Dead Set by Richard Kadrey Page B

combination of a fairy-tale castle and a cathedral.
    â€œWhat’s that?” she asked, pointing to the building.
    â€œThat’s City Hall.”
    â€œDead people have a city hall?”
    â€œWe prefer the term postlife .”
    It was the kind of dumb joke he used to make back home, and hearing him say something so ridiculous felt really good.
    Next, they went on the roller coaster. It was enormous, bigger than any coaster Zoe had ever seen in the living world. She was a little nervous getting into the front car, but her father was so happy and confident that she went anyway. The coaster was like the one at Coney Island, old and made of wood. It clacked and creaked the whole time their little car crept to the crest of the first drop. Near the top, Zoe looked down and the city was nothing but a bright toy at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She closed her eyes and grabbed on to her father’s sleeve. He put his big hand over hers and they stayed like that the rest of the way up.
    Then the clicking stopped, and they began to fall. Zoe’s stomach rose up into her throat. Then she heard something new. It was her father screaming at the top of his lungs, the big, insane whoop that people always made on roller-coaster drops. She felt her father’s arms go up into the air as the whoop went on and on. Zoe opened her eyes a crack at the bottom, just as the roller coaster whipped them around the first corner. She let go of her father’s sleeve and tried to whoop, too. He took her hand and held it up with his, and they whooped together, screaming like idiots, with pure joy as the sun came down slowly over the sea.
    Something unclenched inside Zoe, almost without her being aware of it until the feeling had begun to pass. For the first time in what seemed like a million years, she felt all right. She might even have called the feeling happy. She smiled and it wasn’t the rueful half smiles of her recent life, but a real one. She and her father were together, side by side, and she felt whole and healed in a way that all the words and doctors and pills in the world couldn’t have fixed. And she saw that he was happy, too, just to be with her. And that was enough.
    Later, as they strolled along the boardwalk, Zoe asked, “Where do you live?”
    He nodded toward the apartment buildings. “Back there a few blocks.”
    â€œHow many people are there here?”
    â€œI don’t know. The buses bring new people all the time.”
    They stopped and leaned on the rusty metal fence separating the boardwalk from the beach. The sun was just falling below the horizon, and night was spreading like a dark tide across the sky. A few yellow stars flickered faintly high above.
    â€œI hate to say it, but it’s time for you to go,” her father said.
    â€œCan’t I stay a little longer?”
    â€œWhen I came down to the beach tonight, it was because a little voice whispered in my ear that I should go to the bus stop at the boardwalk. Now that voice is telling me that I have to take you back.”
    â€œYou can get on the bus, too. Come back with me.”
    â€œI can’t leave here yet. It’s not my time.”
    â€œI don’t want to go.”
    â€œYou have to go. I want you to go,” he said. “This is a place for the dead, not a living girl. No matter how beautiful she is, or how wonderful it is to see her.”
    Zoe looked down at her feet. “Walk me back?”
    â€œTry to stop me.”
    Zoe looped her arm in her father’s and held on to him tight all the way to the bus stop. Lights had come on in the restaurant and the bar. The movie-theater marquee was lit up. The street looked like something from a pleasant dream of the perfect small town.
    A bus was already waiting when they reached the end of the boardwalk. Zoe’s father pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.
    â€œGo and live your life,” he said. “Be happy. Be crazy.