Aftermath of the Last Kiss

Another four decades passed after Andy finally told his daughter all about his beloved Outlaw, their relationship, and what’d so cruelly taken him away from them. Ten years or so after telling her about Ash, during which the angel in question visited them many times whenever he had the energy reserved to do so, he was able to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. Her husband, who was actually Jinxx’s son, Logan, knew all about the deceased bassist, and wasn’t exactly surprised when the angel made an appearance at their wedding. His sweetheart was dressed the same way he’d been at their own wedding, just without his black veiled tiara, and was able to appear to everyone who’d been invited to the wedding, not just a select few.

The day she made him a grampa a few years later when she gave birth to their daughter, whom she named Logan Ashley, partially after her own daddy, partially after his beloved Outlaw, was as precious to him as the day she’d been born. He hadn’t been able to hold back his tears of joy as he watched his baby girl have her first baby, wishing that his sweetheart could’ve been there in the flesh, too.

The years continued to pass, and before he knew it, he was watching Logan get married to a nice young man who shared the name Andrew with him. He was a trucker’s son who’d moved out to California from the mountains of North Carolina, saying that he’d grown sick of small-town life and wanted a major change. He hadn’t been expecting to meet and fall in love with the granddaughter of a rock god whose mother had also made a name for herself in the music industry, but he had and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eventually, though, his tenure on Earth came to a quiet, peaceful end. As he lay in bed one night after a long, busy day of babysitting his great-grandson, Jason, his ripe old age of eighty years finally caught up with him. Despite being asleep and dreaming, he saw a beautiful, bright white light much like the one that appeared every time his beloved Outlaw decided to materialize as it engulfed him. He was then able to clearly make out Ash’s face as he grinned at him, beckoning him to come to him as he called out, “It’s time we get to truly hold and be with each other again, Batman. Come to me!”

With the widest grin on his face that he’d ever had aside from when the newest generations of his family got married and were born since his beloved Outlaw’s death, Andy ran forward into his beloved husband’s waiting arms. He wrapped his arms tightly around him, drawing him down for the first kiss they’d truly shared since the one right before the bassist’s death over half a century ago. The ex-frontman was quite aware of when he’d fully crossed over, the moment his physical body drew its last breath and his heart beat for the last time, but he didn’t care. He was back in the arms of his Outlaw, the man he loved was back in his, and since they could materialize to Legacy, their grandbabies, and their great-grandbabies one last time before crossing over, he didn’t care.

* * *

“Daddy?”

Legacy closed the front door of her childhood home behind her, worried about her elderly father. He’d had a rough time after losing her mama all those years ago, and although she got the feeling he often wished he were dead, too, he’d never had the will to do himself in. He knew that she, and later her daughter and grandbabies, needed him too much to do something so narcissistic.

When he hadn’t answered his phone for more than twenty-four hours, she’d finally decided that enough was enough and to go check on him. For all she knew, he could’ve fallen and broken a bone, thus being rendered helpless and unable to get to his phone, and could be laying in the floor somewhere screaming and crying for help. However, when she arrived and walked through the front door, she realized that the house was too quiet, that not even so much as the TV—or more aptly, knowing him, the stereo—was on. Thinking that was odd, she headed down the hall to the master bedroom, wondering if maybe he’d fallen in there or the bathroom.

The sight that met her eyes when she opened the door to the bedroom was one of serenity and beauty. Her daddy lay flat on his back as he always wound up while asleep, one arm tossed carelessly above his head, the other draped over his still flat and toned belly. His nipple-length hair, which had long since turned white and he refused to dye anymore, lay around his head in what could only be described as a messy halo. He looked so peaceful as he lay there, but she knew something wasn’t right.

As she looked closer, Legacy realized that the man she loved almost as much as her husband, just in a different way, wasn’t breathing. Because he appeared so peaceful, she knew damn good and well without having to touch his arm that he was already dead and had been for at least several hours, but she still did. His skin was cold and, while it might’ve once been clammy, it certainly wasn’t now. Clearly he’d been dead long enough for rigor mortis to set in, maybe even fade away, by now. Despite being saddened at her beloved daddy’s passing, she felt a peace that she’d never felt before as she realized that, for the first time ever since her mama’s passing more than a half-century ago, he must finally be happy and at peace.

