“You can see me?” 

I used to say that to strangers who insisted on talking to me when I just wanted to be alone.  Of course, they didn’t think I was really a ghost they just thought I was crazy. 

If they only knew.

I’ve been living in this town for just shy of 20 years. I have friends who are asking more and more about family and my origins-compulsing about how alone I am in the world. Wanting to be my family. 

It’s time to move on.  I don’t age and people start asking questions. There was that unfortunate situation in 1918 that I’d rather not repeat. Usually, I move on after about 15 years, but it’s getting harder to pull this off. 

In 1918 I didn’t need a photo ID or a social security card.  They’ve made identity theft harder than ever, but I manage.  I am resourceful.

I’m partial to college towns. There are lots of young women and they get careless with their backpacks especially when they think they’re sitting next to another young woman. 

“Hey!  Can you watch my stuff? I need a refill.”

“Sure, “I say and before they are even at the counter, I’ve got their driver’s license or student ID or both.  It’s stupid easy.

I would always get a job just for something to pass the time. Time, I have way too much of it. But that’s just too hard now. All the paperwork. And the places that pay under the table get sketchier and sketchier. Fortunately, I’m set for life.  Pun intended.

One time when I decided to leave this one little friendly town, I just wasn’t in the mood to empty out the apartment.  So, I just packed up some clothes and took a taxi to the airport. Good Lord!  The landlord reported me missing and there was a huge dragnet.  I had to change identities rapidly, which is how I ended up as a middle-aged woman who looked remarkably young. That afforded me an independent contractor position as an aesthetician at a high dollar spa. It gave me something to do with no paperwork needed.

No. Not a vampire. Not a tortured spirit. Not invisible, and I can’t float through walls either. I’m just somebody who got stuck between here and there.  Eventually it will get sorted out and I can move on to my just rewards.  Think of it as being stranded in an airport during a storm.  It’s just in that dimension there is no time.  The ones I’m counting on to get me where I’m supposed to be have long since forgotten time and how it can pass quickly, or it can pass slowly, or it can just soldier on.

I’m soldiering on.

I’m a young college student again.  It’s just easier. I’ve been doing small college towns where it’s easier to get by without a lot of identification. But jeez renting an apartment now! They want background checks, and credit checks, and references.  And often a parental co-signer. 

So, where I used to live in reasonably nice apartments now I am living in the shadier parts of town. The places where the landlords don’t care who you are as long as the rent is on time, and you don’t trash the place.

“You can see me? That question has served me well.