Lucid Waking

Archive for September 4th, 2011

Choice and Chance (Part 6)

        The two sat in silence for a little while.
        “You died in a coma,” the boatman said quietly. “I’m allowed to know that information because everyone wakes up differently depending on how they died. They told me you didn’t get enough oxygen to your brain so you might have been disoriented and have a headache when you woke up, so I had to be patient while you recovered a bit.”
        The pain in Ted’s head started to return again in a small wave. “That…explains a lot, actually. I think I’m going to be sick.”
        “Put your head down,” the boatman said. “But you won’t get sick. There shouldn’t be anything in your stomach and your body is dead so nothing can poison you.”
        Even in pain, Ted chuckled at the logic. He felt sick and no one could argue with that, but the pain was starting to subside, even if the nausea just hung at the back of his throat. Ted shook the last of the headache out and finished shuffling the cards, dealing them slowly.
        “I’m sorry,” the gondolier said quietly. “That’s got to be really hard to hear.”
        Ted didn’t answer. After pushing back the sinking feeling that arose while he studied his sorry hand, Ted looked up and found his opponent looking at him with embarrassed intensity, his cards still in a haphazard stack on the table.
        The boatman took a deep breath. “Let’s make a different deal,” he said. “I’ll take you to the city if you let me see your wife.”
        “Don’t be ridiculous,” Ted said, flipping the first card face-up.
        “There’s a way to do it. If we go quickly, no one will know you have died, I can take your place in your body just for a few minutes and…”
        “And, what? She probably knew the second I died. In modern hospitals, machines notify you the second someone stops breathing or their heart stops.”
        “I know that! But, some people die twice, I’ve seen it.”
        Ted sighed. “Why do you want to see her?”
        “Because she sounds like an angel and all I get to see down here are people at their worst. You think things change when you die, they don’t. This isn’t heaven, this isn’t hell or purgatory, it’s the world all over again but when everyone is immortal and I’m sure you’re learned enough to know that immortality is a curse.”
        “You fell in love with her from just hearing me talk? I can’t believe it.”
        “It’s not love,” he answered back, quickly. “I’m just…curious.”
        “Why torture yourself over something you can’t have? You get a few minutes and that’s it; then you get an eternity of memory.”
        “I don’t have any other memories. Please let me have one happy one.”
        Ted sighed. “No. Let’s just stick to our original deal.”
        “I let you win, you know,” the boatman said, playing his card.
        “What?”
        “I let you win those last two hands,” he said, taking a card from the deck and playing another.
        “Well they were close hands, but I’m getting the hang of it. I could probably—”
        “No you couldn’t.”
        Ted turned red and angrily put down his card. Almost immediately, it was followed by another play and the game continued in silence as the two sped through the deck of cards. All strategy was thrown out the window, Ted realized when he got to the second half of play, but he was so angry at being challenged, that he didn’t care.
        He lost, just as was predicted.
        “Please let me see her.”
        Ted leaned back in his chair and stared his small collection of cards. Who knew what lie ahead in the city, but it was probably better than drowning again at the hands of regretful spirits in the water. His opponent might have been young and naive in every respect except his card-playing, but Ted felt bad for his companion and the more he considered the less he could see the problem of the new bargain.
        “All right, but don’t do anything brash and unexpected and don’t say anything stupid, either. I don’t want her to suspect that it’s not me and I don’t want the last moments to be ones she’ll be scared about.”
        The boatman smiled and helped Ted back onto the boat. Just as soon as he was seated, the platform rapidly diminished and then faded into darkness. For the first time, Ted felt tired and trapped at his predicament. He wanted to see Michelle again, but it was probably just as well that he couldn’t. He knew no one had ever cheated death and the world he had to leave behind was probably worse than the monotony he was going to face in the afterlife. They reached the ledge where Ted had woken up, although there was now a ladder on the far wall across from the river. The gondolier got up and helped Ted out of the boat with a nervous warning not to follow and then quickly climbed up the ladder into the darkness that Ted had assumed was a ceiling.
        Ted stood for a bit, getting used to the feeling of solid ground, and listening to the sounds of water lapping against the stone ledge. Maybe he had made the wrong choice in letting the boatman up the ladder into his body. If he had cheated death thus far by avoiding swimming the river, maybe he could get away with just returning back to the surface. Besides, the men who had gone after him and nearly killed him might return for Michelle and the kids to pay the debt.
        But then again, they didn’t really kill him; they had just gotten really close. They might have been caught and punished and then Michelle had been safe. He had made far too many mistakes in his lifetime and maybe it was time for once to follow the rules. Besides, he had a chance to start over. It seemed like it might be a completely alien world but from what he had seen, it wasn’t so different from the last one. He was lucky for second chances.
        Soon the gondolier came back down the ladder and once his feet had reached the platform, the ladder disappeared.
        “Thank you,” he said, smiling. He put a cold hand on Ted’s shoulder in a warm, friendly gesture. “Really.”
        “Thank you,” Ted said. “For breaking the rules.”
        The boatman chuckled and led Ted back into the boat before pushing off the ledge and down the dark river until they reached the glittering stone pier of the City of the Dead. Thousands of people milled about the banks performing jobs that Ted couldn’t describe. For being some place in within the darkness, the city was brighter and more vibrant than a living counterpart. Ted took a deep breath and actually felt a bit of excitement.
        “Well, this is it,” the boatman said, cheerfully. “Come on, let’s get you the employment office and then a place to sleep.”
        “That sounds great.”

Author’s note on post 418: Finally, the concluding segment. I re-wrote the ending, which is why it took so long. I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to fix it, just that it needed fixing. So, I think this is the final I’m going with and I’m not going to keep you hanging any longer. I have a post for tomorrow, so tune in next time. I don’t have a ton of time to be writing (this weekend is just a fluke, honest), so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post again. I might go back to doing 10-minute stories; we’ll see.