“Friending the Dead” (FridayFlash)

“Friending the Dead” by P.J. Kaiser

Silence enveloped the house.  The children slept in their beds and Brenda’s husband was already upstairs reading.  The cleaning and laundry were finished and Brenda sat at her computer to check emails one last time before going to bed.  She didn’t bother to turn on the lights.  The glow of the computer screen cast gentle shadows on the desk and Brenda’s face.  Just one email from work appeared in her inbox.  She read it over, typed her reply and pressed “send.”  She opened a new window for Facebook and saw that she had a friend request.  Clicking on it, her breath caught as she stared at the name.  “Veronica Weber.”  She had been thinking about Veronica all day since she had received the news that morning – via Facebook – that Veronica had been killed in a car accident.

Best friends when they were young, Brenda and Veronica lived on the same street.  Then as the girls went into middle school, their interests started to diverge and each made new friends.  The shiny, new friendships rendered the old one uninteresting.  Once the girls were in high school, they barely saw each other.  Except for that time that Brenda inadvertently went out with Veronica’s boyfriend.  Brenda had asked Mark – Veronica’s ex-boyfriend – out, only to discover after their date that he was not her “ex-” but current boyfriend.  Veronica caught wind of their date and confronted Brenda.  Words were exchanged, voices were raised and eventually apologies were offered and accepted.

Brenda had never sent Veronica a friend request on Facebook, although they had many friends in common.  She was never sure whether Veronica had really forgiven her and she didn’t care to reopen old wounds.  Seeing the name on her screen, however, made her realize that Veronica must have sent her a friend request just before she was killed.  Brenda shut down her computer and slipped into bed, next to her already-sleeping husband.

The next morning, Brenda woke with a haunted feeling.  Her dreams had been filled with images of Veronica.  Veronica – as an adult – trying to do the things they used to do as children.  But doing them alone.  Veronica swimming in a pool, flailing her arms and nobody to help her.  Veronica crashing on her sled and nobody to dig her out of the snow.  Brenda went straight to her computer and accepted the friend request.  She knew it was irrational, but it seemed necessary.

Brenda got breakfast for her kids and husband, she dropped her kids at school and she and her husband parted at the train station to take different trains to their respective offices.  As Brenda walked towards a seat on the train, it lurched forward, throwing Brenda off balance.  She fell and narrowly missed hitting her head on the hard, plastic seat.  A man helped her to her feet and made sure she was not injured before sitting back down.  Brenda sank into her seat.  Her face flushed with embarrassment and with the thought that she could have been seriously hurt.

After collecting herself for a few moments, she pulled her iPhone out of its case, pressing the button and unlocking it before looking at the screen.  Checking first to be sure there were no emails from work, she opened the Facebook app and saw several notifications.  There was a lot of nonsense about “Farmville” and then this:  “Veronica Weber has answered a question about you.  Click to see her answer.”  Thoughts of a hoax entered Brenda’s mind.  She furrowed her brows and considered who would do such a thing. She cautiously tapped the screen and the text read, “Veronica answered the question ‘Is Brenda likely to die on a train?’  Veronica answered ‘no.’”

A chill ran through Brenda’s body as she quickly turned off her phone.

The train came to Brenda’s stop and she began the ten-minute walk to her office.  Other walkers enjoyed the spring day, shedding their coats as they walked.  Brenda still felt chilled even as she finished her walk to the office and sank into her chair.  The ring of the phone brought Brenda out of her thoughts and her hectic day began.

In the mid-morning, Brenda got on elevator to go to a meeting in a nearby building.  Before the elevator reached the ground floor, it suddenly stopped and made an alarming dip.  Brenda grabbed the hand rail and pressed the emergency button.  The operator came on the intercom and assured Brenda that everything was fine, but it would be a few minutes until the elevator could move.  She paced back and forth in the elevator for ten minutes until the elevator resumed its slow descent.  She breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped out of the elevator into the lobby.  As she walked to the building next door, she turned on her iPhone and checked Facebook.  She gasped as she saw the message again:  “Veronica Weber has answered a question about you.  Click to see her answer.”  Her breath became shallow as she clicked.  “Veronica answered the question ‘Is Brenda likely to die in an elevator?’  Veronica answered ‘no.’”

Brenda quickly turned off the phone and slipped it back into its case.  During the meeting, Brenda’s eyes darted back and forth.  Twice during the meeting, Brenda’s boss asked if she was OK.  Brenda mumbled that she was and she took a few deep breaths to help her focus.

After the meeting was over, her boss touched her arm and said softly, “Maybe you should take an early lunch, Brenda.  Take it easy and I’ll see you back in the office later.”

Brenda nodded and walked out of the building into the sunshine.  Not many people were passing by since it wasn’t yet lunchtime.  Brenda definitely did not feel hungry.  In fact, she started to feel somewhat nauseous.

Brenda turned and began walking in the opposite direction from the office.  If somebody was trying to pull a hoax by posing as Veronica on her Facebook account, it was in unbelievably bad taste.  And what about the strange coincidences about the train and the elevator?  Brenda began to wonder if any of her other friends had been getting messages also.  Walking down the sidewalk, Brenda pulled out her iPhone and touched on the Facebook icon.  Another notification:  “Veronica Weber has answered a question about you.”

Brenda skipped over the notification and went to Veronica’s profile page.  Several of her friends had posted condolence messages on her wall but it didn’t look like there was any activity from her account.  Brenda typed a quick message to one of her friends from school, asking if she had received any messages from Veronica since her death.  Brenda stared at the letters on the screen and realized how absurd it seemed, and she deleted the message.  Her heart was racing and she knew that she should try to sit and calm down.  Across the street was a small cafe where she could buy a newspaper and a cup of tea.

Brenda stepped into the crosswalk and she clicked on the notification.  “Veronica answered the question ‘Is Brenda likely to die in a car accident?’  Veronica answered ‘yes.’” She looked up from her phone and her scream caught in her throat as Brenda heard the squeal of the brakes and felt the impact of two tons of steel.

Stumble! for WP