Dusk Harbor 1999

Glorious Life

He was like that for a long time. Had to have been at least an hour, maybe a little shorter, or a little longer.

Then it all came back with blinding intensity, the bright sun, the hard ground, the chirping of the birds. It was like he had never seen nor heard anything before. All his strength was miraculously returned as well.

He sat up quickly, felt the blood rush in his head. Looked all around, confused and ecstatic that he had been spared after all. Joy swept through him. He couldn't wait to run back out to the road and rejoin life. Without haste, he sprung to his feet and bolted out of the shade of the trees. Toward the gap between the buildings, he'd come through. Straight into the middle of the road with people passing all around him.

"Glorious life!" He exclaimed.

No one near him seemed to notice his exclamation. If they did, they didn't care.

"Felix is going to hear it for sure!" He decided.

He stormed down the road back to the stand of the apothecary. Slammed his hands down on the counter. It felt different. No sound came from his hands contacting the wood, and the texture was off. Like it was just a solid wall of smooth mass, rather than a wooden stand. No splinters to feel, no grain. Nothing. He shrugged it off as another side effect.

"Felix!" He yelled. "That cure of yours nearly killed me!"

Felix had his back turned to him, he was smashing herbs in his bowl. Humming some sort of hymn.

He took a deep inhale. Noticed that the herbs and medicines no longer carried their familiar scents. Everything smelled like a clean fresh breeze. Another side effect, he presumed.

"Felix!" He growled.

Felix did not seem to hear him. He didn't turn around. Didn't even pause in his smashing.

"Hey! Idiot!"

Still, he was unphased.

Great, I suppose Felix going deaf is another side effect!

He turned around and started marching off. Accidentally blocked a young woman in a green dress, carrying a baby in a bundle. Yet instead of bumping into her and sending her stumbling back, she seemingly bounced around him and continued walking along like it was no trouble at all.

"Hey!" He screamed to the sky. "Can no one hear me?!"

Not a single person turned their head, looked bothered, or stopped in their work.

I'm not... actually dead am I? I can't be! I left behind no physical body!

Tears began to burn away at his eyes. Fear clawed up his throat.

He tore off down the road, running as fast as his legs would carry him. He went down a few more roads, tirelessly and desperately trying to get home. Every person he nearly bowled over simply moved around him. Each time it convinced him further that something was very wrong.

His lungs were heaving by the time he reached his house. A big place made of clay bricks smoothed down on the outsides. The colors were mottled and stained looking from years of wear and tear, and poor maintenance. The place had been in the family for a long time, but it rarely had repairs done to it. They were far too big of a family to waste money on wall repairs. Being a senator was a wonderful position, but it paid nothing. All his earnings were from the land he owned in a few areas of Rome, and inheritances, as well as taxes.

He burst through the blue wooden door and into the darkness of his home. There was a small greeting area that led through to the kitchen, where his family usually spent their days.

"Sophia?" He called out, his voice shaking.

He heard the sounds of his children's voices screeching as they played.

He went on to the kitchen, a wide space with a large table and a clay oven, as well as wooden countertops. A modest space for a modest, large family. His six oldest children were sitting at the table, playing with coloured stones on some sort of maps.

Sophia was walking around the room, broom in one hand, a toddler on her hip. She was smiling, merrily singing a tune similar but not exactly like the one the apothecary had been humming. Her deep brown hair was in a frazzled braid over one shoulder. There were streaks of dirt or perhaps food on her cheeks.

"Sophia?" He called.

She didn't look up at him.

The other children were in the next room over from the sounds of their screeching, a sort of playroom they'd improvised.

"Kids?" He asked the older kids at the table. "Can any of you see me? Or hear me?"

Neither of them so much as blinked in his direction.

He looked around and noticed that even his twin brother Rastus was there, sitting in a wooden chair in the back corner of the kitchen. He had his feet up on a bucket, and he was holding a wax tablet. He had a stylus in the other hand, and he was writing something down.

"Rastus! Please tell me you can see me!"

Rastus made a few sweeping motions on his tablet. Smiled. Didn't look up.

The younger kids came tearing out from the playroom and bolted into the kitchen, screaming and play fighting their way through the room. Smiling and giggling and cheering, while Sophia swept around them like she didn't mind their rowdiness.

"Don't knock anything over alright?" Sophia called out over the madness.

An eruption of agreeing responses poured out.

And in the chaos of his own home, surrounded by his family who could not see him nor hear him, he realised that he was dead.