that’s meant to teach us lessons. There isn’t much use for it here in the spirit realm.”
“This is insane that it’s all real,” I said, looking between them all. “I… I can’t really be dead, can I? I mean… I’m so young.”
Uncle Ezra put a hand on my arm. “I know it’s a lot to take in. I had the same reaction, too, when I first showed up.”
“It can be more difficult for people like us to transition,” Aunt Stevie said. “Since we didn’t get a lot of time.”
Her words seemed heavy on my frame, before the feeling flitted away in a moment. She was talking aboutme. I’d… died young.
What a crazy thought. On earth, I’d felt invincible. Like I’d somehow live forever.
“Yeah,” Uncle Ezra said, giving a somber nod. “But we’ll get another go-round.”
“What are you talking about?” I put my fork down and leaned forward.
“We’re getting ready to reincarnate again,” Uncle Ezra said. “We just chose our new parents yesterday.”
“Reincarnation is real?” It was taught in the Hawkei religion, and Professor Hemlock had gone over it in her class, but getting information straight from the source was fascinating.
“It is, but you pick when you want to go back,” Aunt Stevie said. “It’s taken a long time to decide what lessons we wanted to learn and how we wanted to benefit other souls in our next lives.”
“Becausesomeoneis picky,” Uncle Ezra grumbled.
“I wanted somethinginteresting!” Aunt Stevie complained.
“All this information about the afterlife seems so confusing,” I said.
“Your spirit will remember it, after a while,” Grandpa Liwanu said. “It takes time for your soul to recall all the information your past lives have learned before, in the Blessed Haven and on earth.”
“Are you guys twin flames?” I asked. “Like—”
