Being dead was proving to be exhausting. 

And you can't sleep when you are dead.

I decide to visit the North Shore again, Haleiwa this time. Waves crash over and over as the sea is lulled to sleep, or to life, whichever way you choose to look at it. Wondering if I can go into the actual water, I float towards the surface and dive down. I can! The darkness becomes more intense as I travel deeper and towards the shelf or drop off. 

I pass by a few sharks and schools of fish that dart quickly away. Tiger sharks used to scare me when I surfed but they were always a part of life in the ocean. Now they just look majestic. I travel further out towards the open ocean before I decide to cut back towards shore. A high pitched clicking sound resounds in the water. 

Dolphins!

They swim and seem to swirl around me. Can they see me? One stops mere inches from where my ghostly face was and turns its head side to side, as if it is talking to me. I reach out with my arm and touch the hard rubber skin of the dolphin. I can feel it! The dolphin squeaks and clicks more. Then it takes off to join its friends. 

It could see me! 

Knowing that animals can see me brings back the look Timothy Earl Jones was making from detective Jones's upstairs window. He could see me and recognized me. Legends and rumors of pets being able to see passed on people were really true. It was stunning but not too surprising at the same time. There is always some truth to stories that you hear. 

I come out of the water and laze on the sand, well, above it rather as I can't actually sit anymore. I am able to feel sensations from when I was alive, such as the dolphin but not others like the feeling of sitting on something. Being dead is complicated still. And I haven't figured out anything about the actual 'afterlife'. 

There appears to be time though, so I decide to check out more of my favorite island town. 

🩸

Haleiwa was formed officially in the 1800's with the establishment of a grand hotel, for that time. It attracted railway workers and the Waialua Sugar Cane Company. Mostly barren save for red dirt and palms, the ocean proved to be the backdrop that drew people in. Before this though, history is fraught with the stories of how Queen Liliuokalani was displaced and held under house arrest by owners of the sugar cane and pineapple companies. 

The US government then annexed it as a territory until 1959, when it became in effect, the countries 50th state. Native Hawaiians, those with roots well back in time before any outsiders came, still hold anger and hatred for the US coming in the way they did. It was and still is a hot button issue for certain families. Though surfing has revived the island economy and also the large military presence, Hawaii still retains something other states haven't been able to do. It is the most isolated place on earth. 2,400 miles from any other land masses.

My family loved bringing me here as a child and my dad taught me to surf in Haleiwa. He would say how much better the breaks were compared to Ewa Beach. I had hoped to bring my child here someday, if I was given the chance to have one. 

Life though, had other plans. 

Floating by the empty shopping centers, I marvel at how beautiful this part of the island is. It's country charm and surf style rolled into one. There really is no other place like it on earth. 

Meow!

I glance down and see a mangy cat looking up at me from within the shadows of the parking lot. 

Meow, meow!

I float back down to the ground by the cat and crouch, extending my hand. 

"Aren't you a cute thing? I bet you want food!"

Meow! 

The cat's fur is rough, as it obviously needs a bath. 

"Yep, you want food.."

At the mention of food the cat meows again. Could it hear me too?

"Can you hear me kitty?"

It purrs and meows as it looks up into my face. It can hear me! Fantastic! Finally I can communicate to someone, even if it's an animal. I don't feel as alone as I have so far. I begin to walk and I see chickens approaching. The cat is beside me and he, I am calling him a he, growls as they disperse. Chickens are wild all over the island. Another Hawaii oddity. 

I float and the cat walks as I make my way through the empty shopping areas. Old style plantation buildings now house nick knacks and surfing clothing brands. But the integrity of the structures are still apparent. The moon light illuminates our path. It is an enjoyable night to say the least. 

Meow!! 

The cat spots something long running up ahead. I can barely see it until it darts out onto the sidewalk. A mongoose! 

"Leave it! No!" 

The cat obeys and growls. Poor mongoose needs a fighting chance. Wild cats have no doubt been chasing it for a while tonight. It darts back into a row of bushes, out of sight. 

"Let's go back to the beach. What should I call you? Hmmm....How about Clifton Eastwood? Since you live in the country?"

Meow!

It purrs more and rubs against my ghost body. I think he liked the name. I know it's pretty stupid, the way I name pets, but I like to give my own twist to the names. Make them unique. My friends used to tease me for Timothy Earl Jones's name. Except for Tio. He never did. 

Tio..

🩸

I leave Clifton Eastwood behind and decided to go to my number one spot in North Shore, to think about my fellow coworkers. Tio and Kenny namely. Both had reasons to kill me and both were the closest to me. So who actually did it?

"It couldn't have been Kenny..." I say out loud to no one. 

The waves crash on the sand in the moonlight, illuminating my thoughts. Kenny was just so nice, so great as a boss. But he was cheating on his wife. Something inside of him broke and told him to do such a terrible thing. Which shouldn't bother me this much but for some reason it did. I don't think he killed me. Even if he thought I knew about him and Lila, I just couldn't see him pushing me off the roof. 

Then there was Tio. He loved me. Even if he was stalking me and the love was blinded by that, he still did. I hadn't had a guy love me like that before, with such intensity. Was it enough to make him kill me? I didn't think so but really, it could have been enough. Mentally disturbed people do a majority of the murders in our country, closely followed by gangs. It was still a possibility. 

Lila. She was the next coworker I can't get out of my mind. After finding out she was stalking me, I feel as though she might have been the one to do it. My death has to have been done by someone close to me. Pushing a person off the roof of a building is definitely a personal action. And out of everyone, she had motives piling up. Cheating with Kenny, being bisexual, stalking me, being seen in and around my building....they all point to her having a grudge. Or wanting me. 

Which brings my thoughts to Filau. He wasn't the older gentleman manager that I thought him to be. Stalking me everywhere I went was shocking. There was no way I would have believed that if someone told me back when I was alive. Just no way! He seemed to be remorseful for my death so it was possible that he killed me. But the motive was unclear still. 

Marcus could have done it, if only because he wanted me back and became obsessive. But I doubted that. He seemed still in love as well, which I had no idea of while alive. I still had buried feelings for him actually myself. We never talked after breaking up. There was no closure. And why the life insurance policy? It looked extremally bad, even if he didn't kill me.

Kima had thought I knew of her operation! She and her husband, Ron, both were hiding something. They were stealing thousands of dollars worth of hotel goods to resell from what it looked like. I never verbally acknowledged anything to them though so why the continued surveillance? Possibly it was to cover their own butts. Guilty people are self conscious. 

Lastly there was Rachel and Reggie. Both were my friends and both were hiding things from me. Big things. There was things on the dark web from them both regarding me. What, I had no idea. I feel extra betrayed by these two. And especially knowing Reggie was even hiding things from Rachel! There was a strong sense of motive that either one could have killed me. 

"But who has actually done it?" I ask again, to no one. 

The warm North Shore winds blow, bringing a far off answer my way. 

I can't make it out though. 

~ This book is Copyrighted by K E Jennings and only available on Wattpad. if you are reading this on another site, it has been stolen without permission or monetary payment to the said author. ~

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Fun Hawaiian Fact: The Hawaiian flag is a hybrid of two other nations flags, the UK and the US. It also contains 8 horizontal stripes in red white and blue representing the 8 islands in the chain.