A BETTER PLACE

1.

When it was announced that the County’s favorite radio show would be visiting the County to to touch lives, the residents were excited. Many of them had listened to Charlie’s show for years and had daydreamed of winning the journey to total life transformation.

Charlie’s show was dubbed “A BETTER PLACE”. The show’s goal was to help senior citizens let go of their old lives and regain the excitement of their youth. Charlie did this by picking couples from random counties and towns, and taking them on all-expense paid trips to famous landmarks and popular destinations in neighboring countries. 

The goal wasn’t sight-seeing. Charlie believed couples became mired in external and internal difficulties because they dwelt too much on their problems and in routines. Their lives became mechanistic, and that was the reason why they suffered so much. The only way to give them a new lease on life was to expose them to new experiences that would take them far away from their problems and routines, affording them the time and space for introspection, which usually led to discovering solutions much faster. This was the key to letting go of their old lives. This was the key to regaining the excitement they had had as a young couple. When they finally returned home – which they rarely chose to – they returned with a fresh take on life and as completely different people. 

The process of choosing the lucky couple was very methodical. Couples sent in applications detailing reasons why they should win the prize. The show required that applicants go into deep details about their problems to prove why they needed the prize so badly. The four couples with the most salient problems were then chosen, and the names announced. 

Each couple spent 7 days traveling with Charlie, after which they could either return home, or sign-off a document permitting A Better Place to sell their home and use the proceeds to finance the purchase or long-lease of a new home in a new neighborhood of their choice. Most couples chose the second option because, according to Charlie, they feared that a return to their former lives would cause new problems to spring forth. A majority even opted to leave their country of residence permanently.

2.

When Jim and Janice heard that Charlie would be visiting their County, they were determined to make the top four. For the previous two decades, life had been hell for them. They had had arguments on a daily basis. They had had fights on a weekly basis. Jim regularly took shelter in the motel five minutes away to avoid Janice. Dishware had been broken by both of them in fits of anger. They had flung so much cutlery at each other that they had lost all but a few of them. Therapists had given up hope on them. A psychologists had requested they admit to being observed for the advancement of science, but she gave up when a knife, flung from across the room, lodged in her stomach, missing its intended target. Their kids had lost all hope of there being peace between them and had distanced themselves from both parents.

Despite all of their troubles and challenges, Jim and Janice managed to stay together. This was because despite the pain and sorrow that resulted from staying together, they still had some affection for each other, and they both believed that their only hope of having a life-partner and avoiding the loneliness that came with old age was to stick together. The sex wasn’t so bad, also. Except when Jim couldn’t manage to get it up – which usually resulted in taunting and teasing, which usually resulted in yet another fight.

3.

They couldn’t believe their ears when their names were announced on the radio as the first couple that would tour with Charlie. They knew they had a shot at it – because everyone in the County knew about their problems – but they’d half-expected to have their application thrown out. Mostly because they were such a toxic couple that they didn’t know if Charlie would be able or willing to handle them. They could only hope he had done his research and that he had a good plan for getting them to the better place he ceaselessly promised listeners. Otherwise, he would quickly come to realize that he had chosen a couple that was too hot for him to handle.

4.

The couple signed-off on all the documents that Charlie requested they sign, including the document authorizing him to sell-off their home if they decided to move elsewhere permanently. 

Once all the documentation was signed and sealed, Charlie sat with the couple and discussed the itinerary with them. He also discussed their conduct during the trip and had them sign off on an agreement stating that they would conduct themselves properly in public spaces, to ensure the safety of others. He told them they could let loose in private, but he expected good conduct in public. 

He told them they would meet with therapists regularly during the course of the journey to find solutions to their problems. He told them after the tour ended on the seventh day, they would retreat to a wellness-center operated by A Better Place to undergo more counselling, individual therapy sessions for their individual problems, and then couples therapy sessions to rekindle the extinguished flame. 

Charlie told them the ultimate goal was to restore the love they once had for each other. That was the ultimate “better place” that he wanted to get them to.

It all sounded like a dream, and a very exciting one at that. Jim and Janice had been the talk of the town when they first started dating. They went everywhere together. They spent every waking hour together. When they were not together, they spent their time dreaming of being together. Their addiction to the other’s presence was so strong that at ages 21, barely a year after meeting each other, they tied the knot and moved in together. 

They both remembered the early days vividly. Sometimes so vividly that it triggered arguments. They couldn’t understand how they had gone from being the ‘couple to watch’ to becoming the ‘couple to avoid’. They had strong hopes that Charlie could finally get them back there. He had done it for others, so they believed he could also do it for them.

5.

The tour was everything they hoped it would be – and so much more. It was just what they needed, but it was only as they moved from location to location that they realized it. They had developed so much hatred for each other that they couldn’t even come to see that what they needed was time away. 

It began with baby steps. First, Charlie took them to beautiful destinations and took them on guided tours. For the first time in many years, they were able to spend time together without fights or arguments because they were too taken by the beauty surrounding them to even consider it. They had been surrounded with so much toxicity that they had for so long failed to see the beauty in the world around them.

