Strange Short Stories

"Hello James, it’s been a while.”

I was caught off guard standing here. 

I should know who this is speaking to me, offering me a greeting, but I didn’t. The face, yes, but not a name or from where I might know the owner of the voice that I most surely thought I recognised.

“Is that Jim?” a ladies voice interrupted as she approached. “How did the journey go? Straight through and no stopping?” she enquired. “I gather you came by train.”

Yet again, I didn’t know who this was or worse, to what she was referring and further, I had no recognition of any sort as to who the voice belonged to.

I racked my thoughts quickly. Tried to make the old grey stuff sort itself out and give me answers to whom these people were and to what they were referring.

The ‘journey’; now that did ring a bell, so to speak.

Yes, I had just finished a journey and that made sense, but what was it and where had I come from to arrive here, I didn’t know? And where was here; this was rather odd. I had come by train apparently, but where was the platform; I couldn’t see one.

I knew that I was here, well that was so obvious I admonished myself immediately. But where was ‘here’; this made no sense. I was with people who knew me and I should know who they were and indeed where I was, but I didn’t.

This was terrible.

The only certainties were that I had just finished a journey while the departure and arrival locations escaped me, and also that these people knew me. Yet I barely recognised only one of their voices, but not at all who they were.

This was frustrating in the least.

“You really are looking most tired James,” first voice declared. “Been a bit of a trip, has it?”

“Only last week we had someone come in by plane which should have been a restful experience but clearly wasn’t,” he continued.

“She needed an immediate rest.”

“You are looking a little peaky, Jim,” the female second voice came in.

“A cup of tea and a lie down for a little while is what I would recommend,” she concluded.

“I just don’t know,” I tried but got no further.

“If you don’t know, then definitely a rest and I think that a cup of tea will also do you a great deal of good,” voice two declared.

“I have to agree; a lay down until you’re feeling better,” first voice added.

“It’s not any sort of problem Jim,” voice two went on to assure me.

My head was spinning and this was not at all pleasant. A little rest and yes, a cup of tea would do just fine but lay down, where? Explanations might be helpful.

“How long has James been away, Carol,” first voice asked second.

“Aha,” I thought, “I have a name, one I should know, but who’s Carol? I don’t know anyone called Carol.”

“Yes you do,” Carol chipped in.

“You’re reading my thoughts,” I exclaimed.

“Something like that,” Carol replied. “It’s been a long time John, how long would you say?”

She was directing her words now at first voice.

Now I had two names but knowing both of them still did not help nor make any sense to me.

“Let me think,” John said as he considered the question with chin on hand and looking very distant.

“I’ve just been told that it’s sixty two years but should have been longer. You have come back a little earlier than expected; something of an early departure, quite unplanned.”

“That explains it,” Carol responded to the news.

“Not for me,” I thought. “What in hell is he thinking about?”

“No, no, Jim,” Carol interjected quite firmly.

“Not hell, definitely not hell. You mustn’t think like that. That’s just a place in fictional stories, something to scare the children with.”

What was she talking about?

“Just a minute, you are reading my thoughts, aren’t you?” I had to state again as I was becoming increasingly confused and needed this sort of reality to stand still if only for a short while.

“You really have forgotten, have you not James?” John put to me.

I nodded. It seemed that I had indeed forgotten a great deal but I still had no idea what it was I that I might have forgotten; a clue would do.

“Tea and a rest please, Carol. Take James away now please.”

John was giving instructions to her in respect of my welfare.

“And make sure that the ‘rest’ is properly adequate; I’m sure that James is going to need all his strength when the penny drops.”

Again I couldn’t relate to what as being said except that I knew what ‘penny dropping’ meant.

John turned to walk away with, “I will see you later, old son. We have a lot to talk about but only after a good rest, and I do mean a good rest.”

“Catch you later Carol,” as John turned further.

“Take good care of him.”

Then he completed his turn on his heels and strolled away towards a small cottage among the copse of trees not far away.

“That’s odd,” I thought, “I hadn’t spotted that before.”

“What is going on and how did I get here,” I questioned myself verbally.

“Shortly, shortly, Jim,” Carol advised as she took my arm and gently encouraged me to walk with her.

She linked with my arm properly and now urged me a little forcefully to go with her, off to the right somewhere wherever it was she wished me to go.

This reminded me of a time in hospital, some long while back, when a physiotherapist did something very similar after an operation to my spine. This left me wondering why it was this particular memory should come to the fore when I needed answers to what was happening right now.

“No back problems here, Jim, I promise you,” Carol advised reading my thoughts yet again. Now come along, but just take it easy.”

