The Spirit Utopia

It was a brilliant day for Chris, the job he had been applying for three years had come to his doorstep in the form of an e-mail by the company’s director himself.

‘I’ll be a writer now!’ He exclaimed as he left his apartment and burst open the door of his red, not-so-ancient car. ‘I’ll write about all sorts of food, videogames … and especially that one - yeah, that one’s my favorite … I wish mom-dad were here and could see me.’

Chris’s mom and dad died last year in a car crash when they were on an energetic trip to see the giant ostriches in a forest. But Chris decided not to moan and work on to fetch a decent job.

He was just cursing the daily traffic when a dreadful, flame-struck scene rolled before his eyes.

As Chris lowered his car-window to shout at the driver in front of him, who was constantly thumping his chorused honks; a sports car at full speed met Chris’s car’s trunk with full force.

There was an ear-uncomforting bang and clouds of breath-choking flames formed a coating on highway#7. Soon, heads started emerging from vehicles and unrest erupted with no time.

A cop entered the scene of accident. But what he found was terrible, a heavily-injured man in a red car.

***

Chris opened his numb eyes and found himself in a small room. The room had bright, golden walls, the equipment present in a hospital and a bed on which he was lying. Chris worked off his brain but the last thing he could remember was him cursing the front car and a loud THUMP.

‘Was that an accident or - a dream,’ he though.

Chris started standing and noticed his unfamiliar surroundings. He was sure it was an accident and that he was in a hospital. His head was killing him with pain and his limbs gave him a feeling that a rope, embedded with sharp nails was strangling him.

After standing, Chris realized a funny sensation below his feet. He looked to the floor and what he witnessed, frightened him down his toenails. THERE WAS NO FLOOR! THERE WERE CLOUDS!!!

He dived on his bed and started shouting.

‘Help! I’m - I am in the air! Someone, help me!’

As soon as he spoke with his throat-wrenching voice. The one-and-only door of the room opened and what entered was neither a human nor a monster.

A transparent sort-of-human with white coat and black pant entered the room, with a skeleton longing behind it.

‘Doing well, young spirit?’ Said the transparent man.

Chris didn’t even dare try to leave his bed, he thought he’d fall to the Earth. So, he devoted all his mind and fear to these two unusual people.

‘Who - who are - you?’ Chris asked, trying to be as brave as possible.

‘Of course you won’t know! I’m a spirit, she is my wife Trickybone (he pointed to the skeleton beside him) and you’re staying at Drumghosts’s, hospital for all spirits and skeletons. And you are also, now a spirit.’

Chris thought it was all a joke and started punching himself, but he didn’t wake up from any dream. And then he thought.

‘It can be possible, right. I’ve never died before so how would I know that there is no afterlife and - and many people believe in afterlife too.’

‘So, is this all true or a dream?’ He asked the spirit and later realized that how stupid it was.

‘This is all true, young spirit. You’ve been a spirit for almost half-an-hour.’

‘Permanent?’ He asked again , still hesitating to accept the told reality.

‘Probably, now - don’t ask me these questions cause I’m not a guide.’ And he started to examine Chris.

He didn’t even realize that the checkup was done and he was all set to go. A punch from Mrs. Trickybone was what knocked some sense into him.

‘No - no, no money needed. You’re a new spirit after all. But if you come again, ever; I’d prefer an expired brandy.’

Chris opened the door of the hospital and entered the outside world. He was simply shocked on what was he eyeing : Several buildings, human-made vehicles. Beautiful shops for weird stuffs, countless spirits and relatively less skeletons marching the clouds.

He was just swimming in the ocean of pure amazement when a voice met Chris’s ears.

‘Shocked, aren’t you?’ Said the voice.

Chris turned with a start and saw a spirit, with camera in his hands and normal clothes covering his transparent body.

‘Who - who are you?’ He asked.

‘I’m a pure spirit, am twenty-three years old. And a guide by profession.’

Chris thought this was the perfect time, perfect opportunity to empty his mind with questions. And so, he erupted with them.

‘What’s a spirit guide?’

‘The most profitable profession in Spirit Utopia.’

‘Spirit Utopia?’

‘Our land, this land.’ He pointed to the massive buildings, the spirits and the vehicles.

‘And what do spirit guides do?’ Chris asked with a slight shock that he was talking to a spirit like it was his neighbor next door.

‘What I’m doing now … they guide of course, new spirits like you.’

Chris was going to ask more but the guide stopped him and walked him to a car. He entered it and so did Chris.

‘My new car, dad bought me when I told him I became a guide. He almost died at the news but he was already a spirit, so he survived.’

‘Where’re you taking me?’

‘To your house of course.’

‘I’ve got a house?!’

‘Everyone has! But since you’re not a pure spirit, you’ll get a shack.’

‘Who is -’ He got interrupted.

