Time, as many people know, does not exist outside of physicality. I however, was very much aware of it because although my body wasn’t physical, almost all of my non-life had been spent in the company of humans, to whom time was of the utmost importance – or so they thought. After leaving Jimmy, Sadie and Susie in a much healthier condition than I’d found them, I had planned on an immediate reunion with my sons but decided against it. I felt as if I needed a vacation, something I didn’t know that I could afford while I was living. I thought immediately of The French Riviera or Cote d’Azur as the French call it. Since I travel lightly, I switched my inner monitor from English to French and was there as soon as I’d made the decision. Not developed for tourists as it would be a hundred years later, it’s seventy-one miles of beaches and coastline, was nevertheless breathtakingly beautiful, probably more so because it’s natural beauty had not yet been marred by the hand of man. Napoleon Bonaparte had made himself Emperor of France a year earlier and since the man thought only of war, his main focus was on conquering other lands rather than governing. I decided to forget such things as nothing is permanent and all things come to pass. With as much as three hundred days of sunshine each year, the Riviera was startlingly different from where I’d lived or the Newfoundland where my children had decided to make their home.

Ghosts as I was soon to learn find it difficult to relax, that is unless they want to hibernate for a century or two. Upset with herself for not marrying and producing a heir, thus letting the throne of England fall into the hands of the Scottish Stewarts, Elizabeth I had only recently come back from her long sleep. Looking into the future I saw that Queen Victoria would do the same when women began wearing skirts above the knee. I had no intention of hibernating for any reason but felt that I would like to spent some time alone, perhaps a few months meditating on the meaning of non-life would be helpful. I selected a spot and got comfortable. There was no need for yoga as us ghosts could get in any shape we wanted anyway. Two weeks later, I still hadn’t made much progress. Of course two weeks or a million years were all the same to me but I am writing this for humans. Eventually I was able to enter into a deep meditation and on mankind’s calendar the months slipped by. I finally brought myself back to non-reality, amazed at how well I felt.