We both ambled slowly, my legs and feet were not functioning too well, on towards another cottage of the same sort as the one I had seen John head for. Stone walls, a thatched roof and as we walked through the small door, the unmistakeable smell of peat smouldering in the fireplace.

“I’ve just been advised,” Carol announced, “that you came by express train. Maybe that’s why you feel a little disoriented. Don’t worry, it’ll soon pass, I promise.”

“It often has that effect on people,” she added.

“Maybe you were picked up a little late on, an emergency perhaps.”

I had no idea what she was talking about or who had ‘advised’ her.

“You will soon, don’t worry.”

I was worried and very confused.

She directed my path to an old wooden, farmhouse chair, complete with a couple of decorative and very comfortable looking cushions.

The chair was to one side of that lovely old peat fire which was glowing nicely and giving off such a lovely aroma, filling every corner of this beautiful old cottage.

“This will do just fine,” she said as I was placed into the chair.

I sat down gratefully although I was sure I could have done that without Carol’s insisting and guiding hand.

“I shouldn’t be this tired,” I thought to myself.  “I’ve done nothing today but there again I still can’t remember what I was doing last week or even yesterday. Perhaps it was the journey, trains can get me tired, but where is it, where did I get on, where did I get off.”

I was compounding my confusion and had to let go for a while, that seemed the only sensible answer.

Carol reached for the old black, cast iron kettle, hanging from a hook over the smouldering fire. With a folded pot cloth to protect her fingers, she carefully lifted it off the swinging arm from which it was suspended, and proceeded to pour the hot water into the two mugs, replete with tea bags, that were sat in the hearth area.

I didn’t recall seeing them as I walked towards the fire and sat in this chair. I was missing things that I should not be. Perhaps it was the tiredness that I now felt sweeping over me. I was tired, very tired, a little confused, no very confused, and a brew seemed the only sensible idea.

“No sugar for you, Jim. That’s right isn’t it?” Carol asked rhetorically, clearly knowing the answer.

“Yes.”

“But, perhaps, it might be a good idea right now,” she added cutting off my reply.

“A cup of hot sweet tea is often just the job, isn’t it?”

“Hot sweet tea is an old fashioned remedy for shock,” I thought.

“I’m not in shock, am I?” I questioned myself.

“Perhaps you are, my lovely,” Carol came back reading my thoughts yet again.

The mug of tea was offered and I gratefully took into my grasp as I sank back carefully into this comfortable old chair. The milk was already in but I hadn’t seen how or when; something else to confuse me.

She sat opposite me in a similar chair and with her mug of tea also in hand.

“Sup up Jim,” she encouraged me.

So I did, slowly sipping gently from the edge of the mug so as not to scald my lips.

I had not seen the tea bags discarded, the milk or sugar added, but here I was sipping from a beautifully made mug of tea at just the right temperature and sweetness. She was correct, hot sweet tea can work wonders.

Then I felt myself sinking into a very comfortable and deep warmth with what passed for consciousness slowly slipping away.

The next thing that I was aware of was waking up slowly, dragging myself from the deep warmth of a restful sleep that I didn’t remember falling in to. I was coming back to reality in a most pleasant manner.

I didn’t remember finishing my brew or Carol taking the empty mug from me; a momentary lapse of memory from an old sod, perhaps. Such ‘senior moments’ had been occurring from time to time, I was the right age so I guessed this was just another and didn’t want concern myself further with it.

The empty mugs were in the hearth and Carol was asleep in her chair opposite to mine. I felt truly rested as if after a good night’s sleep, which I didn’t achieve very often and I was keen to find out what was going on and what had happened to me.

“How do you feel now,” Carol enquired.

I didn’t see her awaken; a moment ago she was gently sleeping. Is my memory playing silly tricks again I wondered; another senior moment perhaps.

“No Jim, you’re just coming to and getting to know where you are. Don’t panic everything’s fine and you’re feeling well.”

“What more do you want to know?” she enquired.

“I would like to know what’s going on and where I am,” I replied.

Before she could reply to me, in walked John.

“He’ll do the explaining, Jim, that’s his job. Mine was only to see you well and recovered for the rest of your journey.”

“Another journey,” I queried with some surprise.

“Perhaps, James, perhaps,” John interjected, “or perhaps not; it all depends.”

“On what,” I asked. “I haven’t got over this one yet.”

“On you, James, on you; I will explain as we get there.”

Carol reached forward and placed a reassuring hand on my arm without a word being spoken but saying everything I needed to know right now. I had a friend who would help when it was needed and with reassuring warmth; all in one simple touch.

“Now for the difficult bit, James.”

