“Don’t I need to pay a coin or something?” the sheriff asked.
“I don’t know why everyone asks that,” Sebbie said, already leading the way onto the boat. “Whyever would you pay me? The pleasure of your company and chatting with you is payment enough.”
I wasn’t sure what Sebbie had in mind, but I trusted him. Completely and totally, I trusted him. So I followed him onto the boat, and Paul and Crow came on board as well.
Sebbie stood and pushed off into the water with his staff, and we set off, moving swiftly across the water.
Sebbie sat down across from the sheriff. “So, we’ve never really chatted much.”
Paul snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, and I didn’t expect our first heart-to-heart to take place when I was dead.”
“What better time to have a heart-to-heart?” Sebbie asked.
The sheriff nodded, then he looked away. “I haven’t always done the best things. I haven’t always made the best decisions. I suppose I should enjoy this boat ride before I get wherever I’m going.”
Sebbie smiled a little, and then they launched into conversation. They talked about the sheriff’s job, his family, and his friends. Eventually, they came around to the topic of Jude.
“You have to like him at least a little bit, no?” Sebbie asked, a grin on his face.
Paul, weirdly enough, blushed. “I suppose I do. No use lying about it now. But I can’t have him mixed up in all my drama. He’s too lighthearted for someone like me.”
I snorted, because I couldn’t laugh in my hellhound form.
Sebbie straight-up laughed, though, even slapping his knee. “I can assure you that Jude isnotas lighthearted as you think. He has plenty of experience with the darker side of life, and I think you two will be a perfect couple. I can’t wait to see it all unfold.”
Paul looked sad at that, looking out across the water, because land was coming into sight. “Yes, well, I suppose it’s too late for that now.”
Sebbie stood up, putting his staff into the water and stopping the boat. “Can you hear them?” he asked the sheriff.
The sheriff looked at him, and then he looked at the shore. “Gram?” he whispered. “Gramp?” He looked back at Sebbie.
“Now is where things get hard,” Sebbie told him. “They’re waiting for you—all the people you love who have passed. You’re a good man, no matter what you think. Death is not an ending; it’s only a new beginning, and that will be a joyful new beginning for you. You’ll be able to let go of all your regret and all the mistakes you think you’ve made. It will all be wiped clean.
“Yes, you were meant for Jude, but you will be meant for Jude again even if you choose to reach the shoreline. The time that passes may be long before you are reunited, but time means nothing to a reaper or a ferryman.”
Sebbie paused then, looking toward the shore. The sheriff and I were both staring at him, rapt. Was there another option?
“But I’m part mortal, too, and time is valuable. Each lifetime is important in a way that an afterlifer could never understand.” He looked back toward Paul. “So I give you the choice. You mayreturn. You may go back to your life and everything that’s there, and you’ll live for a long, long time. Maybe even forever.”
“What’s the catch?” Paul asked.
Sebbie smiled fondly at him. “It won’t be a new start. You’ll have to live with all your perceived mistakes and all the decisions you regret.”
The sheriff looked toward the shore. “Jude would be sad if I died, wouldn’t he? It would hurt him.”
“Yes,” Sebbie answered. “But he would wait for you. He would always wait for you.”
The sheriff looked at Sebbie once again. “What else? Because there has to be more.”
Sebbie sighed. “There is. A soul must be taken. Someone will have to take your place, and it won’t be their time to die.”
Paul opened his mouth, but Sebbie put a hand up. “It will not be an innocent. You will not have that on your conscience. It will be someone who has nothing but suffering ahead. It’ll be a new beginning for them. You’ll be giving your fresh start to someone else, so don’t view it as an unfair trade.”
Sebbie sat down. It seemed he had said his piece. I still had no idea how he would do it, but he seemed confident now.
Paul was thoughtful, looking toward the shore, where apparently loved ones were calling out to him. Then he looked toward us. I don’t know what he saw, but his face took on resolve.
“I’ll go back,” he said.
