A Blue Sky Existence

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Disconnection

Three days later, and Charlie still felt bowled over by this unexpected revelation. He dealt with it by immersing himself in long conversations with the other Grims about nothing in particular.

    Time was different in the Room - minutes disappeared into the cool darkness of the walls, hours melted into non-existence. More and more he considered the possibility that the Room was exerting some kind of influence over him, calming his otherwise troubled spirits.

     ‘Charlie,’ said Julia, pulling her knees up onto the sofa. ‘Have I ever told you about my incident with a soul in Queenside?’

     ‘Don’t think so.’

     ‘Oh, good Heavens,’ said Friar Francis, leaning back in his armchair like an old man. ‘I was present at this incident, and despite no request on my part to do so, I seem to live it anew each time Julia becomes acquainted with a new servant of Death.’

     ‘You don’t have to hear it again if you don’t want to, you know.’

     ‘No, no, think nothing of it. I am far too at ease in this chair to be persuaded to part with it.’

     ‘Good. Now.’ Julia turned her attention back to Charlie, who lay with his head and feet as bookends on the adjacent sofa. ‘I was on an assignment in Queenside with the Friar, and I’d only been doing the job for a few weeks, just like you. So, we’d collected this person’s soul (a middle-aged man who’d had a heart attack) and I was guiding him along the pavement, when suddenly I turned my head and he wasn’t there anymore!

     ‘At first I felt so panicked, that I’d made some silly but serious mistake, when I noticed a drain by my feet…’

     ‘I think I see where this is going.’

    ‘Oh, it was so funny, Charlie. He’d just slipped through the grating - poof! - in an instant. I didn’t even know it was possible! I’ll tell you now, don’t let it happen to you, because the Friar and I had a heck of a time searching for him in the drainpipes! Didn’t we?’

     ‘Yes, indeed,’ said the Friar on cue.

     Charlie treasured these moments the most: the little exchanges between two Grims, two people who were dead to the rest of the world, but in many ways so alive and animated in the space (or non-space) of the Room.

     ‘Thanks Julia, I’ll definitely be keeping that one in mind.’

    As the Friar changed topic to what various theologians had to say about the metaphysics of the soul, Charlie cast his gaze towards the dark ceiling. Other thoughts made brief sweeps across his mind: exactly how high was this ceiling, anyway? At what point, if any, did it stop? He also wondered when the others would be back from their duties, and how he would get Brody to cooperate on the journey to the Room.

    He frowned and quietly cursed his subconscious. The fateful event was, as James had said, due at some point today. But when, and how? All James had disclosed was that, at the appropriate time, he would simply “know”- very helpful. What if it was too much for him to handle by himself? What if Brody’s soul fought against his help, presuming he had a soul in the first place?

    All of these what ifs spurred in Charlie the overwhelming urge to be near someone he really knew, in the vague hope of gaining reassurance that everything would in fact be fine.

     He sat up and planted his feet on the floor.

     ‘I’m going out, but I’ll try to be, uh, as quick as possible. Something I need to do.’