
Chapter Five
Human-Norris Nurse…Ghost-James “JB” Brown
Rockwood High was buzzing because it was chicken wing day; all the students rushed to get in the lunch line. For Norris Nurse, the feeling was like something tapping him on his shoulder.
“Hey boy, stop touching me.”
“Dude, I’m not touching you, nor do I want to touch you.”
Norris turned, pushing students as he left the line; curses followed his every step. He walked briskly out the side door and sat down on a bench under the pine tree. He leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and turned his head with a quick snap.
He opened his eyes wide and, putting both hands on either side of his head, was about to yell when a steel-blue flash streaked past his line of sight; he saw an image. It couldn’t be…but he was unsure.
“Who are you?”
Norris snapped his head back and forth again.
James “JB” Brown looked at him and stepped toward the wrenching Norris.
Norris fell on the grass and rolled over and over; he finally looked up to see his cousin, JB, sitting on the senior picnic bench, grabbing his side, laughing hysterically.
Norris stared.
“Norris!” JB yelled
Norris pushed out dirt as his heels dug into the ground;his elbows worked like automobile pistons, moving backward and forward.
JB looked at Norris, “Stop!”
Norris got up and started to run, but tripped, “You’re dead, how’d you get alive again?”
JB stared at Norris.
He remembered sitting next to his buddy they turned onto the small two-lane steep grade road. They were late for the pickup basketball game in Gainesville, Georgia.
B kept trying to calm his buddy Joel down and make him slow down, “Boy we got time, slow this car down.” JB was always very meticulous and he planned out every move from schoolwork, to basketball, and in his personal life.
He was nervous and when his buddy tried to pass a car, his life ended quickly as their car slammed into an on-coming cement truck The truck driver wasn’t hurt as the massive metal exterior of the cement truck protected him. He walked away from the accident without a scratch. The doctor said both JB and Joel died from fright and a stroke.
Now, he looked down at Norris and was glad he was alive again. “You will know real soon. You and I are going to be close for six months. You better get used to it. You could never get a girl and now you stand a better chance of getting as many girls as you want.”
JB laughed.