“Would you like to meet the rest of us?” said Eck. “Also, thanks to you and your friends. I feel safer now.”

“I’m, uh, someone who operates in the shadows,” said Mo. “Didn’t you say one of your friends is a cop?”

“It’s true. How can I contact you, then?”

“Dropbox. I’ll set up some kind of a timetable for getting it checked.” She handed Eck what looked like a business card, but when he came to a streetlight it was a map on one side and a photo on the other. An old-style letter box, painted in non-standard colors.

“Thanks,” said Eck, but Mo was gone. He hurried to catch up with his friends.

When Eck arrived at a stop light, the others were just leaving the far side of the intersection. He thought maybe he didn’t want to risk involving Olivia, with her double identity, one of which was a detective. It could be awkward for her, giving evidence to her colleagues who thought she was Oliver. Maybe he was being shallow, making that decision for a friend without asking her. But Eck was beginning to appreciate life as an ant: someone who can be stepped on for no reason. And besides all that, if the guy was Peter and he got arrested, it could blow both his life in the lab, and everyone’s identities.

While he was considering, Olivia and Josh said good night, and Joey and Deb started up the hill toward the campus. Eck finally caught up with them.

“What happened to you?” Deb wanted to know.

“It’s cute, seeing the two of you with arms around each other,” said Eck.

“You’re not jealous,” said Joey, and she was right about that. Her spare arm drew Eck in for a kiss.

“You didn’t answer the question,” said Deb, with a smile.

“It’s not a tale for the street,” said Eck. “It’s kind of scary, and the more I think about it, the less I understand it. It’s a mystery.”

“I like a good mystery,” said Joey.

“I like them better if I’m not one of the characters,” said Eck.

“Oh. That kind of mystery,” said Deb. “I think I’m with you. Everybody want to come to my place tonight? I have a bottle of wine and…” She trailed off before specifying what else might be on offer.”

Deb unlocked, the others swished into her place and waited for her to turn on lights, bump up the thermostat, collect coats, offer seats. Then she went around closing curtains, finding glasses and the promised bottle of wine.

“Talk,” she said to Eck. “I seem to tell you that a lot.”

“We were being stalked, apparently. I never got a good look at the guy, but a bunch of street people surrounded him, broke beer bottles around him, took his shoes and flipped them up over the telephone wires.”

“Woh,” said Deb. “And I can imagine Peter doing that. I really need to stop dating creeps.”

“Present company excluded?” said Joey.

“You folks are not creepy,” said Deb. “Weird, yes, I’ll grant you that. But a lot of the best people are weird.”

“Thank you, I think?” said Eck. “Anyway, our benefactor, someone named Mo, didn’t want to get involved in cop business, so I didn’t catch up with you until Olivia and Josh went home. It’s like she has an army of homeless vets on the streets or something.”

“Woh,” said Deb again. “And she’s using it to intercept stalkers?”

“That’s the impression I got,” said Eck.

“Can we, like, talk about something else?” said Joey. “This is making me feel weird.”

“Because you are weird,” said Deb, and the laughter broke the tension. “Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, isn’t it? I don’t imagine those guys get much recognition.”

“I suppose not,” said Eck. “But Mo at least seems to like it that way. The whole ‘Thank you for your service’ thing is kind of shallow. Some of them were drafted, and didn’t have any choice. But I think it’s good for them to be together.”

“And to do stuff together, using the skills they learned, I imagine,” said Deb.

“I’m glad they’re on our side, at least for tonight,” said Joey, with a shudder.

This is Ude’s contribution:

Yes, I expected them to let Tom take the fall. You’re too much like me Tom, too kind and helpful. In this situation it won’t do you any good. Give them hell. Tell Mum it was their idea.

When your soul is in limbo, floating above those it needs to connect with, while your physical body stays motionless, just waiting; it can be hard for us in-limbo souls.

“So, Tom will tell Mother, it was his idea. His plan to keep her body – “

He couldn’t even say my name.

“In her flat, in that chair” Ajay pointed to the chair, my favourite seat, where I liked to watch the park after work. Sit on the chair that rocked ever so slightly and stare out at the park, trees, the shallow pond that hid the odd frog and where snails liked to gather in summer.

“Tom may face an arrest” continued Ajay in a matter of-fact tone. “That isn’t our concern”

Like hell it is. I screamed from the ceiling but of course none of them could hear me.

“So, what is the timetable? We should draft out our plan of action” Maya always liked order, neatness. I let my body flip so my face was pointing downwards and hovering above Meena’s head.

It’s a mystery how these four partners in crime (not including Tom of course) managed to keep my sudden disappearance away from Mum’s probing questioning.

“Any of you heard from Cilee? She hasn’t called for a while. Ajay have you heard from her?”

“Er no Mum. You know what Cilee is like. Always busy. Never know what she’s up to unless one of us calls her”

“Isn’t that true Maya!”

I imagined the faint whine in Ajay’s voice.

I shouted soundlessly to my brother.

“Come on, be a man, be the head of the household and tell it as it is. You’ve got balls so use them”.

“I’m not going to have anything to do with this. You’ve got to tell your Mother” Tom stood up his body like a rigid plank of wood.

“Don’t bother calling me” he shouted and stormed out of the flat.

Ooooh, Tom this is why I love you so much. This is why you are my greatest friend. Let them be smothered by their evil deed, like Macbeth and his Lady love were smothered by their betrayal of their great friend. I don’t mean that my lovely siblings should meet a harsh end just that Mother will know the truth.

So, I am on a holiday of sorts. I can float onto ceilings, drift through cracks and holes. My shape can be a thread of smoke, a cloud of dust, a rope like trail. I hang out (literally) with myself. I haven’t seen any other in limbo souls. What I do notice is how bright everything is. If I slip through the slightly raised window and just hover by the balcony, I see all the colour of the park that I loved to look at whilst sitting on my favourite chair. The array of shades of green – leaves, grass, stems of flowers.

The rainbow colours of the children’s play area. I smell the air. Even though I am in the heart of the city, I can feel a sense of happiness. I can touch and play with nature.