[ WP ] You possess the rare gift to see and talk to dead people , and have kept this hidden from everyone your entire life , including your spouse . Now your spouse dies and is quite surprised .

Got VERY carried away and this is long ( had to post in two parts ) but I'd appreciate it if anyone read and gave me pointers. Made an account just to post this. 
 
 Part 1 
 
 He sat in a chair opposite his wife who laid unconsciously and silently in her hospital bed. The machine to his right beeped at regular intervals keeping pace with Kelly's heart. He hated hospitals. To most ears it was a quiet place where people spoke in hushed tones or not at all. But to Jim it was as much a forum or a plaza as it was a hospital. Across the halls and in adjacent rooms he could hear wails and shouts from patients who had ( some recently and some long ago ) left their corporeal bodies behind in exchange for an existence you and I would simply know as'ghosts'. These were not the variety of mindless beasts we sometimes think of as ghosts, nor were they the tortured souls of the damned that we so often see ghosts portrayed as. Ghosts are, for lack of a better word, people like any other, their mental faculties intact, and with as much awareness and understanding as they had in life. Those in the hospital were, however, either recently deceased- and therefore frightened or confused- or they were the lonely sort who had no where else to go after death. Regardless of the reason, the ghosts in hospitals tended to make a much more cacophonous racket than in any other location and so it was for this reason that Jim hated hospitals. 
 
 Despite Jim's disdain for the place he was now in, he had come here frequently for the past two years. It was two years to this day that Kelly had slipped into her coma and abandoned him in the only way possibly- in a state between life and death. In the beginning he had hoped often for her to regain consciousness, but now he was excited for her death. Today was that day. As per the instructions in her will the plug would be pulled and Kelly would slip back into the awakened world. The doctor and the nurse in the room were already at work recording the necessary information on a clipboard and pressing a series of buttons on Kelly's life support. Jim stood up and grasped his wife's frail hand. The machine to his right switched abruptly from its *beep* *beep* *beeping* to one that was long and drawn out. At the very same moment Kelly's eyes opened and began darting around the room. Her mouth opened and gasped for breath. 
 
 `` Time of death, 2:43 pm'' said the doctor calmly. 
 
 Kelly shot up and turned her head. She locked eyes with her husband. 
 
 `` Recorded.'' Said the nurse, as she scribbled the time and checked a box on a form on her clipboard. 
 
 Kelly was confused and setting into a panic. She stood and rushed towards Jim. She had not yet found her voice and made an awful shriek in an attempt to communicate. Jim could not help but smile. He looked over at the doctor and the nurse and then to his wife who was not standing over her old body, digesting the information that was presented to her. He laid a hand on what once was Kelly's head, but he stared into the eyes of his wife as she stood now opposite him. 
 
 `` For two years you have been away from me Love. Now it is time to go home.'' He said and then gestured with his head toward the staff still in the room. Kelly stood still. She was no longer shrieking or gasping for breath ( though it had not yet dawned on that she did not need to breath ) and watched her husband. She waited for some moments while Jim and the doctor discussed a few minor details ( primarily which funeral parlor to send the body to ). The doctor and the nurse stepped out and Jim followed behind. 
 
 `` Time to go home'' he said again and looked at his wife as he gestured towards the door. 
 
 Silently they made their way, together, to Jim's car. Kelly stepped awkwardly struggling to keep her feet in contact with the ground rather than in, under, or above it. Finally they came to his car and Jim opened the door and sat inside. Kelly stood for a moment attempting to grasp the handle before Jim reached across and opened the door from inside. It swung wide, passing through her body. She sat and Jim reached over and shut the door. There was silence only for a passing second until they locked eyes and erupted in simultaneous laughter. His laugh was infectious. Hers was a shrill laugh, unnatural and mechanical at first, but she found her voice and her laugh soon returned to the soft and timid giggle she had been known for. 
 
 “ I'm dead. ” Kelly said, not so much as a question but as a revelation. 
 
 “ Yea- ” Jim started, though he was quickly interrupted with a flurry of questions- not unexpectedly. 
 
 “ I'm DEAD? I- I-m... two years? Wha-? How? And I'm... and you can see me? ” 
 
 “ You can see me. ” She said again, as a statement this time. 
 
 “ Yes. ” 
 
 “ And I'm dead? ” 
 
 “ Yes. ” 
 
 “ Two years you said? ” 
 
 “ To the day. ” Jim replied. 
 
 There was a silence, but Jim smiled and he stared with love into his wife's eyes. 
 
 “ How? ” Kelly asked with as much a sense of confusion as a sense of impatience. 
 
 “ Wait, ” She added “ take me home. Why are we sitting here? I want to go home. ” 
 
 “ We ca n't just go. ” Jim said through a laugh. 
 
 “ Why not? ” 
 
 “ You do n't know how to fly ye- ” 
 
 “ Fly? ” She exclaimed. Her husband had always had a way of running her down before she ever got the answers she was looking for. 
 
 “ You do n't exactly get along well with physics. ” Jim sighed. “ Momentum ca n't be transferred to ghosts. If I drove off now then you'd still be sitting in the parking lot. ” 
 
 That word hung in the air. “ Ghosts ” 
 
 “ I'm a- ” Kelly started, but trailed off. 
 
 So Jim and Kelly sat together in their car and Jim explained everything from the beginning. He explained how she had slipped off of a ladder while trying to repaint a side of their house. He explained her coma and recent death. She asked all the questions one might expect to ask if ever presented with such a situation and a good many more that one may never have thought to ask until presented with said situation. 
 
 “ Does everyone come back as a ghost? ” 
 
 “ As far as I can tell. ” 
 
 “ Where are they all? I do n't see any. ” 
 
 “ Parking lots are boring places for ghosts ” he said. 
 
 “ Can any other people see ghosts? ” 
 
 “ None that I've ever heard of ” he said. 
 
 “ Why did n't you tell me? ” 
 
 “ Never got around to it ” he said. 
 
 “ Teach me to fly ” she said, and Jim began to explain how to fly as it was explained to him by another ghost. Together they drove around the parking lot, going slow at first as Kelly struggled to match the pace of the car and keep herself steady in the seat without floating too far forward into the dash or too far back into the seat. Some ghosts never learn to fly. Others fly out of their body as if it had always been a latent talent. For Kelly it took about 35 minutes. 
 
 “ Time to go home ” Kelly said and together they took off towards their home. 
 
 “ Do you know many ghosts? ” Kelly asked as she floated above her seat. 
 
 “ Very many ” said Jim “ I only befriend a select few though. ” 
 
 “ Ghost friends ” Kelly marveled. She then considered her new status as “ ghost wife ”. 
 
 “ So all the ghosts of all the dead are still here Earth? ” she asked. 
 
 “ As far as I know ” He replied 
 
 “ And they stay here forever? ” 
 
 “ As far as I know ” He said again. 
 
 “ But that's so many! ” Kelly exclaimed. “ Where did they all go and what did they do for eternity ” she asked in not quite so few of words. 
 
 “ They're everywhere, ” Jim said, “ but you wo n't see them strolling on the sidewalks for obvious reasons. Some of them stay put where they died. Some of them go home to watch their families live out their lives. Others have unfinished business, so they always say- trying to right their wrongs or set things right. But most of them live just like anyone else would. There's whole societies of ghosts out there just living it up.
