Heaven's Letters

Chapter 9: The Presence is missing: Part Four.

WARNING: Please do not read this next chapter if you are of a weak constitution.

Chapter 9: The Presence is missing: Part Four.

 There are certain advantages with being dead. Firstly, the tax man can't find you, secondly, you have no more fear of dying and thirdly no one can kill you a second time; or so I thought....

 Death, it seems, is not the final frontier, but it is the final thing that happens to your earthly journey. Death on earth means that there is no more living on earth. We are all born, live and then we die; although death is not the end, as so many people falsely surmise, I have discovered to my surprise and utter horror.....

 I will try and explain:

 I opened my eyes or at least I thought that I opened my eyes. I am sure that my eyes are open, then why can't I see anything? Everything was dark. No light to speak of. There was something missing. I could feel that something was missing. I had not been consciously aware of it before, but now I knew that there was a presence, a presence of something or someone that was definitely missing...

 I got up off the floor from whence I had discovered I was laying. It felt odd trying to balance on two feet without any reference point. I asked the darkness in general,

"Hello, is anybody there?"

This seemed like a rational question at the time. I repeated the question this time a little louder.

"Hello, is anybody there?"

I listened. No, no one answering.

I tried a third time, but this time I shouted mildly (if to shout mildly is a contradiction in terms?) Well what I mean is the forth time I really let rip.

Nothing.

It was eerie, spooky even.

I turned to my left, right, turned in circles until I was really confused; not that I wasn't before. I do not know how you can start out being really confused and then be really confused, er some more... well I was.

Where the hell was I?

Paranoia soon sets-in in such cases.

"OK where are you? Come out you ........" (the word missing is what you call someone without any parents, and the word isn't 'orphan').

 I started firstly by sliding carefully my right foot along the ground to see exactly how far it went. I tried in 360 degrees using alternate legs to search out my space. I tried a step forward, hands held out before me. I tried another and another. I started to walk. Seeing nothing meant my senses were heightened. I'd been in a 'Blind' Restaurant in Berlin, Germany a few years ago, where all the waiters and waitresses are blind. The dining room is totally black and because the waiting staff are blind this doesn't trouble them. The reasoning behind such a peculiar restaurant is the fact that when you can't see, then your sense of smell and taste are heightened and so you enjoy your food more. Really I wasn't buying into that, so I stole the fork from my neighbour, which caused them all sorts of problems and I threw my peas at the other dinner guests. Of course it was all guess work were my fellow dinner guests were – actually; yet a suitable, "Who threw that?" meant I had scored a bull's-eye. This is all very colourful, but brings me right back to the point that, for instance, my hearing became acute. Each footfall sounded loud in my head. My breathing I could clearly hear, as well as I noticed that I was breathing like a man scared almost out of his wits.... In matter of fact I was...

 The next thing I did was particularly stupid, however under the circumstances; perhaps you might do the same thing? I ran blindly forward shouting at the top of my lungs! The next thing I knew was a rapid dropping feeling. I fell for what seemed a long time. I could feel that my bottom and back where against a smooth surface. I was not falling straight down; I was falling at an angle of some 45 degrees. For the last few seconds of my fall the surface under me bottomed out just like a children's playground slide and I was unceremoniously deposited upon the floor. I hit the ground hard and rolled several times before finally coming to a halt.