Wedding Vows

By Leah Cutter

Wan Ho waits outside the Courthouse of the Dead for...something. Around him, the parade of the formerly living pass into and out of the courthouse, the judge sending them to either one of the various Hells or to the city of the dead to await rebirth. While Wan Ho...waits. Until a stranger approaches and announces that she has come to marry him. A dead man... "Wedding Vows" takes the Chinese tradition of "ghost marriage" to a delightful conclusion. Previously printed in the anthology, "The Death of All Things."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leah Cutter
• Release date: Feb 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386265375

Leah Cutter

Leah Cutter--a Crawford Award Finalist--writes page-turning fiction in exotic locations, such as New Orleans, ancient China, the Oregon coast, ancient Japan, rual Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, Budapest, etc.  Find more fiction by Leah Cutter at www.KnottedRoadPress.com. Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com.

Book preview

Wedding Vows

Wedding Vows

Leah R Cutter

Knotted Road Press

Contents

Wedding Vows

Present Time

One Year Earlier

Present Time

About the Author

Also by Leah R Cutter

About Knotted Road Press

Wedding Vows

Present Time

Wan Ho stood outside of the grand courthouse, waiting.

He didn’t know how long he’d been standing there. In the land of the dead, it was difficult to track time. Plus, since he’d died, he’d found he’d lost the impatience of his youth and now could pause and wait like an old man. He didn’t even miss his cell phone—normally when waiting he’d pull it out and play a game, or text his friends, or even watch cat videos.

For now, he merely stood. And waited.

A misty river ran a few yards in front of him, slightly lower than the grassy plane he stood on. The gurgling sound of the water soothed him. The faint scent of sweet incense delightfully filled the air. Though Wan Ho suspected the incense wasn’t being burned for him, by his family still living in Shanghai, he still breathed it in and felt replenished by it.

Every now and again, the mist on the river coalesced. A figure would form, generally an older man or woman, but sometimes a younger person, like himself. They’d shake themselves free of the river and walked up the soft slope to the courthouse, gaining color and shape as they moved, until they looked like Wan Ho, dressed in their finest clothes and nearly alive.

Wan Ho wasn’t certain if any of the new souls could see him.