Tom woke up. He was near a window.
There was light shining on his face. He was in bed. But it wasn’t his bed. It
was soft. It was possibly the most comfortable bed he had ever been in. Those
weren’t his pyjamas he was wearing. In fact he wasn’t even wearing pyjamas at
all. It felt like he was wearing some sort of loose tunic.
He
tried to sit up. He couldn’t. His body just wouldn’t move.
What
was he doing here? Where was it, in
fact, and how did he get there?
Well,
he was definitely in a room. One that looked a bit like a church. An old one
with pillars and arches. But it didn’t smell musty like those places normally
did.
He
could hear something. Birds singing outside? No, maybe human voices. They
weren’t talking though. They were singing. And there was something else.
Something which seemed completely out of place. What was it?
A
mouth organ. He could hear a mouth
organ. Somebody was playing a mouth organ. It was a sort of slow jig. As soon
as he’d realised that, though, it stopped.
Then
he remembered his argument with Amanda. Well, it hadn’t really been an
argument, but it had left him feeling battered. He was going to lose her. He
was definitely going to lose her. He just knew it.
But
that still didn’t explain how he’d got here, wherever here was.
Another
part of his mind arrived. He remembered the accident. It was almost a relief.
That was it then. He must be in hospital. Except that he couldn’t quite
remember where there was a hospital near Southampton
in a building like this one.
He
tried to move his arms and his legs. He couldn’t. Nothing seemed to respond to
his brain. He didn’t hurt anywhere either. Surely there should be some cuts and
bruises even if nothing was broken?
Perhaps,
then, the accident had been a long time ago. Or perhaps he was paralysed. This
must be one of those places where they care for people like that. Maybe he’d
even been in a coma for a very long time.
Had
she been to see him? How old was he now?
“Oh,
you’m awake then?” he heard a voice say. It was a young voice. Somebody else
his age.
The
mouth organ sounded again. Just a couple of notes this time.
Tom
tried to turn, but he couldn’t.
“Don’t
worry,” said the voice. “You won’t be able to move for a bit yet. You’ve gotta
learn to do it again. S’alright.”
Tom
went to speak. He tried to make out where the voice was coming from. He wanted
to ask the speaker who he was.
“Hang
on,” said the voice. “I’ll come round where you can see me.”
A
shadow moved from the right side of his bed.
“There,
that’s better, you can see me now,” said the young man. Tom guessed he was
probably another patient. He had an oval face, long brown hair and a small pointed nose. He
was very pale and rather thin. He looked almost weightless. “Marcus is the
name, by the way,” he said and grinned. He played a little trill on his mouth
organ. “Hey, it’s good to have another’un like me. Most of the people here are
old and grumpy. The young’uns don’t hang around very long if they come here at
all. It’ll be good to have some company me own age. I’ve heard you’ve got an
awkward problem. Probably in for a longish stint, then.”
Tom
wanted to reply. He tried to ask Marcus where exactly they were. He just
couldn’t get his mouth to open. It also seemed as if he had forgotten how to
breathe.
“Hey,
mister, I saw a muscle move in your cheek then,” said Marcus. “You’ll be ready
in about half an hour.” He played a fast trill.
Ready?
thought Tom. Ready for what?
“You’ll
be able to get up, and get cracking on whatever it is they want you to do,”
said Marcus. “The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be out of here.”
Tom
supposed that could be a good thing. Get out of this place, wherever it is, and
get back to normal life. Go and find Amanda. Perhaps she might reconsider going
to London … or
could he go to Wales?
“Naw!”
said Marcus, frowning. “I bet they’ll process you ever so quickly, despite what
they said. They always do. Then I’ll be on me own again. Nobody ever hangs
around here long. Especially the young‘uns. Except me, of course, I ain’t going
nowhere.” He played two desolate sounding notes.
“You
again,” said another voice. It sounded like a woman. Someone a little bit
younger than Tom’s mother. “What are you doing here? Haven’t you got things to
be getting on with?”
“Just
being friendly!” said Marcus. “Don’t you let her bully you,” he added, looking
at Tom. He then darted between the pillars opposite Tom’s bed and disappeared
completely.
Must
be a door there, or something, thought Tom.
“So,
how’s it going Tom?” said the woman. She was now standing right next to him,
just where Marcus had been. It was really odd, because she hadn’t moved there.
She was just there.
It
must be the drugs they’ve given me, thought Tom.
