Clarissa would have noticed him even if he didn’t look so sad. “Tall, dark and handsome!” she thought. “You’re just what I need!”
“Oh, geez!” exclaimed the Tall, dark and handsome, even jumping slightly as Clarissa suddenly and unexpectedly appeared right in front of his nose. And she didn’t just appear, she materialized out of thin air hovering above the pavement, like all ordinary ghosts do.
“Sorry, sir,” she said. “I really am. For scaring you. But I really need to…”
“A-a-a-a!” screamed the Handsome, so loudly that a passing lady jumped aside and quickened her pace.
“Don’t be afraid…”
“You’re a ghost!” the Handsome shouted in fear, running away as fast as he could, but Clarissa materialized out of thin air right in his path again.
“Sir, you don’t need to be afraid, I won’t harm you.”
“Sure you won’t. What if you’ve come to take me away… out… To die!?”
“I assure you, as far as I know, you still have a very long life ahead of you. And more than one!”
“Really?” the panting Handsome stopped.
“Absolutely!” Clarissa smiled broadly.
“Then why the heck do you need me?”
“Let me introduce myself! My name is Clarissa. And yours?”
The Handsome was silent, still slightly scared.
“Rupert! May I call you Rupert? You remind me of a friend of mine. Roo!”
“Call me whatever you want,” answered “Rupert,” “but, really, I’m not sure I could be of help.”
Clarissa smiled again, but now with a shadow of sadness over her face, and said:
“I hope you can. Let’s go to that park over there, it’s warm and quiet, and the sunbeams shine so beautifully on the grass. I’ll tell you everything, you’re not in a hurry, are you?”
Rupert was indeed in no hurry. The airy and transparent Clarissa floated along as he slowly entered the quiet autumn park.
“You see,” Clarissa began her short story, “when I died a few days ago, I thought it would be easy for me to, well…”
“Go to heaven?”
“Yes,” she said. “But I have a friend… a dear friend. Lila. And ever since I’ve been gone, she cries every single day. You see, we were very close. So close that Lila believes she’ll never be happy again. But she has such a big heart! She loves old books and movies and discussing them. She’s so cheerful and a big tease. She was so cheerful…
And what a cook she is… You can only imagine! And I love to eat, but hate cooking. But I enjoyed sitting together on the balcony, talking about everything. Or just being silent. You know, sometimes it’s so good to be silent about something very nice with a nice person!”
Rupert listened, frowning, walking deeper into the park stepping over freshly fallen leaves. The autumn was warm, and there were a few visitors in the park, leisurely strolling or sitting on benches. He enjoyed hearing about Lila because, as Clarissa correctly noticed, he was lonely. Very lonely. So lonely that the image Clarissa so vividly described evoked a piercing feeling in Rupert’s chest.
He sighed and asked Clarissa:
“So, how can I possibly help?”
“How. Could. You. Not!” Clarissa exclaimed, enunciating each word as if to convey their special meaning to Rupert. “Roo, think about it. You’re lonely. I can see it in your eyes. If only you befriended Lila…” and Clarissa whirled in the air in a swirl of golden sparkles, glittering in the sun! “Oh, how I wish Lila had a new friend. Someone who needed her love, and someone who could give her the same…”
Rupert stopped, full of shyness, as if he wasn’t ready to move forward, toward a possibility that could radically change his life and turn it into a miracle…
“Roo, dear, just think how wonderful it would be!”
“Me… with such a nice lady, what’s her name?”
“Lila!”
“Lila, yes, Lila. But think about it, who am I? Could I?” but a sweet whirlwind of visions of him and Lila on a sunny porch reading Dickens, him and Lila laughing out loud at a pesky fly on the balcony, him and Lila hugging in front of the TV, watching… anything!
Rupert smiled.
“See, see! You need Lila too. Let’s go! Quickly! She’s here, right there, see, on the bench. Oh my, how sad she is!” Clarissa sighed so sharply and deeply, as if she had pricked her finger on a thorn.
Lila sat on the bench staring ahead, but it seemed she saw nothing.
“Just go and sit next to her. Don’t be afraid.”
“But I am afraid,” said Rupert. “She loves you. No, no, I can’t. I won’t make her happy.”
And Rupert turned his back to Lila. But even with his back turned, he felt Lila’s heart, filled with the pain of loss.
“Roo! Well, Roo… Alright! Then I ask you just one thing…”
“What?”
“Can I take over your body? Well, just for a little bit. Borrow it. For a minute, just one minute. I just want to say goodbye to her. And tell her how much I love her and that everything will be alright.”
And Clarissa looked at Rupert with such hope that he couldn’t say no.
A moment later, Clarissa was sitting on the bench next to Lila. She was telling her that she loved her, missed her very much, and that she would always, always be watching over her from above, to know that Lila was alright. But now, said Clarissa, I have to go. There, over the rainbow. My relatives and angels are there. But Lila doesn’t need to cry. Not at all. Everything will be fine with Lila. Everything will change. And her heart will be filled with love again. Saying this, Clarissa kissed Lila on the cheek and dissolved.
All this time, the stunned Lila sat holding her breath. And when Clarissa disappeared and Rupert came to his senses, he was so scared by how close Lila was that he jumped off the bench and hid under it.
Lila bent down to call him.
“Hey, little fella, where are you? Huh? You just licked my whole face, and now you’re hiding? Come here, yes, right here. Well, don’t be shy! What’s your name?”
“Roo,” Rupert tried to purr his name out. But it sounded like another loud purr
“Balthazar! I’ll call you Balthazar! Oh my, how dirty you are! But such a sweetheart! Don’t be afraid! Will you come with me? We’ll take a bath and eat some delicious canned food. Will you come?”
Only halfway back to Lila’s house did Rupert come out of the spell of her warm embrace and thought, barely hearing his own thoughts drowned out by his own loud purring:
“Cool. How cool! Just this morning I had no names. And now I’ve got two!”
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