A Visit From Julie

A Visit From Julie(Tom Di Roma) A Visit From Julie


Julie and I dated for about three years before we broke up. Mostly it was my fault. Although we got along great—sometimes almost like husband and wife—I loved her, but I wasn’t in love with her. To really be in love with someone, you have to want to be with them 24/7. That’s impractical, of course, but the desire has to be there.
In our case, there was a spark missing in our relationship; which was why, towards the end, she started dating this other guy on the side. Eventually, when I didn’t step up to the plate, so to speak, she connected with him full-time and they got married.
Even though I understood why things worked out the way they had, it still bothered me a lot, especially since I remained close to her parents.
Meanwhile, my own life continued on a mostly even keel until I received the devastating news that Julie had been killed in a car accident. I say devastating, because it hit me a lot harder than I would have thought. But I wasn’t the only one who shed a waterfall of tears. So, did the guy she married.
His name was Ted. Both Ted and I stood next to her closed casket and wept. I didn’t know about him, but I wanted desperately to see her one more time before the ceremony was over, but I couldn’t; they said the accident had really messed her up. I didn’t care. Instead, I had to settle for memories and photos, but as it turned out, her funeral wasn’t going to be the last time I’d be in her presence. That’s because she visited me one night during a snowstorm.
It was while I was driving home from a bar. Yes, I had been drinking, but it was only two beers. The accident wasn’t even my fault. I had come to an intersection with a stop sign, but when I went to tap my breaks, the car kept going. There must have been some really slick ice underneath that snow. The next thing I knew, the car swurved and I plowed into a tree.
Luckily, the front airbags deployed, but so did the seatbelt restraint mechanism. After my grogginess wore off, I found myself practically hog-tied to my seat. This would have been bad enough, but then the seatbelt wouldn’t unlatch. That’s when I began to panic; I could see and smell smoke billowing out from the sides of my hood. Frantic, I looked this way and that, hoping to see if anyone else was around, but the road I was on was an empty, narrow back road. Once more, I tried unlatching the seatbelt, but it still wouldn’t budge. And then to my horror, I heard a whooshing sound and saw flames lick up like underwater seaweed from the sides of my car’s hood.
“No! No!” I whimpered, as I frantically tried again to free myself . . . which was when I heard her voice call my name. Looking to my right, my eyes practically popped out of my head as I stared in utter disbelief at Julie standing outside the passenger door to my car!
ABSOLUTELY NO WAY, I THOUGHT!!
For a moment, I almost forgot about the fire until the smell of smoke brought me back to my senses and I pointed toward my seatbelt. “I can’t get out!” I shouted at her.
Smiling, she nodded, and then leaning forward, the entire upper half of her body melted right through the window, door and seat. In total disbelief, I stared at her thinking this had to be a hallucination! Either that, or I was already dead, and this was Julie’s spirit come to accompany me into the light.
But then her hand grabbed hold of my arm and her fingers, which felt totally solid and real, pulled me sideways. Not only did the seatbelt release, but I found myself floating like a balloon through my car and out into the storm. Now, I was standing next to the passenger-side door with both the frigid air and the heat from the fire hitting me at the same time.
Turning to look back inside the car, I saw the flames had already reached the driver’s side compartment. A few seconds more and I would have been roasting like a pig on a spit. Relieved, I turned back to ask Julie all kinds of questions that had suddenly popped into my head, but she wasn’t there. Had she been there at all? But then the heat from the fire reminded me of where I was, so I moved several feet away, while around me, large, fluffy flakes of snow showered down like New Year’s confetti.
I didn’t even notice the arrival of the police or fire department until one of the cops came up to me and asked what had happened? That’s when I told him about sliding through the intersection. He nodded. “Yeah, that’s a really bad spot. Ice is always building up there.” Then he asked, “Was there anyone else in the car with you?”
“No,” I told him.
He frowned. “Then why are there two sets of footprints outside your vehicle?”
When I looked, I saw he was right. There were two sets of footprints. Obviously, one of them was Julie’s, but I didn’t know what to tell him. So, after thinking about it a moment, I said, “I could tell you why there are two sets of footprints, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me anyway,” he replied.
“Okay. . . One of them belongs to my old girlfriend, Julie.”
I saw him look around almost in a panic. “Where is she now?”
“She died a while ago.”
He turned to me as a smile spread slowly across his face. That’s when he said, “She saved you, didn’t she?”
I stared at him in utter shock. “How did you know?”
“Because I’ve been involved in several of these things over the past few years.”
“What things?”
He continued to smile, “People rescued by angels, or someone they swore was dead.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just continued to stare at him in utter disbelief.
Later, after taking my information, he offered to drive me to the hospital, but I refused. I felt remarkably free of any aches or pains. So instead, he drove me home.
As he dropped me off in front of my apartment building, he said, “If you start to feel even the slightest bit of discomfort, I’d advise you to get yourself to an emergency room right away.”
“I will,” I told him. But then a thought struck me, and I asked, “You think I’ll ever see her again?”
He hesitated a moment before answering, “I doubt it. They usually only show up once.” This made me feel even sadder than I had in a really long time.
The next day, after contacting my insurance company, I got a ride to the local Toyota dealership, at which point, I put a down payment on a shiny new Corolla. Then I drove over to Julie’s parent’s house.
“Oh, Scott!” said her mother when she answered the door. “I see you got a new car. It’s really nice looking.”
“Thank you, but I had to,” I told her. “My other one was totaled in an accident.”
She looked horrified for a moment. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“No,” I said to her. Then she invited me inside for some coffee and cake. That’s when I told her and her husband about Julie rescuing me.
Her husband just stared at me grim-faced, while Julie’s mother got tears in her eyes. And then she told me she too had seen Julie. Now it was my turn to be shocked.
“When? How?”
“She came to me the other night in a dream. She said she really missed us but was happy where she was.”
I knew I shouldn’t have asked but . . . “Did she say anything about me?” Her mother just shook her head. “What about Ted?” I asked. “Has he been around at all?”
“He was just here yesterday,” replied her husband. “Told us he’s moving to Los Angeles for his job.”
I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose a little. I felt as if he was abandoning both Julie and her parents.
This time, it was her mother who spoke. “Listen, if you ever see Julie again, tell her we miss her something awful.”
“I will,” I replied, but remembering what the cop had said, I realized I’d probably never get the chance.
Finally, after having a second cup of coffee, I got up to leave.
Before driving away, I sat in my car a moment and just stared at the house. Except for her parents, it was my one other solid connection to Julie,
God, I missed her something awful!