The In Between

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Justin

The train is nearly empty as we take our place in the rear. I press my face to the window, hoping to catch of one last glimpse of heaven.

The only other passengers are two children playing cat's cradle with a piece of golden thread. They are lost in their own world and don't notice us. Damaris watches them and shakes her head sadly.

"Why are they returning to the In Between?" I ask.

"Every now and then a Guide takes sympathy and tries to gain Passage for a few favorites before their time. It never works."

"What will happen to them?"

"Nothing good."

I watch the children in silence as the train begins its dizzying motion, the speed rocketing in and around and through me, until everything else is lost.

Once more, it is over in a flash.

As we climb down the train's back stairs into the Transfer Terminal, a surly black-clad Operator marches directly up to the side door and leads two elderly passengers with bent heads off the train; children no more. The gold thread they had been playing with hangs from their gnarled fingers, a limp dirty yarn fraying at the ends.

The air in the In Between is grayer and danker than ever as we make our way from the vast deserted Terminal. I wrap my arms around myself, longing to be back in the warm, golden light of Heaven, where the air is fragrant with lavender and everything glistens like diamonds. I breathe deeply, wishing more than anything to inhale once more the aroma of my mother's roasting chicken, the very essence of home and safety and love-but there is only the dull wet cement of the In Between. There is no comfort to be had here.

"Where are we going?" I ask anxiously.

"I will walk you back to your hut and leave you there. You have much to think about."

Damaris leads me through a back alley, a shortcut to the cluster of Quonset huts on the outskirts of town. While we walk, Tara's face swims before me.

As the fog settles over my mind, thickening by the second, I quickly try to remember everything I just experienced in Heaven.

The perfume and the gardens, the pure joy. I'm filled with a sudden and powerful longing for Heaven, a craving in my core not unlike what I feel for Tara.

I try to shut it out-Damaris gave me just one taste of Heaven and like a powerful drug, I'm already suffering from some kind of withdrawal.

"It is glorious there, isn't it?" Damaris asks knowingly, reading my mind.

"Yes," I admit.

She smiles. "Everything in Heaven is so simple, when you think about it. True happiness always is. Getting there is what is complicated. You have taken the first step, Justin. Now that you can imagine the possibility of eternal bliss, a place where want and hurt and regret are banished for all time, it will never leave you. It is lodged in your soul like a promise. You'll see. It is in your soul."

When we reach the door of 894, Damaris puts her hands on mine. "I told you that it was not Time or Distance that separates the In Between from Heaven, do you remember?"

I nod.

"I will tell you what does. Intention and Right Action. That is all. That is everything. For some, it only takes an instant to achieve, for others a lifetime-or more." She pauses. "People cling to their pain unnecessarily because it is what they know. I understand, I did it myself. But you are smarter than that, Justin. I want you to think. Think truly and hard. Not just about you, but about the importance of doing the right thing for Tara, releasing her from years of unnecessary suffering, allowing her to find happiness in a life well-lived, a life she deserves, rather than the barren existence she will face if she is tied to the past. You are lucky, for the instant you release Tara, you will also be released from all worldly care. And in time, she too may Pass to Heaven."