After Life: A Short Story

By Jayne Denker

Ella is having a very bad day. One moment she’s hurt, lying on the ground on the side of the road in the rain, and the next she’s in a sunlit valley filled with flowers. That’s not the bad part. Ella finds she’s not alone; there’s a very pleasant, mild-mannered man sitting under a tree nearby, happily keeping her company. That’s not the bad part either. The bad part is this very pleasant, mild-mannered man sitting under a tree tells he she’s dead.

Ella starts to recall details of a car crash, but she can’t possibly be dead...can she? If she is—and that’s a very big if, because to believe it would be way too creepy—does it really matter? After all, Ella’s life so far, all thirty-three and two-thirds years of it, has been extremely uneventful. Downright lackluster, if she’s going to be honest with herself. There’s been nothing worth living for, not really. Except...except for Gabe. The guy who adored her, called her angel, made her life brighter. The guy she let get away.

But Ella can’t think about Gabe now. She has this unexpected life/death thing to contend with, and the very pleasant man seems to be there to help her through it. What happens after life? Ella is about to find out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jayne Denker
• Release date: Apr 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005608934

Jayne Denker

Jayne Denker is the author of romantic comedies, including It's Probably You and The Rom-Com Agenda. When she's not hard at work on another novel (or, rather, when she should be hard at work on another novel), she can usually be found frittering away stupid amounts of time on social media.

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After LifeFull Page Image

After Life

A Short Story

Jayne Denker

Contents

After Life

About the Author

Also by Jayne Denker

After Life

Angel? Can you hear me ?"

The first thing Ella noticed, even as that familiar voice drifted away from her, even before she opened her eyes, was that the sleet had stopped. It had been pelting her face, little ice-pellet needles. That was spring in New York State for you. No cherry blossoms and warm sun, just a reconfigured version of winter with a slightly warmer temperature—enough to ensure the stuff falling from the sky wasn’t entirely frozen. Only partially.

Come on, now. Don’t do this.

The voice was much softer this time, almost a whisper, even though the urgency still came through.

She was no longer wet and cold. She had been, but now she wasn’t.

Ella?

She could move her fingers and toes. That was important, but she couldn’t recall why. She spent a few moments wiggling her digits, playing the only song she knew on the piano (Heart and Soul), and typing her name in the grass.

Grass. Not scrubby weeds and mud. That was also important, although she again fell short of remembering why.

What she did know was that she would have been be perfectly content to lie there (where?) for an endless amount of time, eyes closed, letting the sun warm her cheeks. When had the sleet stopped? It hadn’t seemed to be anywhere close to letting up when…

When what?

Ella listened for the voice again, but she only heard the hush of the wind around her. She shifted, uncomfortable now, but she still didn’t open her eyes. It was as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to commit to that one little action, because then…she didn’t know what then. All she knew was she didn’t like the idea.

"Sure, you could stay put, just like that, for ages. But that would be sort of boring, don’t you think? I know I’d be bored. But you can do what you like."

Her eyes slammed open. That was a new voice, alarmingly clear, loud, and close by. Although the man’s voice sounded pleasant enough, she certainly wasn’t going to lie there while some stranger spoke to her from only a few feet away, no matter how congenially.

Above her stretched blue sky—a brilliant, unnatural blue that made her blink rapidly. What was