Calliope: Imbricate Worlds (Short Six) By Imani Wagner

Join Calliope as she learns about new changes in her ability to talk to ghosts. - IW.

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I’ve known Azrael since we were in high school. He was tall, and his arms were long. His skin was just as dark and brown as his eyes, and somehow both beamed brilliantly. Azrael always had a little facial hair above his lip and on his chin, and it made him look like a darkskin Shemar Moore. He kept his hair cut short, with the top waved. When we were younger, he would dye it blonde or red, or brown. He had always dressed in nice and simple clothing. Sometimes, he’d just wear a white T underneath an opened button up. His jeans would hang off his hips, and if they were baggy, they’d hang over his shoes too. When they did that, it made him look like he owned a skateboard. He was like a skater boy-turned-cop.

I looked up at him as we walked through the mall. I was doing some shopping for Gina, and he decided to be my errand buddy. “What you looking at, girl,” he turned his nose up as he questioned me.

“Shut up, ugly. You know you still look the same as the day we met in gym class?” I couldn’t read the expression on his face.

“You look completely different…with the locs and all the dangly earrings. You’re like a fairy or something. Especially considering the fact that you talk to dead people now. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one.” He shook his head playfully, before looking down at me again.

“Yeah, I guess things are very different now.” I watched the world move around me as we rode the escalator up to the second level of the massive mall. It looked more crowded today than I had ever seen it before. It was buzzing with business, and as I looked closely I could see that the bees were both human and spirit.

There were glowing souls everywhere, some dimmer than others. Some were just sitting or standing, or walking. Some were yelling at people and following them as they walked in and out of the Kohl's. There were even souls having conversations with each other. Their figures buzzed with the same fog-like dust that mine and Ellie’s had when we parted ways in the spirit world. Now it was like both worlds were overlapping one another. They folded together like braided hair. Each strand tethered to the next.

“What are you staring at, Calli? Do you see someone? Particularly, a dead someone?” There was laughter hidden in Azrael’s question.

“There are so many of them, and if you could see, you would know that they look far from dead.” There was something very alive about the way souls moved around people and objects alike. It was sudden, yet graceful. It was almost like a hummingbird stopping along the wind to sip nectar, never landing.

The spirit world I had only been able to see in my mind’s eye had fabricated itself within the natural world. I felt something ancient amidst everyone here. It was as if an understanding had washed over my entire body, and in that moment I just knew that this was the way life had always been; people and ghosts living amongst each other. No matter the nature of the being, they all were either very aware or completely ignorant of the other. Some were curious, while others remained uninterested.

This left me with more questions I would remember to ask Dr. Delvaux later. I didn’t quite understand what determined where souls went after their human life was over. Ellie remained here after she died, but then she had gone on to somewhere else. This was a place I had not been able to see. I began to compare what I learned growing up in church with what I was experiencing now. My mind couldn’t refrain from asking what might my baptist mother think about my intuitive gifts.

I continued to process the newness of my abilities as Azrael and I popped into another store, “Yo, what does your boss do that she has her personal assistant shopping for her at the Gucci store?”

“She’s a very important lawyer to some very important people. She pays well too.” We stopped in front of the case which held the belts. There was a black one I would have to see if they had in Gina’s size. I looked around the store for a sales stylist. Everything was organized esthetically on elegant glass shelving.

“Hey,” Azrael wrapped his hand around my arm, pulling me closer. His voice was low when he spoke “How are you?” His face was serious and firm, but compassionate. He had asked every question with only those three words.

“I feel like the planet opened up right underneath my feet. It’s overwhelming.” When we stood this close to each other I had to look up into his eyes. Scents of sandalwood and cologne blanketed the air between us. All of these things were familiar. Our bond had always been knit tightly with care. He had always been a constant in my life as I grew distant from my family. All of the things I was afraid to talk about, I could whisper them to Azrael and he would hang onto every word as he listened. “I saw something when Ellie passed through me yesterday,” I said. He waited, watching me intently.

“I saw someone tall, maybe even eight feet tall. She called out my name, but when I saw her I felt like I was looking at myself. I think she another part or another version of me.” I continued to describe this humanoid figure to Azrael.

She was beautiful. She was dressed in an unfamiliar fabric which merely privatized her top and bottom. Her skin was black as midnight, but it glimmered like blue sapphire. She had large eyes with deep gray irises. Long dark lashes hovered above and underneath them and when she blinked it was mesmerizing. She had hair that hung in thick ropes down to her feet. Her fingers and toes were covered in gold and silver. Hammered bronze plates hung like shielding necklaces around her neck. She looked strong enough to grab the biggest muscled man by his ankles and shake him upside down.

Azrael seemed nervous about what I was telling him, but I assured him that when I met this being I had felt nothing but a deeper awareness of myself. Me and this entity were no stranger to each other. Inexplicably, It was like I had always known her.

“Well, if it feels right to you then I won't question it,” he expressed in a reassuring tone.

My feelings had been important on this journey to understanding my gifts. Many times what I was thinking was led by what I was sensing in my body. So far, I had been right about everything it was telling me. All the parts of who I was had been tuning into the space around me. It made everything seem electric.

We finished the rest of the shopping for Gina, and made our way back to the car. Azrael blasted G Herbo as we drove to my apartment. The car stereo skipped and “T.O.P” from Herb’s 25 album started playing. “Yo, he went crazy on this one,” Azrael sang before rapping the lyrics to the song. He was a big rap fan and anything G Herbo was his favorite.

Eventually, it began to sound like Azrael’s voice had an echo. Then, I noticed it wasn’t an echo, but another voice entirely, rapping along to the song with him. There was someone else in the car with us. I tugged on my seatbelt and twisted my body so that I could take a look in the backseat. Azrael turned to me with confused eyebrows as he asked me the silent question, ‘What’s wrong?’ There sat the soul of a young guy. He looked no more than eighteen. His hoodie was navy blue, and there was a large Nike logo stretched across the chest. His head hung low as he swayed it from side to side to the beat of the song. His fists danced in the air. He continued to rap along with the song until he caught me staring at him. Looking completely disarmed, he jumped back in his seat and vanished.

“There was just a boy in the back of your car. I think I scared him away,” I told Azrael.

“Like a ghost? I don’t think I understand this spirit thing at all. I thought we were supposed to be afraid of them, not the other way around,” Azrael’s face turned up. It looked like he was questioning every understanding he had about life. I was too.