The baby steps led to big strides. First, it started with a hug they shared, without thinking, at the end of a tour of an ecological garden. The experience they had of nature in its fullness was so beautiful that Janice found herself shedding tears uncontrollably as they exited the garden. The experience was too overwhelming for her to contain herself. As she broke down in tears, Jim held her in his arms and urged her to let the tears stream forth. The therapists had told them they would experience a release when they finally reconnected with their true selves. Jim recognized it as the release she needed. And when he held her in his arms, he experienced a release of his own. Charlie gave them a private moment at the entrance to the garden, and when they were satisfied, they chose stroll back to the hotel, holding hands.

The big strides led to giant strides on the sixth day. While waiting for their car soon after leaving a beautiful restaurant where they had a beautiful dinner, they stared into each other’s eyes and had their first real kiss in years. That night, another first happened. For the first time in many years, Jim didn’t struggle to get it up, he was already roaring and ready to go as they climbed the stairs to their hotel room. As soon as they closed the doors behind them, they tore each other’s clothes off and made love to each other for the first time in years, a radical departure from the norm of just going through the motions.

6.

On the seventh and final day, the transformation was evident to everyone they encountered. They had rediscovered each other. They had rekindled their flame.

For their final stop, Charlie took them mountain-climbing. The mountain was in a very remote location. Charlie said he chose it so they would be alone. The goal, he said, was to afford them the opportunity to express their newfound freedom from their old selves. This, he said, would be the final step into a better place. At the top of the mountain, he said, they would experience an eruption within themselves, which would signal a permanent transformation of their lives.

It was a challenging trip to the top of the mountain, but they both enjoyed every minute of it. Though they had managed to keep their weights in check, neither Jim nor Janice had done much exercise in years. By the time they reached the top of the mountain, they were both exhausted. Charlie, though, seemed unfazed by the climb up the mountain. He was a middle-aged man, and he had always been active, so he was able to make the climb without too much exertion. 

After giving them time to relax and recover their energies, Charlie said, “It is time. We must begin the final phase now. It is time to take the final step to a better place.” He rose to his feet and stretched his body. “After this, you will no longer experience pain and strife. From now, henceforth, your lives will be filled with peaceful bliss.”

“I can’t wait,” Jim said, as he rose to his feet. “These few days have been the best I’ve had in decades. I really appreciate you, Charlie. You’ve given us a gift that will permanently change our lives. I appreciate your effort.”

Charlie nodded and forced a smile. “You are both welcome. Now, let’s begin the process.”

Jim and Janice rose to their feet and held hands as they approached the edge of the cliff. They stayed far enough to stay safe, but close enough to feel a rush of emotions. Charlie had told them to express themselves in whatever way they deemed fit. There was no manual. They could do whatever pleased them.

As Jim and Janice raised their voices and screamed in delight, releasing all the tension and pent up hurt, Charlie stared at them from behind. With their backs turned to him, he saw no reason to hold back the disgust he felt. He’d watched them display their affection throughout the week and he’d been nauseated by every second of it. It was the reason why he abandoned them at the ecological garden. Displays of affection irritated him. Affection in and of itself irritated him. It always had, and he had accepted that it always would. 

It was for that reason that he began the show. Couples always claimed that they would love each other forever, and he once believed it too. But multiple heartbreaks and four divorces later, he realized it was all an illusion. The only way to remain in love was to die together while the emotions were at their peak, that way, one wouldn’t have to experience the inevitable diminishment of those same emotions. He’d gone through the cycle of peaking and diminishment so many times that he could not but accept it as an inevitable destiny for all relationships, parental, platonic, and romantic. 

He had convinced himself that his goal was to guide people to a better place – to the peak of their emotional connection, and then keep them there permanently. It was a treasure he believed he would never possess, so he gave it to others in service to humanity. He held tightly to that narrative, and strictly forbade himself from any assessment of it.

The veins on their necks bulged as they screamed at the top of their voices. Janice had not felt so free in decades. Jim had not felt so empowered in decades. Janice never thought she would ever again feel such peace. Jim never thought he would ever again reach such heights of happiness. They had both lost any hope of ever finding themselves in a better place, but there they were, enjoying the rush of emotions and sensations as they were ushered into it.

They were still screaming when Janice felt something on her back, and before she could open her eyes to investigate it, she felt the shove. Her eyes widened instantly as her body lunged forward into an eerie weightlessness. The weightlessness was quickly replaced by a strong pull downwards towards the embrace of the jagged rocks at the foot of the mountain. As she stared at the rapidly approaching rocks, her seventy-one years began to flash before her very eyes.

Charlie lost his balance and fell to his knees as the rush of sensations crippled him. He could feel it all over his body, it originated from the depths of his head and spread to his feet before concentrating around his crotch. As the sensations grew stronger, saliva dripped down his lips while he moaned and squeezed his eyes shut. 

His body began to shake visibly as he neared his peak. His moaning grew louder as he neared his peak. He squeezed his legs and bit his lower lip as he neared his peak. His body ejected a stream of thickness into his underwear when he reached his peak.

When the sensations subsided, he dragged his numb lower-body to the side of the cliff and looked down at the couple. There was a splatter of bright red liquid surrounding them, alongside splatters of darkening red liquid and articles of clothing clinging to drying bones and rotting flesh. As the sensations returned with full force to his crotch area, he decided it was time to find a new cliff.