The Annotated Afterlife

9. Before Dawn

Quote
The quote comes from the 1977 song "Hotel California", by the Eagles. Although fans often swoon over Noel's comment to Julian that he can come in, but never leave, I tend to think he was referencing the song.

The line "You can check out but you can never leave" is open to so many different interpretations that I think I will let the reader decide what I might have been implying by using the quote.

Morning Twilight
I had to look up the word for the time just before dawn – to my surprise, it is twilight. I didn't know before that twilight comes twice a day, not once. Worried that some readers may be confused at hearing that it is now twilight early in the morning, I called it "morning twilight". I still feel there should be a different word for it.

Sleepie
Noel says it is time for a sleepie at the end of the chapter – the same word for a short sleep or a nap that his character Vince uses in The Mighty Boosh. I don't actually know this, but it sounds like a word that he might have been taught in early childhood. He always acts like a small child whenever he says it, as if he's drawing on memories from this part of his life. I don't know if he uses it in real life, but it certainly doesn't seem implausible or out of character.

No One Knows Their Fate Until The Assessment
When Julian tries to tell Noel that he probably won't be going Forward, Noel dismisses this as an unreasonable fear. As he says, nobody knows what the outcome of their assessment will be until they have seen the judge. Although Case Workers may be able to give an educated opinion on the likely outcome of an assessment, they don't actually know either.

Jeannie has told him of clients she has had who went Forward, and neither they nor Jeannie herself were expecting it. I must admit, I did like the idea of people being surprised by Heaven. It reminded me of several parables told by Jesus where an "unworthy" person is taken to Paradise after death, as a reminder not to judge people by earthly standards, but divine ones. So the idea felt on brand.

Characters
Phil and Pauline
Julian is stunned to discover that Phil the taxi driver and his soulmate Pauline, who is a housekeeper at The Wayfarers Arms, once held far more impressive jobs.

Phil was a professor in the Halls of Learning, and then became a Case Worker at the Waystation – the same career path in Forward that Marcus has had. Pauline was even higher in importance, being a judge who made assessments on the fate of people's souls in the Afterlife.

Julian considers that on Earth, a judge would never make a career change to clean hotel rooms, and that Phil and Pauline are the true epitome of the humility demonstrated by those who have gone Forward.

Apart from this, I do think that once you have eternity to play around with, and no money to worry about, you would be far more open to trying new things – or even perhaps go back to what you did on Earth. In any case, Phil and Pauline are at the Waystation to serve and assist new arrivals, and are happy to do that in different ways.

Dennis
A man who Noel met at Jeannie's fancy dinner. He is about to leave for a mission to Earth, helping people where he can, so that they will be more likely to go Forward or Sideways when they reach the end of their lives. Julian thinks this sounds like what we would call an "angel" - that is, a messenger of the Divine. More of Dennis later.