ePrayer

By Sherry D. Ramsey

Larry is a call center employee at ePrayer, a service that offers computer-generated prayers recited on the customer's behalf. He harbours a secret affection for his supervisor and simmering doubts about the efficacy of digital devotions. Then one day he takes a call that changes his life...and his understanding of death. He'll have to risk everything to set things right for one of ePrayer's clients...or rather, former clients.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherry D. Ramsey
• Release date: Mar 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990178030

Sherry D. Ramsey

Sherry D. Ramsey is a speculative fiction writer, editor, publisher, creativity addict and self-confessed internet geek. When she's not writing, she makes jewelry, gardens, hones her creative procrastination skills on social media, and consumes far more coffee and chocolate than is likely good for her.Her debut novel, One's Aspect to the Sun, was published by Tyche Books in late 2013 and was awarded the Book Publishers of Alberta "Book of the Year" Award for Speculative Fiction. The sequel, Dark Beneath the Moon, is due out from Tyche in 2015. Her other books include To Unimagined Shores—Collected Stories. With her partners at Third Person Press (http://www.thirdpersonpress.com), she has co-edited five anthologies of regional short fiction to date. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in North America and beyond. Every November she disappears into the strange realm of National Novel Writing Month and emerges gasping at the end, clutching something resembling a novel.A member of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia Writer’s Council, Sherry is also a past Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer of SF Canada, Canada's national association for Speculative Fiction Professionals.You can visit Sherry online www.sherrydramsey.com, find her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter @sdramsey.

Book preview

ePrayer

a ghost story

by

Sherry D. Ramsey

ePrayer was first Published in 2013 in Grey Area: 13 Ghost Stories, Third Person Press, Canada

Reprinted in The Cache and Other Stories, 2017

Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the author.

This book contains works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, entities or settings, is unintentional, coincidental, and entirely attributable to the vagaries of the multiverse and fluctuations in the space-time continuum.

Ramsey, Sherry D., 1963-, author

ePrayer / Sherry D. Ramsey

Email: [e-mail]

Web: www.sherrydramsey.com

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

ePrayer

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-990178-03-0

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Hello?

Larry jumped as the voice sounded in his headset, his index finger reflexively clicking the mouse button and accidentally closing the document he had open. Damn. He hadn’t even realized the line was ringing. He glanced at the opening of his cubicle, but fortunately no-one was watching him.

Recovering, he launched into the answering protocol. Hello, and thank you for calling ePrayer, where we care about your Life...and your Afterlife. My name is Larry. How can I help you today?

Silence. Then, ePrayer? the voice asked hesitantly.

That’s right, Larry said smoothly, re-opening the file showing the day’s preset patter. The world’s largest provider of spoken electronic prayer services. You picked an auspicious day to call ePrayer, sir, because today we’re offering new customers a special package. Any two prayers from your chosen religion or belief system, plus a new prayer for world peace, for one low monthly rate. They’ll be offered up daily in your name by our dedicated servers—

I’m...I’m already a customer, the man’s voice said.

Wonderful, Larry said, quickly switching mental gears—and patter. Then you might be interested in our new buy-one-month, get-one-month free offer. It applies to any prayer of your choice, any religion, and it will be repeated as many times as you specify, daily for the full two-month period. This is really an unbeatable—

Did you say your name was Larry?

Yes, sir, and I’m here to—

Larry, could you just be quiet for a minute?

Larry took a breath and bit his lip. That was...unusual. He pursed his lips and clicked to the Dissatisfied Customers protocol. A glance down the list didn’t reveal anything helpful. The voice wasn’t angry, crying, or offended, hadn’t demanded anything, wasn’t asking to speak to his supervisor, didn’t seem to be a crank.

Uh, sure, he said quietly.