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6M

P7

Journey Across The Soul

By

James Garratt

INTRODUCTION

 

In a way this story has no kind of introduction.  What you read here is what happened.  As you read the start is how I first came to the story.  The jump from everyday life to a strange reality is both sharp and odd.  One moment I had been a fairly normal well-adjusted adult, the next I find myself in the most bizarre circumstances imaginable and having to adapt to them.  This book attempts to chronicle events and as with all things truth is stranger than fiction.

 The man walked along the street and then crossed the road.  Rain, cold and hard, spattered down and turned into a downpour and plastered his clothes to his body within minutes. The man looked up sardonically at the sky. Southend-on-Sea was known as ‘Sunny Southend’.  Whoever thought that up, he thought, had obviously never lived here in the winter months. It seemed that whenever he went into town it always rained and he was definitely beginning to hate the cold January weather. He sidestepped a group of laughing people who obviously thought he had some mystical power to walk through them and stopped by the cash machine. Raising eyebrows in a parody of hope that he actually had some funds he pushed the card in and typed in the PIN number. He knew the balance would be bad but it was simply a case of the least worse option.  Not if he was overdrawn, but by how much.

 He stared at the cash machine screen, the rain whipping his face.  It was better than he expected, he could afford a fiver to get a taxi home.  Punching in the request he grabbed the money, scrunching it up and shoving it in his pocket and quickly ran across the High Street to the taxi rank.  Sometimes he didn’t mind the rain, sometimes it seems almost refreshing, but he wanted to get home.  He clambered into the first taxi and the driver looked over as he dripped all over the seats. He smiled innocently at the man - what did he expect?  It was raining outside.  He did not immediately take too much notice of the driver, which perhaps was a mistake. If he had done so he may have noticed that he appeared a little drunk.  Something was not right.  He simply gave him the address and the driver pulled away.

 The taxi driver enjoyed the festive season and had spent the better part of the day in the pub before going out to work; it was better than being at home with the wife. The money at times like this was good and he had come in for a few hours shift before he’d nip back down the pub for a night with the lads. He checked his watch and noted he could finish up with this last trip. He looked across at the young bloke who was staring out of the window and sneered. Probably like the rest of them off home, unable to stand up after one beer. The bottle of Bells in the glove compartment was mostly empty but had kept Max nicely for the afternoon. He checked his watch again and slowly put his foot down.

 To his passenger it seemed like he was going to take the quick route home, and coming off the main road out of town the driver made his way onto a back road.  The passenger seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts so it took him a while to notice the driver was going too fast.

 Life is full of cause and effect and it seems to be the main driving force.  Had the taxi driver not decided to escape the constant rowing and money problems by drinking and staring into the bottom of a bottle hoping for the answer or had the passenger not had any money then things may have been different. Another car appeared round a bend. Life slowed down and stretched into infinity, the driver screaming silently and moving impossibly slow, turning the wheel while the passenger stared. It was not enough. Time sped up and hurtled into tangled metal and glass…and darkness. Screams and sirens echoed and faded and sandy mortar from a shattered wall trickled and scattered in the wind.

 

HERE AM I

Here am I

In the land of the new

With different skies

In the land of the few

Here am I

With friends I never knew

Who can I hold onto?

I believe in you

Here am I

Awoken from a sunken dream

Just soul in a dreamscape

A true human being

Here am I

A true human feeling

A tracer of skies

 

 

CHAPTER 1: THE BEACH

I woke up on a beach that morning, face down and spread eagle in the sand, I must have looked like some drunk, except I didn’t have a hangover and I did not have a mouth which felt like the sand I was lying on, in actual fact I had awoke that particular morning feeling more refreshed and more energetic than I had felt for some time. 

 But, I had no idea where I was and more to point who was.  I had been thinking about it for a while and I really did not know.  So as you can see this place had no name, no identity, yet I knew for a while at least confusion was King.  Trouble was I couldn’t see them either.

 I sat up and looked out to the sea; it was calming lapping against the sand, just a few feet away.  It appeared as murky and as grey as my confusion.  Like the sand around me there did not appear to be an end to it.

 However it was not long before these thoughts became irrelevant and it was at this point my attention was caught by something approaching me.  I squinted through the bright sun and noticed that a figure of some sorts was walking towards me. 

 A young woman was approaching me; her face was expressionless, yet she came across as warm and almost passionate.  It was like the smile was inside me and I could feel every part of it.  I found all this a bit strange for first thing in the morning. 

 Even though I was squinting and she was coming closer it was hard to define her.  My first impression was that she was a young woman, indistinct, but definitely a woman and she acted as if she had all the time in the world, her walk was slow and almost out of sync with the environment around us.  I did begin to wonder if I had been out the night before.  For a second I wondered if I was still drunk.

 Then as if with no warning the figure was suddenly standing by my sat huddled figure, she was looking down at me as I sat on this mysterious beach, in this mysterious middle of nowhere, then she spoke for the first time.

 ‘You’re early.’  Her voice had no accent, yet it was familiar

 ‘I didn’t realise this was a date.’  This was the first time I spoke back, with, unfortunately, a touch too much sarcasm.

 The woman laughed, now I was left with two choices.  She was either laughing at me or she was laughing at my joke.

 She looked away from me and then looked around at the seemingly miles and miles of sand, there were no buildings and the only people were us.  After a second or two she sat down next to me, she was dressed in blue jeans and a plain black T-shirt.  I noticed immediately her long sheepskin coat; it was odd, it did not feel like a day that required such a warm thick coat.

 I noticed that the woman was looking into the sea, just as I had done moments earlier. I wondered if she would find anything in the water, it certainly wouldn’t tell me anything...