The Book Of Death

Part Three - Julie Regall

As he read the book, Brian was more convinced that the book was nothing but “a big fat lie”, even if the author signed himself as “B. Death”. But at least it was a good book. It described the “true” life of the “Deaths”, and that Ed Death really reminded Brian about himself. Edward was a very shy person, and that was the only difference between him and Brian. And maybe the way he looked like (the book didn’t have any photos of the “Deaths”). Edward didn’t enjoy very much studying, reading, but he liked sports and music.

But one day, (19th May 1957, according to the book), he simply disappeared, letting her father all alone (his mother died when he was like four years old, at least that was what the book said). His father looked for him, helped by all the locals, but he simply didn’t show up. So, his father committed suicide, coursing all the town, taking with him in the grave like half of the town’s locals.

There was a genealogical tree. Starting with John (1880) and Mary (1884) Death, it was
continuing with their three children, Elizabeth (1919), Bill (1919) and Richard (1920) (“God, this is oooold!!”). Elizabeth and Bill seemed not to have any children, but Richard married Elizabeth Carpe(1921) (“Huh? C-A-R-P-E?...interesting…”), and had a boy, Edward (1941). Elizabeth had a younger sister, Carla (1922), who married Johann Regall, and had
Christopher (1944) and Elena (1946). Elena had Diana (1964) (“All alone?... Bitch), and Christopher married Kathleen (1940), older than him, and had five children. From these five children, only one seemed to get married, Peter, the eldest,(1962), with another Mary (1962) and had Julie in 1991…

“That Julie – erm… Regall - is 16, like me, if she’s still alive. I guess this B. Death is Bill, and he died like years ago… or maybe not.”

As a final note, B. Death had written : "This book shall be done when the last Death descendant will die."

That evening, the only thing Brian had think about was that book, which he finally thought it was real. But he didn’t told his parents about it. He’d even searched on the net about that Julie Regall, and found out that she was real… Her parents died on a car crash, and she was at an orphanage. At least in the year of the accident, when she was like six years old. And Brian remembered that the Carters said that they adopted Julie… Julie Regall?

That night Brian didn’t sleep very well. Eventually, at about 2 AM, he left the bed and went to the kitchen. And it heard it again.

“Edward…”

Once again, the whisper scared Brian, and he answered without thinking.

“I’m not Edward!”

“Welcome back, son…” the whisper continued.

“Who are you?” cried Brian. “What do you want? Why don’t you leave me alone?” his calling turned into a desperate scream, and Caitlin came to him looking very scared.

“Honey what wrong?”

She hugged him, and Brian seemed to come back to Earth.

“It- it was a voice…”

Ryan appeared from the dormitory.

“What voice, Brian?” he asked, looking a little scared, too.

“A- a man’s voice. Co- coming from the- the bathroom!”

Caitlin and Ryan looked at each other. Could’ve been true, then?

“Just… go to sleep, honey”, she finally said. “We’ll talk about it in the morning, maybe”, she continued, with a smile.

Brian tried to sleep, but the result was just another bunch of nightmares. So, the next morning, he was very tired. But he had other things in his mind, beside that stupid voice.

So this Julie Regall had something to do with this “Death” family, which meant that she must’ve known something about it… But was this Julie Carter borned Julie Regall? Well, there was only one way to find out…

“Good morning, Mrs. Carter!” said Brian, as Eileen Carter opened the door. “Is Julie home?”

“Good morning, Brian!” answered Eileen Carter, smiling. “I’m afraid she went to the library. Oh, this girl surely enjoys reading!”

“Great, a nerdy one…”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, I- I guess I’ll… go to the library too. Yes. You know, I really, really love reading, uh-hum, it’s definitely my passion!” said Brian, with a very convincing look. “And now, I have the chance to- to meet her, er- Julie. Great! Thank you. Mrs. Carter. Have a good day!”

“Have a good day dear…” she said, with a suspicious look.

Brian left a little upset, as he was going to the library.

“Funny boy,” said Eileen after she closed the door, looking through the kitchen window at Brian. “A little strange, I’d say”.

As he was heading to the library, Brian was thinking very hard.

“Why? Why does she have to be a nerdy one? Why?... Or maybe she just… simply… reads a lot… Just!” he sighed.

He reached, finally, the library. A very tall building, with golden letters scripting

                                                The Sunsetville Library

“Very impressing” said Brian and entered.

The library was very big, with dozens, maybe hundreds of shells, and tall windows. There were armchairs, tables and chairs everywhere, where people could read in silence. Looking at the “Modern Literature” section, Brian realized that he didn’t even knew how Julie actually looked like.

“Great…”

Was he supposed to ask every one in the WHOLE library, then?

“Name?”

“Carter. Julie Carter”

She was talking with the librarian, borrowing about seven books.

