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Author's Chapter Notes:
I promise some twist in the next chapter. :)
“I really don’t know how to ask you, Nick, but I need your help.” Big Ben said carefully.

We were back in my hotel room after the concert enjoying a few bottles of beer. Well, I was enjoying the beers while he sat across me staring at the bottles wishing he could still drink. I gave him a don’t-worry-about-it kind of look.

“What kind of help? Your wife knows you’re already dead, doesn’t she?” It was a dumb question but I just don’t want to go through that again. I wasn’t ready to break another woman’s heart; I don’t think I’d ever be ready again.

“What?” I was relieved when he seemed confused.

“I met a girl, a ghost who was already dead for four years, two weeks ago and she asked my help to tell her Mom that she’s already dead. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life.” I drank the remaining beer on my bottle.

“Oh, Nick, that must really be so hard for you. How long have you been seeing ghosts?”

“Patty was the first one.”

“And I guess I’m the second?” I nodded while he smiled “My wife knows I’m dead, I had a heart attack in front of her.”

“You didn’t die in the Comcast Center?”

“No. I died in the hospital, thirty minutes after she brought me there. I just went to the Comcast Center when I heard from my daughter you guys are in town.”

“How did you learn how to go from one place to another? Patty was stuck in the Target Center where she died, and only figured out how to get out of there when someone taught her how.”

“It took me weeks before I could do that, it ain’t easy but I tried my best. There are so many lost souls in the hospital, some of them taught me how.”

I stared at him for a while, there were so many questions I wanted to ask but didn’t know how. I opened another bottle of beer instead, raised it high and motioned I was drinking it for him.

“You might be wondering why my family wasn’t there to watch you guys like they used to.”

“I figured your wife hated us when we didn’t go to your funeral.”

“You have grown to be such a smart man, Nick.” He smiled at me “You can’t blame Dina, she knew how much I loved you guys as my own sons.”

“What do you want me to do, Big Ben?” I looked at him with serious eyes.

“Dina fell in love with a house in Springfield when we attended a friend’s wedding. At that time the house wasn’t up for sale, and the owner told us he won’t be giving up the property anytime soon. Three years ago, the owner informed me that he was selling the house and he notified me first. I got the house, Nick, but I didn’t tell Dina right away. I kept it a secret because I wanted to give it to her as a gift for our 20th anniversary.” His eyes filled with so much sadness “But that didn’t happen, I died four days before our anniversary and I never got the chance to tell her about it. She might be wondering why I didn’t left her a big amount of money, and even my lawyer didn’t know about the house.”

I was speechless for a moment. Big Ben was indeed one of the sweetest men I knew.

“You want me to tell her about the house?”

“You don’t have to tell her you can see and talk to me, just tell her that the deed of sale and the title of the house are on the back of the frame hanging in our living room. It was the poem I wrote for her after our first son was born; she liked it so much that she had it framed and displayed it for everyone to see.” He was now half-smiling; the sparkle on his eyes told me that he liked what his wife did with the poem.

“That sounds simple. I’ll see what I can do.”

“I’ll let you sleep now, Nick. I’ll go back to my house and will see you there tomorrow morning.”

“See you tomorrow, Big Ben.”

I wanted to hug him or at least tap his shoulder but that wasn’t possible. He disappeared after a few seconds and I went to bed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“One hour, Kevin, that’s all I’m asking.” I held my one finger up as I tried to convince Kevin.

“We have an interview in Ohio at 11 am; we cannot afford to be late.” Kevin gave me his let’s-be-professional-look.

I sometimes hate this man’s professionalism. I was just asking for an hour extension at Massachusetts, Big Ben was waiting for me. For all I know he could be here listening to our intense discussion.

“Brian?” I desperately asked for my best friend’s help. Based from experience I never win against Kevin.

“Dude, Kevin’s right we need to be in Ohio in three hours. We commit on that interview.” Howie butted in.

“Brian?” I knew it was rude to ignore Howie but I wasn’t thinking straight.

“Kevin, can’t we ask for a thirty-minute extension? I’m pretty sure if we drop by at Big Ben’s now, we can be in Ohio at 11:30.” Brian answered while checking his watch.

I smiled triumphantly while Kevin and Howie rolled their eyes. I would have snuck out earlier if only I had a car to use. I didn’t want to cause any problems and I hate making the fans wait, but this was important.

