AEO (Paul)

Since the beginning of time, there have been people who claim to be in touch with the other side. Those who say that they have the remarkable ability to speak to the dead, to send messages back from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, many of these people are nothing but Con artists.

Paul was one of these people. It had started small, pulling tricks with slight of hand in high school and then again in college to create a crowd. But, then people started offering him money for his services. Paul, who grew up without a want for anything, liked the idea of a little pocket change. So, he continued on, taking the money of poor trusting grieving people. It wasn’t just a way to get cash, he became irresistible to women as well. Girls would fawn over him asking for him to tell their future, what kind of man they were supposed to marry, and what their dead friend from high school had to say about the boy they fought over Junior year. They ate it up.

All except, one girl. Paul had met her in an intro to Paranormal psychology course. He’d taken it just for fun, and again, to validate his long con. She wasn’t particularly beautiful, nothing about her physical appearance really stood her out from a crowd. But, she had something. Something about her made Paul feel, alive. She stood up in class to talk about her Grandmother’s passing. She’d claimed that her mother would see her Grandmother walking down the hall at night in her family home in Cork. There was nothing extraordinary about her story, except for the location. From the moment her lips parted and she began to speak, Paul knew: Agatha O’Donnell was his future.

They dated for 6 months. He’d really turned on the 100 watt smile for this one girl, but when she smiled back, he was putty in her hands. He never told her about his long Con. As far as she knew, he was just a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nothing more, nothing less.

When Paul finally got the nerve to propose, it was the 6 month mark to the day. He brought her to the place they’d gone on their very first date, a pond outside town. It was quiet and beautiful. Surrounded by trees with tiny pink flowers. Paul was armed with a picnic basket and his Great Grandmother’s engagement ring.

Agatha sat on the picnic blanket he’d laid out for them.

“What is all this?” She smiled and pushed one of her strawberry curls behind her ear.

“You’ll see” He said. Paul took some sparkling cider out of the basket, and poured them each a glass, crystal of course. He held it up high, and said, in an over confident tone

“Agatha Elizabeth O’Donnell, from the moment I saw you I knew you were different” Lie “I knew that you were more special than any other woman I’d ever met before” Slightly less of a lie “I knew that this day would come, and we’d be happy forever. Aggie, my darling, would you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Gartner?” Paul smiled proudly, opening up the ostentatious ring box with his free hand.

Aggie’s face changed. She went from smiling to a slow look of disappointment.

“I thought you just wanted to have lunch” Paul slouched down into himself

“What?”

“Paul…..Paul your family has certain...expectations.” She put her glass down on the blanket delicately.

“Expe-Expectations?”

“I want to be a Teacher. I don’t want to stay home all day with children being a socialite.” Paul felt all his blood rush to his face

“No, instead you’d rather spend all day at work with children.” Paul jumped to his feet and began to walk away, before abruptly turning around

“This is a good thing, Aggie. We can be really happy together.” Aggie let out a deep sigh, she looked out towards the pond.

“Oh Paul. I just, want an ordinary life. I want to be a Teacher. Live in a small house, maybe someday have children. The life of a socialite is not for me.”

“Well if, if you never wanted to marry me, what did you think we were doing?? I mean, I LOVE you Aggie! What did you think was going to happen?” Aggie looked down at her hands.

“I thought we were just...I mean it’s college”

Paul felt his blood boil. He had never been rejected like this before. He’d actually never been rejected before.

“You thought we were just having fun.” Paul looked into her soft brown eyes, and saw something he’d never seen before. Pity.

“Oh Paul. I can’t I just….”

“I can see the dead” He blurted it out as though it was an insult. As if the word “dead” was just another variation of the “c” word.

Aggie’s brow furrowed, then her eyes widened.

“YOU can...I’m sorry what?”

“I’m so sorry I never told you. I was afraid that you would be scared off.” Paul jumped up to his feet, as though balance would help the lie.

“That’s why I was in that class” He took a few steps toward her “That day that I approached you Aggie, it was because, your Grandmother, she came to me. She TOLD me that we were meant to be. You have to marry me Aggie. The Heavens ordained it”

“EXCUSE ME?” Aggie jumped to her feet. “You ask me to marry you, and then when I say no, you have the AUDACITY to use a very painful family death to CONVINCE ME TO- Like I’m some sort of….. I- Paul, I have to go” She picked up her sandals and turned to walk away.

“NO” Paul leapt over the picnic spread and grasped her forearm firmly in his hand

“I don’t think you understand Aggie. We should be together. I know it. I can feel it”

“Paul, let go of me” She spoke softly, with a quiver that implied she was unsure of his intentions

“NOT until you say that you’ll marry me! NOT until you agree. NO ONE SAYS NO TO ME AGGIE. DON’T YOU GET THAT??”