“Do you have to use my full name,” I asked John. “I much prefer a simple Jim.”

“Not yet James,” he responded in a measured tone.

“We must go through the formalities first and it’s important for us both that I stick to the letter of my duties.” He paused.

“Is that OK with you?”

“I guess so,” I agreed not knowing why. Carol patted my arm again and everything was fine.

“A short while ago you were busy driving your car, do you remember?”

I tried to, then it hit me or rather I hit it.

I tried hard to remember and slowly the previous events came to mind where they played in great detail in my mind’s eye.

“I had been driving at speed along the motorway,” came into my thoughts.

“A front tyre burst, exploded would be a better description,” I could hear it now.  “The walls of that bridge had come up to meet me incredibly fast; then terrible pain but mostly silent blackness.”

“Then you met us,” John added.

Carol patted my arm once more. I needed her touch because a terrible ache developing into an awful pain was building inside, deep within me.

“We were not expecting you, James. You came so fast we nearly missed you,” John added further.

I started to tremble and feel great hurt at what I had recalled.

I looked to Carol who I assumed would provide some sort of assistance and a little comfort as I needed it. It came to me as I thought it would when she once again applied a little pressure to my arm; her magic worked.

I felt such reassuring warmth that placed me totally at ease and calmed despite recalling the incident that had finished my life.

“No James, the ‘incident’ only finished your earthly life,” John stated in an unmoved matter of fact way.

“You have moved on and come back home to us, the place where you truly belong. Word has gone out and there’s quite a collection of people who want to meet and greet you.”

“But first, I must insist that the formalities are completed.”

“Let me check – you now remember where you were, who you are and what happened that caused you to come home unexpectedly. And I’m very sure that you recall all those you left behind who right now are grieving your earthly loss.”

“Would all that be correct, James?”

Tears welled up at that last question and trickled down my cheeks as I did indeed recall those left behind.

“Yes,” I managed with a faltering voice and started reciting who I was now thinking of.

“My wife Sarah, our two children, the grandchildren, mum-in-law who was still with us, then there’s . . .”, I started.

“No James,” John pulled me up. “You are still in mind with those on earth that you have now left behind. You will all meet again but not for awhile in the normal course of events. That is just the way it works; I cannot do anything about that.”

He was speaking calmly and in a matter of fact way; I guessed that he might go through this routine many times.

“Correct James,” he continued, reading my thoughts once again.

Matter-of-fact was the way I always wanted but I felt an ache deep inside start to well up once more.

Carol increased the tension of her grip a little and again she seemed to work her magic or was it in what she was giving me in that grip, a sort of really healing warmth that flowed from her into me to relax and calm my anguish so readily. I didn’t know what it was or how it worked but I was grateful.

“That’s not a problem, Jim, that’s why I’m here.”

Reading my thoughts again but I didn’t care as I really did settle down.

“If we can sort out your next posting now, James,” John asked again in his matter of fact manner.

“A posting?” just blurted out; this didn’t sound real.

“Whatever you want to call it James, I find the word most appropriate.”

“Life here,” he continued, “as pleasant as it is, you have only glimpsed at so far.”

“It is way beyond what you’ve experienced or perhaps I should say endured, on earth and it will only get better if you decide to stay awhile.”

“There is always the option, if you really wish to take it, of returning to earth to live another physical life but be aware that it will not be back to where you were, you will have no knowledge of the one you have just left or even of this place.”

“I would suggest that it’s a bit soon to be considering a return and that you take advantage of this place at least for a while; take advantage of the peace.”

“Of course, there are other places in other worlds with different sorts of life if you are feeling adventurous.”

“But again, I really would suggest that taking a longish break here would be the best decision to make before you jump at any decision along those lines.”

I was more than a little stunned and looked to Carol for help. This time she only smiled gently with the reply, “It’s not really my place to comment on these matters, Jim, or help you come to a decision.”

“I can only say that resting for a while, catching up on events with some of those you previously knew and are still here would be to your benefit, I promise you.”

“It would do you the world of good, if you will excuse that expression.” She chuckled at those last words.

John looked straight at Carol and he smiled; he was ‘human’ after all.

At that they both turned their attention to me and smiled together ever more broadly for obvious reasons; I had to choose my words differently in future.

“Well James, I will put you down for a long spell here until you have rested adequately, enough to make a sensible decision for your future. There’s nothing to sign, no commitment and you can change your mind whenever you want.”

I smiled, “Good, that’s that then; it’s all sorted, sort of and for the present, I guess.” The thought entered my head for some reason that I had come home. John and Carol smiled in my direction once again.

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