“Er- Julie?” Brian called her.

She looked at the boy who was calling her. She had long black hair, brown eyes, pretty face, and she was dressed in a short stripped skirt, with an assorted T-shirt.

“Yes?” she asked, a little confused.

“Erm… Well, hello. My name is Brian Pricket-“

“Excuse me, Brian Pickle”, loudly said an old lady from her chair.”I’m trying to read something over here. So please, be quiet!”

“It’s Pricket, and ok, madam…”

Brian and Julie left the library together.

“So,” said Julie, “You’re living in the Death house?”

Brian was surprised. He didn’t told her anything yet, and he was expecting other reaction, like “I don’t believe you”.

“Yeah”, he said, “How d’you know?”

Julie smiled.

“It’s obvious. You are new here. And the only empty house ‘round here was, well, Deaths’ house.”

Brian hesitated a little, and asked:

“D’you know anything about the –er- Deaths? I mean, like, if they really existed?”, accentuating the last word.

Julie looked scared and wounded.

“Of course they existed.” she answered, accentuating the same last word. And then completed quickly, before Brian could say anything : “And I dunno anything about them! What d’you want to know, anyway?”

“Er-I – nothing.”

She was so determined, that she made Brian not so confident.

“So, then, why did you asked?”

“I- for nothing; you know, just like that.” he said, with an unconvincing grin.

She looked at him doubtfully, with her arms full of books, and said:

“See you tomorrow at school. I’d like to stay and chat, but I got a very long stupid and very interesting project to do. Buh-bye!”

“See ya....”

Only then, he noticed that they were in front of her house. “She must’ve used a shortcut or something”, he taught. And then he observed that the next day was his first day at his new school, and that the library wasn’t closed on Sunday!

“Damn! This town really is a mess!”

That night, Brian slept well for the first time in that house. But he was a little upset that he didn’t found out whether Julie Carter is Julie Regall or not.

The whispers didn’t disturb him for a while, so he forgot about them (not totally). He had other things in his mind.

The first day of school was just fine. Beside the fact that he had an enormous amount of homework to do. But not only homework was in his mind. Right from that day, their Math teacher, Professor Bill Awkward, put him and Julie in the same desk, with the reason that Julie was the only one Brian knew. She looked as if it was not fair at all, but she accepted. She adopted a very cold and distant attitude.

They went home together, and Brian asked her again if she knew anything about the Deaths.

“Why do you keep asking me things about those dead people?!” she asked, with a desperate air.

“Because!... I’m curious…”

“About what?”

“I-“

Brian didn’t know… to tell her now?

“Tell me! Now!” she said, with an imperative tone.

Okay. She asked for it.

“Because I found that family’s genealogical tree, and some Julie Regall borned in ’91 was written there, And i-“ said Brian quite fast, but forgetting what he wanted actually to know.

“Yes?”

“I-… I… well, I-… I was wondering if you… you know…”

“If I am…”

“Julie!”

They were again in front of her house, and Mrs. Carter was calling her.

“Oh-er-Brian, I have to go, but here’s my number, call me in about an hour. Bye… coming Eileen!”

“…b…bye…”

Julie said all that incredibly fast, as she was writing her mobile phone number on a little piece of paper. Brian didn’t notice when she put (strained) that little piece of paper in his hand, only when he wanted to open the door of his home.

He was home-alone. Ryan and Caitlin were both at work. Ryan was a software engineer, and Caitlin was a layer.
Brian expected for that hour to pass, and when it did, he called Julie anxiously.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Julie, this is Brian.”

“Oh… Hi.”

“Hi… erm… so, about that-“

“Listen” she interrupted him. “You know I was adopted, right?”

“Uh-hum.”

“Well, I was like six years old when my parents had a car accident. I was waiting for them to pick me up from a pet exposition. I’d won the first place, I mean not me, my cat, but whatever… And I waited ‘till like seven o’clock. And then, my nanny, who was in holiday by the time, came to pick me up. I remember how I asked “Where’s Mummy? And Daddy?”… Eventually I found out that…” (She was crying).

“I’m sorry…”said Brian, who didn’t know what else to say.

“Sorry,” she excused herself. “But… let’s say that I still miss them very much. And… erm… you know… my last name was “Regall”, but with double “L”…”

“What?” cried Brian. “Are you kiddin’?” He could not believe what he was hearing.
“Oh sorry” he apologized, realizing that he was very rude. “Well, thank you for telling me that-“

“Oh Brian,” she interrupted him once again. “I’m so sorry, I got to go, Beth’s calling me.”

“Beth? Who’s-“

“Bye!” she said and she closed the phone.

Great. Brian finally found Julie Regall. All he had to do was… well, he didn’t know exactly, but probably he’d figure out the next day. Now, he had work to do! About three miles of homework!