‘I’m a guide, not a machine! Will tell you everything when we get to your home.’

They passed the scene of giant buildings and massive shops. And entered a hilly area, where the grass waved to their welcome and several wooden shacks stood shakily.

The guide stopped his noisy car in front of a brown shack.

‘Here’s your stop, come in, will make you a cup o’ tea.’

Chris exited the car and entered the wooden door of the ugly building. There was nothing much to wonder about the structure. There was a super small kitchen, a single hall with a couch emitting springs and a television with horns instead of antennas.

‘Welcome friend,’ the guide said, ‘to the Spirit Shack.’

‘What a weird place,’ Chris thought as he settled on the couch and the guide went to the kitchen.’

‘What’s your name?’ Chris asked.

‘Tim Brightflash.’ The guide answered. ‘And you?’

‘Chris Reeds.’

Chris took the remote and turned on the T.V. A skeleton was sitting behind a desk and was reporting with utmost energy.

‘Breaking, spine-tickling, lightning-struck news; we have folks. The Rebirth Race will take place a month early as Mr. Oldghost have to go to a trip to the human world with his girlfriend to see a human-world bull to take a leak, with their naked eyes.’

As the news reached the kitchen, Tim burst in the room and entered while washing a cup. He looked interesting.

‘Don’t know who will want to leave our Utopia but those who want to, no stopping; just register and experience something new, though you won’t remember it.’

‘What’s this re - re - race?

‘The Rebirth Race is a competition that is held once a year. The winner will be reborn in the human world.’

Chris’s jaw dropped like stone and he almost fell on the wooden planks of the shack. Hope pumped him with triumph and he just formed a dozen of more questions.

‘When is it -’ But Chris’s words sank as the T.V started showing an old spirit. Who Tim realized at one. The old spirit was Mr. Oldghost himself.

‘It’s urgent you know.’ He said with, what looked like, fake tears escaping through his eyes. ‘Tina said she’d dump me if I don’t take her to a trip soon. Understand my urgency, my fellow Utopians.’ And he left, while looking like he’d forgotten something and was muttering something like packaging and female spirts and skeletons.

‘Who is this guy?’

‘He’s the king of Spirit Utopia.’

‘And when is this race gonna happen?’

‘They said one month early, right? Then … 1st of December, that’s tomorrow.’ Tim said. ‘But you’re not leaving, are you?’

‘Of course I am! I’ve got to get that job.’

‘Don’t do this, I get less money if you will leave and not stay here forever. Don’t you want a pure spirit in your family!’

One thing Chris had understood by now about this world was that he knew nothing about it. He didn’t know how spirits really come to the afterlife, he didn’t know about pure and not pure thing and neither he knew about the Rebirth Race.

But hey, he’s got a guide.

‘And how people attain afterlife,’ he asked.

‘Look, you ask too much, I’ll explain everything in one go.’ And he started after drawing a deep breath. ‘If you die, you either get transported to a new body or you come to the Utopia. You die natural death, your soul gets transferred to a new-born human baby. You die in an accident, you come here. You like the Spirit Utopia, you stay. You don’t like, you participate in The Rebirth Race, which is held once a year; one winner is selected and he is transferred to a human-baby, he forgets everything about this world.’

Chris said nothing.

‘Those who are born in the Utopia are known as pure spirits, like me and those who are born in human world, like you are impure spirits.’

Chris said nothing again. The Rebirth Race plunged his mind. The idea of not getting the job was something Chris thought he’d never recover from. So he told Tim to pick him tomorrow for the Rebirth Race’s participations.

With visible disappointment, Tim set off to his house, leaving Chris alone for the first time in his life … afterlife. With nothing much to do except think about the race, Chris slept.

***

Chris woke up as the bright rays of sun fell on him, cool breeze met the opened window of the Spirit Shack and a loud honk of a car vibrated in his ear.

He opened the main door and found himself standing in front of Tim the guide.

‘Participation’s are on, we’ll have to get a ticket; hop on quick!’

And Tim rode Chris to a giant castle in a temperate grasslands where bleachers had covered the grass.

‘The headquarters of the race, get a ticket and all the information will be revealed later.’

Chris entered the castle and saw a large hall with countless spirits and skeletons standing in a kilometer long line. He joined the line too and after, what seemed like ages, his turn came.

‘Hello, tell your name.’ Said the skeleton behind the ticket counter with a toneless voice.

‘Chris Reeds.’

‘Pure?’

‘Impure Spirit.’

‘Male?’

‘No female,’ Chris said sarcastically, but the skeleton literally wrote female.

‘I was kidding, I’m a male.’

A beast tsunami of anger erupted inside the counter skeleton. He looked as if he stored his anger for centuries just for this moment.

‘DO YOU KNOW HOW DIFFICULT THIS JOB IS?!’ He thundered. And as soon as it came, the sooner it went and he became silent again. He corrected the female to male and gave Chris his ticket.