“Legacy.”

Startled, she whirled around, thinking she’d heard her name.

“Leg-accccy.”

Knowing she’d heard her name that time, she followed the whispered voice down the hall toward the old office her daddy’d used for so long, despite the pain it brought him.

“Hi there, Princess.”

“You’re still just as beautiful as the day you were born, sugar.”

A bright white light blinded her for a moment before dissipating, and in its place, she saw not one, but two beautiful fallen angels.

“I figured you’d been reunited, Daddy,” she said, a tear of both happiness and sadness rolling down her cheek as she took in her daddy’s now slightly transparent form.

“We hung around a little while longer than most angels do so you could say goodbye to us,” Ash told her, cuddled into his husband’s side. His onyx-feathered wings, which still sparkled with silver glitter, were tucked against his back so they wouldn’t be hurt as they held each other.

“Yeah. I felt myself pass on last night when my age caught up with me,” Andy added, nodding. “Even if your mama hadn’t, I wanted to tell you I loved you and say goodbye one last time before we left.”

“So I’ll never see you again?” Legacy asked, trying not to start sobbing.

“Oh, you’ll see us when you become a member of our army,” her daddy chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her hair. He looked exactly as he had in pictures taken of him around the age of twenty-five, not the eighty-year-old man laying just down the hall.

“We’re crossing over to that side of the barrier, so we won’t be able to see you in our angel forms anymore while you’re still alive,” her mama clarified. “The only reason I stuck around all these years was to make sure your daddy would be okay. Now that he’s with me again, we’re leaving and…well, getting married again, now that Death isn’t separating us.”

“I wish I could be there,” she sniffled, gently wiping away her tears.

“Don’t cry, sugar,” the deceased bassist begged, moving away from his husband to wipe away her tears. “We’re both happy and in a better place now. Besides, your aunts and uncles will be there to cheer for us just like they were when we got married while we were still alive.”

“Tell them I said ‘Hi’, will you?” she requested. “And make sure Uncle Jinxx and Auntie Sammi know that Logan loves and misses them, okay?”

“We sure will, Princess,” Andy promised her, moving in for a hug and a kiss.

“I’ll miss you guys,” Legacy sobbed, holding onto her daddy’s angel, which had equally onyx-feathered wings covered in crimson glitter, for as long as she possibly could. “I love you, and I’ll never forget you.”

“We love you, too, sugar,” her mama assured her, gently worming his way between his daughter and husband. “You’re our baby; no matter how long you live, you’ll always be our baby.” He gently kissed her temple as they held each other tight for a few moments more.

“We’ll see each other again,” the now deceased frontman promised her as he and his beloved Outlaw pulled away. “Hopefully not too soon; you’ve still got a lot of living left ahead of you.”

“I hope not either, but God might say otherwise,” she sniffled. “After all, He did try to take me from you guys once, which resulted in Mama’s death, then again a few years later.”

“True enough,” they conceded in unison.

After one last goodbye hug and kiss, Andy and Ash turned to head for the wall that would lead to the front yard outside the house. The older angel wrapped his arm around his beloved Batman’s waist, the younger one wrapping his arm around his beloved Outlaw’s shoulders, and they cuddled each other as closely as they could while standing. It was almost as if they were trying to crawl under each other’s skin, which now appeared as youthful and radiant as it had when their bodies really were in their twenties and thirties, something she was sure they’d done all the time before her mama’s death.

With one last look over their shoulders at the precious miracle baby they loved with every fiber of their beings, the two angels walked forward toward the wall. Another bright white light engulfed their beautiful forms, soon brightening so much that Legacy was left momentarily blind. When it dimmed and finally disappeared, the two angels were gone, and she knew without a doubt that her parents were finally happy in their afterlife.

Notes