Mahony picked up one of the two coins that's still on the counter and looked at the face of the coins. As he stared at the coin something in his brain synapsed, vivid memories flashed through his mind. His hand shot to his abdomen as he looked down checking for injuries, finding none he looked up at Mona. "I don't understand. What happened to me? Where am I?"

Mona sat down the coin she was still holding in her hand back on the counter in front of Mahony. "You're dead, hon. Where we are—," she looked all around the diner, "is the in-between."

"Dead? In-between?" Mahony shot to his feet, wanting very much to bolt but at the moment he couldn't think of anywhere he could go. "Why couldn't I remember until just now? Is it the coins? Are they playing trick on my mind?"

"Nah, the coins have nothing to do with your memories," Mona explained, "it's this place, it does funny things to memories." She holds up her hands to hold Mahony off seeing he was about ask the question that everyone that passed through here asked, "The memories are all true, it's not hallucinations or flights of fancy. They are memories true and real, coming back in inconveniently disjointed pieces, it's disorienting but it's yours, all yours."

"I just don't—" Mahony gasped, "I mean, am I supposed to be here?" He looked helplessly at Mona.

"There're no coincidences or mistakes in this universe. Everything happened as its meant to happen. As for the reasons, your guesses are as good as mine or anybody else's."

"What am I supposed to do now?" Mahony sank back on the stool.

"You're been here before, hon. Relax, it'll all come back to you," Mona said. "But the coins are a whole different matter." She eyed the coins again. "How did you get them?"

Mahony picked them up, listlessly and recalled the day at the market. "I got them off a stranger in the parking lot of my local market," Mahony said. "The guy wanted a soda but didn't have change for it so he gave me these instead." Mahony looked at the coins and thought hard back to that encounter, trying to recall what the man had said about these coins. "The guy said something funny about them though," Mahony held one of the coins between his fingers and examined it, "he said these are wishing coins." He looked at the face of the coin and turned it to examine the other side, noting for the first time since he'd gotten them that these weren't quarters like he'd assumed. On one side of the coin was the hooded figure on a boat reminiscent of the image he'd seen on the man's t-shirt and the other side was embossed with the image of an old-fashioned lantern. Gag coins, not the least bit helpful in Mahony's predicament. He's dead, what can he wish for? Not be dead? "These are probably coins you get at the amusement park or these kids' pizza places."

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them," Mona said. "They are gifts of considerable value, if you use them wisely."

Mahony's head snapped up as he tried to discern if Mona was pulling his leg, a jab at a dead man with nothing left to wish for. "You aren't serious about these coins, are you?" Mahony asked, not wanting to dismiss any opportunity for a way out of his predicament.

"These are ferryman coins," Mona nodded, "yes, the ones people pay the ferryman with from the ones that're done with the amusement rides, ones that're finally ready to crossed to the other side. These're imbued with the wishes of those that crossed, passing on their good will."

"What?" Confusion flooded Mahony. "Amusement rides? What're you talking about?"

"Hon, what do you think life is?" Mona leaned on the counter, placed her face closer to Mahony's. "You go through it for that next great experience, that amusement ride."

"You must be kidding!" Mahony pulled away from Mona. "I'm certainly not amused. Getting stabbed to death wasn't the least bit amusing," Mahony retorted. "Why would anyone want that experience?"

"Well, you picked it, what can I say?" Mona straightened up and spread her hands, shrugging her shoulders.

"And why would I do that? You said it as if I can choose to win the jackpot at the lottery."

"Why didn't you choose to win the jackpot at the lottery instead?"

"As if that's even possible," Mahony said losing patience with the nonsensical conversation.

"And yet, you're sitting here dead, stabbed to death. Was there at any time in your life you'd decided that it is possible you'd one day be stabbed to death?"

"Of course not. The thought had never crossed my mind."

"So, I say once again, and yet you're here. It's the choices you'd made that led you here."

"You're saying, I got myself here, that I'm to blame for being stabbed to death?" Mahony said his voice trembling with indignation. He wanted to cry, the unfairness of it all. "I'm the victim here—sure, blame the victim."

"There's no blame here." Mona sighed softly. "We're all where we are supposed to be from all of the choices we've made along the way." Mona looked Mahony in the eyes. "Why did you choose the tomato soup and not chicken soup? Why did you choose to sit at the counter instead of the booth that you normally preferred?"

"What are you getting at? That my choices had landed me here?"

"Pretty much." Mona reached under the counter and pulled out the water pitcher to refill Mahony's glass.

"What could I have done to avoid this? I didn't want to engage with Lisa, avoided her when I could and reassured her of my none intentions every time she confronted me," Mahony said, more to himself than to Mona. "What am I supposed to have done under the circumstance?"

"I don't know." Mona shrugged. "There're no right or wrong choices. Just choices. Choices that propel you onto different trajectories."

"Do I have no choice but to accept that Lisa had killed me and she's going to get away with it?" Mahony asked bitterly.

"Let Lisa worry about Lisa," Mona said. "She's on her own ride. Which brings us to this," Mona pointed at the coins, "what do you choose to do with them?"

"Are they for real? Wishing coins?"

"They're real."

"How do I use it? To make a wish."

"Nothing to it. Just pick one up and think hard on what you want and give the coin away to someone else, and tell them what the coins are, that's all there's to it," Mona said noncommittally. "But, like you've just discussed, choices matter."

Mahony swallowed hard. In light of everything he'd just learned, he's squeamish even to ask for another cup of coffee, or was it soda that he should be asking for? "I don't suppose I can sit on this?"

"You're handed a piece of paper with numbers on it when you first got here?" Mona asked.

"Yeah, I've got it right here." Mahony fished in his pockets and retrieved the paper with the long string of number on it and showed it to Mona.

Mona eyed the slip of paper. "You've got time. It'll be a while before you'd be called."

Mahony looked at the number on the paper. "This IS a wait number," he muttered. "Are you saying that there're this many people that died ahead of me?" He waved the slip of paper in the air.

"Yes."

"My god ..." Mahony stared at the number as he tried to grasp the gravity of his situation once again. "What am I going to do now?"

"There's plenty of good food and drinks, plus entertainment of any kind. Whatever you want, you can find it here on Main Street. Relax. This place is the line you get on for that next ride. It's my job to keep you fed and entertained. Go wherever you like and ask for me, you'll get what you want."

"Are you saying you own everything on the street?"

"I don't own it, per se, I run it."

"How can you? There must be hundreds if not thousands of establishments here."

Mona snorted. "Try infinite. And, yes, I run every single one of them."

"But how?"

"Don't think, hon. Just be," Mona said. She reached under the counter and pulled out a fresh coffee cup and poured Mahony a full cup before walking over to the old-fashioned soda fountain to dispense a tall glass of the dark, bubbling amber-colored drink.

"How—" Mahony looked at the now abundant number of drinks in front of him, "how do you know I was thinking of coffee and soda?"

"What did I just say, hon?" Mona smiled; one eye brow raised. "I run these places. I'm supposed to know. Now, stay or go where ever you like."

Mahony looked out the giant glass panes of the diner, the foot traffic never ebbed. "Can I talk to any of these people?"

"Yeah, sure. Talk to them, interact with them. They're here, same as you, waiting their turn to go on their next ride. Find ways to keep yourselves amused," Mona encouraged. "And ... don't forget about your ferryman's coins."

Mahonypicked up the coins and slipped them back into the zippered slot of his wallet.He sat sipping the cherry-flavored soda he so favored as a child andcontemplated his existence while Mona's attention was pulled away to serviceother patrons that had walked in.