“LET GO OF ME!” Suddenly she began to flail. Her whole body went into deep convulsions. Her arms waved about like a ragdoll, her voice reached unearthly octaves. She began screaming with a pitch he’d never heard before.

“SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP ME!”

Startled by her outburst, Paul let go of her arm. As he did, Aggie continued to flail, causing her body to crash to the ground. Her back hit the fenced in stones around the pond. Paul heard a loud CRACK, and watched as her body back-flipped into the pond. The last thing he saw was her eyes wide, her mouth agape and stunned.

Paul waited, watching for her to come back to the surface. For what felt like an eternity, Paul watched as the water went from a harsh ripple to an eerie stillness. He let out a sigh of relief, he had narrowly escaped rejection. Paul turned and walked back toward the car, as he reached for his keys….

“OH HOLY SHIT” the sudden wash of realization came over him. He turned back, going into a straight sprint towards the pond. His legs outstretched he felt his blood pumping through his veins. What had he done? Without thinking he jumped over the stone fencing and into the pond. Paul let his hands trace over the bottom of the pond until he felt what must have been hair. He pulled hard until her head came out of the water.

“AGGIE” he screamed forcing her body over the side of the pond

“SOMEBODY GET HELP! ANYBODY, HELP!” he frantically began chest compression's.

One, two, three check the mouth for obstructions. One two three listen for breathing.

“Please Aggie. Please. You can’t do this to me. You can’t die. Please Aggie” One two three, check for breathing. One two three make sure to clear the airway. One two three….

Paul saw a pair of shoes approach the other side of Agatha’s body. “Thank God! Call an ambulance! CALL THE POLICE! CALL ANYONE!” He continued compression's, the feet didn’t move. “What’s wrong with you?? CALL SOMEONE!” The shoes stood stoic. The being attached to them remaining silent. “What’s wrong with you??” This time, Paul looked up to see

Aggie.

Her hair was wet. Her left eye was blown out, protruding from the socket. Her body was twisted in such a way”…...” Paul looked down at the body on the ground, had he pulled up the wrong body?

He stared into the face of his would be fiance, lifeless on the ground. Then up at the face of his would be fiance, standing before him. Seemingly alive.

“Aggie?” Animated Aggie didn’t speak. She just tilted her head from side to side. One eye blinking back at him. Paul stood to his feet “Aggie” She opened her mouth to speak, but instead came a bubbling sound, like boiling water. Red bubbles began to form around her lips. Paul lifted his hand to touch her, but stopped himself.

“Oh God” He looked back down at Aggie on the ground. “Oh my….Oh my God” he backed up away from the pond “Oh” He turned and ran, full speed back towards his car. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.” He thought to himself as his whole body became engulfed with cold sweat. Paul fumbled for his keys, terrified to look over his shoulder….

Paul woke up in his dorm. He didn’t remember starting the car, or even driving to get there.

“Oh Jesus” he let out a sigh as he rubbed his hand over his face. “It must have been a dream.”

“Yo, dude. You get the ‘yes’?” Paul sat up to see his roommate standing in his socks and boxers with a guitar.

“No, but I will” Paul rolled out of bed. He must have gotten drunk last night, imagined the whole thing.

“Well man, let me know when you do” Paul looked out the window while pulling a fresh shirt over his head

in the center of the quad he saw something

“I mean, you came home last night in a craze man! I assumed that you either got the yes, or I don’t know….” His roommate’s voice seemed so far away

Paul leaned towards the window to get a closer look. He recognized the damp strawberry hair, the torso that arched as if the spine had been dissevered, the left eye protruding from the socket. Aggie’s body stood motionless in the quad, looking directly into is window.

“You know?” Paul rubbed his eyes

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Paul didn’t take his eyes off of her.

“I SAID, you kept saying ‘this can’t be happening this can’t be happening’ I just figured that she’d said yes and you realized the realness of it all. Ya know?” Suddenly, Aggie began to move towards the dormitory, slowly. So slowly he almost didn’t notice, her legs struggled with each step, as if her bones were fused together.

“I-I think I’m going to go home for the weekend. Get some...some air…” Paul turned from the window and reached under his bed for his suitcase.

“Yea dude, whatever you need to do. Maybe that’s what Aggs did.” Paul stopped and turned his head to look into his roommates eyes.

“What?”

“Yea! Nobody has seen her since yesterday man! I asked Sorra if she’d seen her after you got back, I wanted to know what was going on. But Sor said that she never came back to the apartment. I guess you both had the same idea”

“Jay, man, can you….take a look at this shit” Paul pointed out the window as Jay walked towards him, still holding his guitar.

“What man? The Drama club doing that flash Improv shit again?” Paul let his mouth fall open as he watched Aggie haphazardly make her way towards the dorm. “What am I looking at man?”

Paul took a deep breath.

“Nothing….nothing, man”

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