“I’m not really sure about that, Brian. What are we gonna tell them? We’re running on a Backstreet time again?” Kevin was surely pissed at the moment. If there was a thing he hated the most, it was the Backstreet time.

“Do they need all the Backstreet Boys at the same time?” AJ asked innocently.

“What do you mean?”

“Some of us can go ahead and meet the interviewers, and some of us can be a thirty minutes late.” AJ shrugged knowing his idea won’t be taken seriously.

“Fine. But I need one of you to come with us,” Kevin pointed at me, AJ and Brian “You are the most popular members of this group and they will definitely look for you.” Kevin turned around and walked away which meant it was the end of discussion.

“I’ll go.” Brian tapped my shoulder.

“Hey, don’t you want to give financial help to Big Ben’s family?”

Thirty minutes later, AJ was driving the rental car and I was sitting on the passenger seat with four checks on my hand; just four because AJ wanted to hand his check personally. The trip to Big Ben’s house was short, I saw him on the front porch as soon as AJ pulled over. He smiled at me.

AJ knock on the door twice and after a few seconds Dina opened the door. She glared at us for two seconds before slamming the door close.

“Dina, please open the door.” AJ said while knocking on the door.

“Go away,” I heard her answer.

“Dina, we just found out yesterday about Big Ben. We didn’t know about it, we need to talk.” I pleaded and hope it worked.

Dina slowly opened the door with tears on her eyes. AJ immediately pulled her into a hug. We quickly explained that the management didn’t inform us about Big Ben, and how sorry we were that we weren’t able to go to his funeral. She motioned for us to go inside and led the way to the living room. I saw Big Ben standing near the wall and pointing to one of the frames.

“What can I offer you, boys?”

I stood up and pretended to look over the picture frames on the table below the frame that Big Ben pointed.

“Look at your boy, he’s grown so much.” I said cheerfully while pointing to the picture of Big Ben’s eldest son.

“He’s 15 now,” Dina answered proudly “He looks like his father.”

I focused my eyes on the frame and started to read it. The musician in me knew it could be a great song.

“This is beautiful, Dina.” I pointed at it “Where did you get it?”

“Ben wrote it for me when Danny was born.”

I quickly took the frame off the wall before Dina could even protest. I secretly loosen the lock on the back, and handed it to AJ who was still sitting at the couch.

“Look, Jay, this could be a great song.” I literally stopped breathing for a second and waited for what will happen next.

AJ took the frame from my hands, and letting it go too quickly made the frame dropped to the floor.

“Shit,” AJ and I said at the same time, but he got a worried look on his fame while I was trying to hide my smile.

“It’s ok, boys.” Dina said while she picked the frame up. “Oh my God,” She covered her mouth with her hand when she realized what were the papers that she just picked up.

“Happy Anniversary, Baby.” Big Ben kneeled beside his wife and whispered those words in her ears.

“I can’t believe it.” Dina showed the deed of sale and title of the house to us.

“He loves you and the kids very, very much.” I told her

“I know,” She answered while she held the small note that said ‘Happy anniversary and I love you’ close to her heart.

We stayed for twenty minutes more before we said goodbye. Dina said she would visit the house on weekend with the kids, and they might move to their new house on April, which made Big Ben very happy. AJ and I handed her the checks but she didn’t accept them. I left AJ inside the house to convince Dina to accept them.

Big Ben walked me out of the house. “I can’t thank you enough, Nick.”

“That was nothing. If you want I can tell her I can see you and relay some messages you want to tell her.”

“There are no words left unsaid, Nick.”

“You’re lucky.”

“I’ve seen that before but ignored it because I was worried Dina won’t find out about the house.” Big Ben pointed at something where our car was parked.

“Our car?”

“No, that beautiful light,” He pointed at it again “I saw it when I died.”

“That must be the same light Patty saw. She said something about crossing over, and that light will take you to a happy place.”

“Really?”

“But she didn’t see it when she died; she only saw it after we tell her mother that she’s already dead.”

“It’s slowly fading, Nick.”

“You gotta go now, Big Ben. Your family will be ok, I’ll check on them once in a while.”

“Thank you, Nick. Be careful always.”

“You, too. If you see Patty please tell her I said Hi.”

Big Ben smiled at me and walked towards the light. He walked right through our car and disappeared.
Chapter End Notes:
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