‘Skeletons sure are tricky,’ Chris thought while waiting in one of the benches the counter man pointed towards.

Time went by, the row on the counter lessened and soon no one was standing in front of the counter. And out of nowhere, an amplified voice entered Chris’s and every other contestant’s ears.

‘Fellow Spirits, enter the golden door and there you shall pass the Rebirth Race to be born again in the human world.’

Everyone stood up and went to the giant GOLDEN DOOR. There was another hall inside but it had cauldrons lined up on the cloud floor. A spirit with a microphone was also present in the near empty hall.

‘Stand in front of a cauldron and when I say “go”, throw the ticket in the cauldron and you’ll be transferred to the human world for an hour. You’ll have to (the spirit started giggling) haunt a living being in there and the one you’ll haunt the best will be reborn.’

Everyone said as commanded. Chris stood up in front of an ancient cauldron and…

‘GOOO!!!’ The spirit shouted at top of his throat.

And with fear drinking him, Chris gave his ticket to the cauldron but nothing happened … nothing until a few seconds. Out of nowhere, Chris got sucked into the cauldron and with a thud he found himself in the human world.

But before Chris could enjoy a little more, he remembered that he only had one hour to do so. But there was a problem. Chris had been transferred to a forest, with completely lacked humans.

While he was finding his way out of the deserted place, Chris remembered about his car, his past and his parent’s trip to see giant animals in the forest of giants.

And then it hit him…

‘He didn’t mention humans, he said living beings. So if I scare any animals, I can still win and nobody will be able to see me cause am a spirit!’

He searched hard and eventually ended up confronting a bull. He creeped up near it and pulled its tail. The bull stopped grazing grass and looked here and there with confusion, as Chris was a spirit the bull couldn’t him.

The bull continued with the grazing. This time, Chris started patting the animal, the bull again looked here and there and then shouted loud. A group of bulls marched their way to this one. They started talking but Chris couldn’t get a word. And after sometime, they all again started grazing.

Chris knew time was running off and that he’d have to do something big. He joined a few leaves with wet mud and dip them into the pond nearly like a bucket. The leaves came with a lot of water and Chris dumped all the water on the head of the 1st bull.

With a BANG, disrest plunged the forest and giant rumbling took place. The bulls ran away while shouting.

Chris started laughing so much so that his eyes became watery. He closed them and started wiping them but when he opened his eyes, he was in the castle hall, among all the spirits and skeletons.

He stood up awkwardly and waited someone to break the silence.

‘Everyone, you can wait on the benches and we’ll announce the names shortly.’

Chris did as he was told, the longest hours of his life were a pain in the brain to pass but they did pass. After, what seemed like days, the spirit with microphone started shouting.

‘Please pay attention, we are announcing the winners.’ The spirit said and paused for several breaths to be drawn and suspense to take place. ‘The spirit who not only scared one but a group of thirteen living beings and that also not humans! Goodspirits and Gentlespirits, we are pleased to announce that the winner of the Rebirth Race is Chris Reeds, who scared thirteen bulls!!!’

Several disappointed sighs and several roaring hoots plunged the hall. But to Chris, nothing mattered; he was simply shocked and was utterly befuddled when his name got released in public. With nothing to say and not knowing what to feel, Chris went to the announcer. He brought an unusually big cauldron and placed it onto the floor as the applause for Chris just settled.

‘You go in this young spirit, and you’ll be a new born baby from the moment; sad, you’ll forget everything.’

Chris did nothing out of shock.

‘Well, what are you waiting for, hop in!’

‘Oh yeah, yeah.’

But before jumping in the cauldron, Chris decided something.

‘Just wait a minute,’ he told the announcer, left the castle and went to the noisy car of Tim the guide. Tim was sleeping and woke up with a thud from Chris.

‘Oh - oh you, you won?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Oh nice I’m happy about - wait - YOU REALLY WON?!’

‘Yeah,’ Chris said while laughing.

‘Well, go then, you wanted to always; right?’

‘Right then, goodbye!’

Chris was just leaving when Tim stopped him.

‘I know you’ll forget everything but if you witness something paranormal, just remember that they are probably on school trips from this world and are just messing with you humans.’

And with a great laugh and fist-bump with his friend, he entered the castle and jumped in the cauldron.

Soon he got flushed in and the next second he found himself in the hands of a lady.

‘Look at him! He’s so cute!’ The lady told the man which was smiling behind her.

Chris knew he was a new born baby and … he tried to remember The Spirit Utopia but every memory became blurry. He couldn’t remember his parents, his car crash, his friend Tim and at last he couldn’t remember who he was and started crying.

Chris’s spirit had finally been transferred to a new born baby in the human world and he was ready to make a new identity and start a new life … until he of course dies and probably goes to THE SPIRIT UTOPIA once again.