The
woman smiled at him. She had long blond hair and slender arms. Odd thing that
she was wearing though. Very old-fashioned. Some sort of long white dress. But
it did go with the building, he supposed.
“Still
can’t talk?” said the woman. “Don’t worry. It won’t be long.” She pulled the duvet off the bed. It was
white and light. She started to examine his chest with her hands. He felt a
very slight pressure and at the same time some life seemed to come back into
his legs.
“You
felt that, didn’t you?” she said and smiled again. She was very pale. Why was
she so pale? He could understand about Marcus, who was another patient. But why
were the nurses pale as well?
She
fumbled in a canvas bag that Tom had not noticed before. She took out a long
metal instrument that looked like an oversized fork. She prodded it into his
knee. That hurt. One by one, more odd-shaped metal tools came out of the bag.
She used them to test different parts of his body.
“Yes?”
she asked, as she stroked his arm with what looked like a rigid feather.
Tom
went to nod his head. He couldn’t make it move. The hope he’d had a few seconds
ago faded. He must be paralysed after all. Then his head did move. He felt as
if he was moving a huge boulder just with his head. But at least it moved.
“Excellent,”
said the woman. “We’ll have you up and walking about later today.”
Walking
about? So, he wasn’t paralysed. Perhaps he’d had some sort of operation.
“Good.
It’s all good,” she continued. “I’m Rema, by the way. I’m your body coach. I’m
going to get Zeboth along. He’ll be responsible for your daily care. Hopefully
you won’t be here for very long. You youngsters usually aren’t.”
What about Marcus? thought
Tom. There didn’t seem to be all that much wrong with him, except that he was
very pale, but not really any paler than Rema.
“Except
of course, our dear Marcus,” she added, frowning as she pulled the duvet back
over him.
She
was doing it now, as well, just like Marcus had earlier. Reading his mind,
apparently.
“Well
then,” said a male voice. Another young male voice. It was coming from where
Rema had just been standing.
How
had that happened?
“I’m
Zeboth,” said the owner of the voice. He was tall and slim, just like Rema. He
had the same fine blond hair which was long and flowing and came down to his
shoulders. He was wearing a pair of loose trousers and a floaty tunic, which
looked as if they were made out of silk
He was pale, too, just like Rema and Marcus. “It is my job to help you
with everything apart from the maintenance of your body. That is Rema’s
department.”
Now
it sounded like prison.
“Don’t
worry, though,” Zeboth continued. “You’ll be able to talk later today and then
you can ask me questions … some of which I’ll be able to answer, hopefully.
Now, are you comfortable enough?”
Tom
was comfortable. He could feel the whole softness of this bed now. It was a
great place to be.
“Good,”
said Zeboth. “You can go to sleep if you like. Chances are, when you wake up
again, you’ll be able to sit up and even speak. Then Rema can start her work
properly.”
Tom
did manage to sleep. It was just so comfortable here. He was soon in a dreamy
half-awake half asleep state, and then he fell into a deeper sleep where he had
soothing dreams. He actually saw the accident all over again, but it wasn’t
scary or even distressing. He just saw what happened, as if he was looking down
at it. It was amazing how the bigger car had whacked poor Binky and sent her
spinning. At least he could be relieved that it wasn’t his fault. He saw snatches
of other things too. Little scenes that he had lived through which he’d not
thought much of at the time, but now he could see they’d been important. He
woke up just as he was going again through his conversation with Amanda on the
night of the accident. A faint tune was being played on a mouth organ.
Marcus
was standing next to his bed.
“You’m
awake again, then” he said. “Have you come back to life yet?”
Tom
did feel more alive. Without stopping to think, he sat up in bed. Definitely
everything was working better now.
“Yes,”
he said. “I’m wide awake now.”
“And
you can talk now,” replied Marcus. “Great. I’ll have some company for a bit
then.”
Tom
stared at Marcus. What was he wearing? He hadn’t really taken that much notice
before. But it was definitely weird. It looked a bit like a judo outfit, but
thicker.
“It’s
a strange place, this hospital,” said Tom. “Why do the nurses wear such funny
clothes?”
“Hospital?”
said Marcus. He laughed. “This ain’t no hospital,” he said. “They ain’t nurses.
Don’t you get it? You’m dead and you ain’t gone to the Good Place yet – nor the Bad Place for that
matter, only we don’t like to talk about that. This is the Between Place.”
