Excerpt from Boo by Neil Smith, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Oh my." I said. "Where do we go next?"

"Some say we move to a higher level of heaven, one with better food, sturdier plumbing, and sunnier skies," Thelma replied. "Others wonder if we reincarnate back to America. But the truth is, nobody really knows where we go."

Thelma got up from the bed and opened the door to a walk-in closet. She came out carrying a pair of jeans, T?shirts, boxer shorts, and socks, which she laid on the bed.

"What's your shoe size?"

"Seven," I said. 

She went back in the closet to find me some shoes.

"Do you have any penny loafers?" I asked because they are the shoes you would always buy me, Mother.

"Town has no leather shoes," Thelma called out. "Leather's dead cow and heaven ain't no place for the dead." 

While she was in the closet, I slipped on the boxer shorts and then the jeans, which were covered in red, white, and blue patches from the Bicentennial three years ago. "So only Americans come here?" I asked.

"Yep. We don't get no foreigners. Just people who lived in the U. S. of A." 

I thought of absurd science-fiction films where the characters on distant planets spoke fluent American English, but never Swedish or Swahili. 

"What about different religions?" I asked as I slipped on a tie-dyed T-shirt from the half-dozen shirts on the bed.

"Oh, we aren't divided by religion. We get all kinds here. Baptists, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses. You name it, honey, we get it."

She came out carrying a tatty pair of sneakers, which had the letters L and R inked on the toes. She handed them over. "What religion are you?" she asked. 

"Atheist." 

She let out a whoop of laughter. "I don't always have much faith in a supreme being myself," she said. 

I sat on the bed and put on the sneakers. She sat beside me and picked lint off my T-shirt.

"I ain't religious, but I am a spiritual person," she said. "You spiritual, Oliver?"

"I have never had a spiritual day in my entire life."

She gave me a gap-toothed smile. "Well, your entire American life's over, honey," she said. "But your afterlife's all set to begin. Maybe you'll find yourself some spirituality here."

Excerpted from Boo by Neil Smith. Copyright © 2015 by Neil Smith. Excerpted by permission of Vintage. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.