The great inbetween

His mind whirling he tried to take stock of his body and couldn’t feel a thing. Not the usual aches and cramps from lying prone for a long period. Nor the more current searing pain of a recently diagnosed but currently untreatable gastro illness. His view hadn't changed for 37 days and he had stopped wishing for a different view and started devising little games to keep himself entertained. Like some days he would only open his eyes after he felt someone in the room with him and he had guessed who it was. He had always been a betting man and this was one small way to keep his engine running. He decided to play this one today. He couldn’t rightly tell which day it was, so he had no clue who would show up first today but he hoped it would be the pretty nurse who had probably said less than ten words to him in all 37days but always knew if he needed his pillow plumped or more water without being asked. She was his favourite. 

He had no sense of time but he was starting to wonder if it was taking too long for someone to check on him. Suddenly the air swirled. There was definitely movement. Right next to him and all around him. His eyes flew open and the first thing he felt since he woke up was pin pricks in his eyes as a blinding light shone into them. He looked around and saw that he was not in fact in his hospital room of 37days but… That is as far as he could ascertain. He wasn’t in his hospital room… but where was he?

Shadowy figures moved all around him. He strained his ears to hear so he could have an idea of what might be going on but all the conversation around him was too soft for him to pick up anything meaningful. He stopped to give himself a minute to calm down. Suddenly there was a figure in front of him. The sudden intrusion into his space felt like such a violation that it took him a minute to realize that the figure was addressing him.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“Did you just get here?”

“Where are we? Where is here?”

“We are ‘between worlds’ as they say”, the figure said making air quotes.

“They? Who is they? What do you mean between worlds? Am I dead?”

As soon as he said ‘dead’ the air changed and felt charged. There was an intense pressure that sucked them and suddenly the blank light that had been surrounding them changed into the interior of a small church. Everyone in the church was frozen in a moment. The pastor was obviously in the midst of a rousing sermon. Some congregants had their arms out to the pastor in rapture whilst some where nodding off or covertly checking their phones under their bibles. It took him a minute to realise that this was a place he hadn’t been before. As confusion took hold of him the figure morphed into a woman wearing a red wrap around dress that was threatening to expose her who was in the front seat and had her hand the furthest out to the pastor.

The words flew out of his mouth before he even realised he had spoken.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Watch your mouth young man, you are in a place of worship”

“Sorry… its just..what is? where…?”, he petered off as he started mumbling in confusing.

She giggled and said “Nevermind, noone is listening in any case” 

“So… What is this then?” 

“This is the moment I died. Although I didn’t technically die”

“So what did you technically do?” he said making air quotes at technically

“I guess you could say I transitioned. One minute I was in church, the next thing I know I was in the inbetween. Which is where you just pulled us from”

“What do you mean I pulled us?”

“Well if we are in each others personal space and the other person mentions a moment of emotional significance to the other, we are automatically pulled to that moment. That is how we get to know each other”

“So why is this moment significant for you?”

“Well as you can see, I am deep in my feelings as they say. I remember everything until up to that moment. I don’t know if I died of a heart attack or what. There are rumors that some people were raptured into the in-between but that might be because some people are just too ashamed of how they died. So this is the moment I come back to the most because its the last time I remember yet I don’t know how it ended.”

“So do you have any clues yet?”

“Not as yet. But it gives me comfort to know that my last moment was in church. I hope it means im going upstairs at least”

“Ok, so is there any way to unfreeze this moment to see what happened next?”

“Ive heard it happens differently to different people. But the best way is to make peace with your death. Its hard for me because im not sure I died. I mean look around.. I had no health issues and what could possibly harm me in this place?”

“Have you met any of these people up there that might know the answer?”

“I have not had the chance to really look around but as of yet I haven't met anyone I recognized in the inbetween.”, she said as she starts moving to the front where she had be situated. He figured she decided to start there since if she knew anyone in the church she would have likely been sitting with them. But the closer she got the stronger the pressure in the started. It felt like he was being pulled apart and with a swoosh they were back in the blank light. They started moving around together trying to find someone who might help them answers all these questions that were now crowding this light void. Like did they die? How did they die? Was this it? Would they ever move on if so to where? And so on…