46,400 Words

That's Chapter 17 done.

I haven't done a teaser line lately, so here's one.

The setup is that for the dead who are stuck hanging around, they can have good or bad effects on the living, not even intentionally, but just by thinking of feeling bad thoughts or emotions. The living also have this effect on the dead stuck in limbo. So our ghostly protagonist has been smashed to the ground and nearly engulfed by it, because of some unknown bad thought that his daughter-in-law had about him. He then gets mad at her.

He also has along in his little Purgatory a little prehistoric Indian girl, whom he calls Merla, who is basically a combinatin Virgil/Beatrice character, though definitely more like Virgil most of the time, as in today's line:

Merla’s voice was no longer soft, though it was still matter of fact. “Christoph, I’ve warned you before. Blame is as bad as regret here. You will not think that way, or the next time I’ll help shove you through the floor myself. Do you understand me?”