Page 35 of The Time of My Afterlife

‘He would also be in his seventies.’

She takes a sip of her tea. ‘You’re sounding like Mary. She was always pestering me to tell her his name. “I will ask one of my police contacts to help us locate him,” she would say.’

I arch an eyebrow. ‘Mary had contacts in the police?’

Pearl sighs. ‘I must read her book. The trouble is, every time I think about Mary for too long, I get upset. I miss her terribly.’

‘I can understand that.’

She puts down her cup and dabs at her watery eyes.

I can’t give up now. I am so close.

‘Mary wanted you to find your true love – didn’t she?’

She nods.

‘Well, do it for Mary.’

‘I’ll think about it.’

I sense this is a big step for her. With a pained expression on her face, she says, ‘What if he’s no longer with us, Clark?’

‘That could have happened,’ I say gently. ‘But he could still be alive and thinking about what happened to you.’

She stuffs her hankie back up her sleeve. ‘Or hating me, still, for agreeing to marry my awful boss.’

‘That could be right too. But if you don’t look for him, you’ll never know.’

She gazes out of her living room window. ‘There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t thought about him. Even when my children were born, it was he I thought about, not my husband.’

‘This love you had for this mystery man has stayed with you a long time.’

‘It has,’ she murmurs, before turning her attention to me. ‘I will think about your kind offer to help me find out what happened to him.’

‘You know where I am if you need me.’

She smiles. ‘I agree it would be good to find out where he is and what sort of life he has lived. I just need to prepare myself for the things I don’t want to hear.’

I nod but silently vow to study the man’s face in the photo. I’ve seen those eyes before. All I need is a few days, and I will work out who they belong to. My heart sinks. This is going to take time, and I don’t have much of that. Even though the afterlife has given us no clues about when the test ends, I have a feeling it will end after three failed attempts. Worry blooms inside me. I will have to read Mary’s book even though I don’t believe it’s enough.

Pearl is behind me as I open her front door. She thanks me for popping in and sorting out her light. This could be the last time I see her. Turning around, I hold open my arms. ‘Any chance of a hug for a good friend, Pearl?’ I croak.

She casts me a bewildered look. ‘Clark, are you feeling unwell?’

‘I just need a hug,’ I mumble, fighting back a wave of emotion.

She smiles. ‘Come here then.’

I pull her close and blink away tears. Her hair smells of lavender, like my nan’s.

15

FLORENCE

I woke up in a sweaty panic after a horrible, vivid dream in which Clark and I had died after failing the test and Mum was in the street telling Pearl about how she’d been worried about me for some time. She was tearful and started talking about our last call, where she asked me whether I was happy. Pearl put a comforting arm around her as my mother sobbed about how she would spend the rest of her life wondering whether she should have done more to support me. I woke up gasping, my pillow damp and my heart thudding away.

To calm myself, I reached for my phone and checked Instagram. Chris had left me a new message.