BooksBarbecue
Back Afterlove Save as PDF
Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

Veronica Price is exactly where Deborah said she would be, on the bridge overlooking the motorway, watching the cars pass beneath. She’s not what I expected, but then they never are. I can only see her profile, her smooth, round face and rich golden-brown skin that looks more gold than brown under the street lights, her sweet button nose dotted with a diamond stud that, from here, looks like a single star. She has more hair than Esen, which I didn’t think was possible, a thick heart-shaped afro, parted in the middle, that bobs gently in the breeze and glistens like crow feathers.

After spending much of today – the last eleven months and two weeks, actually, not that I’ve been counting – fretting that where Poppy is and where I’m going, isn’t the same place, it’s a relief to see Veronica because I can finally find out. I’ve been repeating it like a mantra – Just believe that we’re going to the same place – over and over. After each reap. Between each step. Every time the bell rings over the door to the bookshop and someone comes in.

Just believe that we’re going to the same place.

The thought makes me so giddy it’s all I can do not to run over to Veronica and reach for her, but in my eagerness to get here on time, I’m early. So I hang back in case she sees me and changes her mind.

I don’t want my last act as a reaper to be intervening in someone’s death.

Can you imagine?

When Deborah held up the Post-it note and said, ‘We have our new reaper,’ Esen suggested I do it, saying that I’d never done one on New Year’s Eve. Deborah had eyed her suspiciously, no doubt wondering why she didn’t want to do it herself after losing out to Dev last year. And I suppose it’s fitting, me reaping my replacement, even if Deborah doesn’t know that Veronica is going to be my replacement yet.

Esen wished me luck as I left and Dev just smiled. I could tell that she had to stop herself from hugging me, in case she aroused Deborah’s suspicions further, so I just smiled back and told them that I’d see them soon.

Now, here I am, waiting for Veronica to fall.

When Deborah handed me the Post-it note and I read:

Veronica Price

Fall

Bridge over A23

23:59

I wondered if she had got it wrong and it was a suicide because how do you fall off a bridge?