Chapter Eight: My Life HereAfter by Rosaline Saul

When we reach the Gallery, it defies every idea I ever had in my head of what an auditorium looks like. It is a bowl-shaped area and the grass is brilliantly green. At the bottom of the hollow ground, there is a large stage, and the hills surrounding the stage are awash in a sea of people dressed in white.

We walk down the slight hill and halfway down Vera indicates for us to sit wherever we find a space. I notice Emma further down, but I also get the feeling I am the further-est thing from her mind.

I sit down with Carly on the lush, soft grass and not long after I feel Mark sit down next to me. Charles is with him and he sits down next to Carly. She turns to him and then they start talking as if they have always known each other. I sit there silently and stare at the stage beneath us. I wonder what Emma’s problem is. Why did she forget me? Why did she not wait for me? The voice in my head urges me to turn to Mark instead and to speak to him, but the last time I did what the voice told me, I ended up here.

Mark asks softly, “Are you okay?”

I look at him. “I’m not sure. And you?”

I fold my legs in under me and look up at Mark sideways. “Can I tell you something weird?”

He looks at me pensively and his hazel gold eyes overwhelm me. “Okay.”

“Earlier today when I touched your hand. In the truck.” I am suddenly afraid he would not even remember the moment. It might have been so insignificant to him when it was so monumental to me.

He smiles. “I remember.”

I sigh internally, relieved. “I saw things about you.”

He frowns. “Like what things?”

I quickly explain, “Nothing weird or anything. I saw your sister.”

Sadness clouds his eyes and I am sorry I reminded him.

I continue, “I saw how you looked after her and it felt as if you are a protector.”

He asks, “Protector of what?”

“I don’t know. How am I supposed to know? I said it was weird.”

He turns his head and thoughtfully he looks down at the stage down below.

Softly I say, “I am sorry for mentioning your sister.”

He looks back at me and smiles forlornly. “It’s okay. Really.” He hesitates and then he reaches for me. He puts his hand on my back and he moves closer to me. I honestly want him to sit close to me and to keep his hand where it is. I needed to feel safe and protected. I want the sore, raw feeling in my stomach to go away, the constant feeling I might burst into tears at any time.

I move and his hand slides across my back.

He smiles playfully and I smile in return. He moves his hand from my back, though, but he remains sitting closely next to me. Every now and again, I feel his arm move against mine, while I pretend I cannot feel it. I watch the proceedings down below, but it is too far, and I cannot see what is happening clearly. I do however see bare-chested men and beautiful women with colossal white wings. I stare at them mesmerised.

When the graduation ceremony is over, the angels who graduated walk through a colossal rectangular structure. They should appear on the other side, but they do not. It is as if this large shape is a porthole, and I wonder where they went.

Everybody starts to get up to leave, and we follow.

As we are walking back to the dorm, I ask, “So what do you think the G.A. stands for?”

Charles scoffs, “Personally, I think we were all gassed with some sleeping agent and we were kidnapped. Everything here seems too normal, not how I thought it would ever be after a person died.” He asks abruptly, “Do you even remember what happened on the bus, Sunel?”

Of course, I remember. I saw it flash across my eyelids in glaring, vivid, unforgettable images.

Mark says adamantly, “Leave her alone, Charles.”

Charles sulks away and Carly looks at me worried. “Are you okay?”

I hear Emma behind me say, “Sunel.” She steps in between Mark and me. “Gosh, I have been looking for you everywhere.”

“I have been here, and it didn’t look as if you were looking very hard,” I tell her dismissively.

She laughs. “I’m sorry. Wait until I tell you what this place is, though, you’ll stop being angry with me.”

I defend myself, “I am not angry.” Of the six of us who ended up here together, she is the one person I know better than all the others, and naturally, I feel drawn to her. I thought she felt the same, and we would now stay close together, but I obviously misjudged her.

I glance past her to where Mark is supposed to be, but he has moved away. I look back across my shoulder and I smile sadly when I see him walking further back with Charles.

I turn back to Emma. “So, what is this place? What does the G.A. stand for?”

She laughs, amused. “The G.A. stands for Guardian Angel, and they are going to teach us how to be the keepers of good and to go back down to earth and to help those people who need our help.”

Carly gasps. “We can go back to earth and we will still remember everything? Not like when a person is reincarnated and cannot remember anything about a previous life?”

Emma claps her hands with glee. “Yes, you are correct.”

I walk between them silently.

Carly says wistfully, “I would love to go back to see my mum again. Just to let her know I am okay and also to make sure she is okay.” A tear slithers down her cheek. “My dad died not even a year ago, and now my mum is all alone.”

Sympathetically, I reach for her. I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her into my embrace. “It’s okay, Carly. She’ll be fine.”

Emma says kindly, “Yes, at the graduation ceremony, the angels who just graduated, got their assignments, and I am sure they will send one of them to your mum.”

Hopeful Carly lifts her large eyes and looks at Emma expectantly. “Are you sure, they will?”

“Of course, they will.”

Carly asks nervously, “When I have graduated, do you think I’ll be able to go and see my mum?”

“Sure, why not?”

Carly smiles slowly and there is a new light in her eyes. For the first time since I saw her earlier, just after we arrived, she looks optimistically happy. I ask, “What was that structure, though? Where did they go after they stepped into it?”

Emma laughs excitedly. “That is a gateway between here and Earth, and it is similar to one in Paris. I am sure you have seen pictures of it before.”

I agree, “I also thought of it as a gateway or something.”

We get back to the dorm building and I see Mark and Charles sitting on the grass in front of the building, under a large tree. I take Carly’s hand and pull her gently to follow me. Emma follows us and we walk to the two boys.

We sit down and I am sitting next to Mark.

I explain to Mark and Charles what Emma told us about this being an academy where they will be teaching us how to protect and keep humans safe, and how we will eventually, ultimately, end up as guardian angels.

Charles asks curiously, “How long until we graduate?”

Carly says, “I hope soon. I need to see my mum.”

Emma confirms, “Vera did say it all depends on each of us how quickly we graduate. So, if we study hard and we are fast learners, we could graduate quickly enough.”

My mind drifts away and this gives the little demon on my shoulder time to speak to me. He asks amusingly what I am doing with the keepers of good and virtuous things when it is my fault sixty kids are dead.

I wonder why they decided to rehabilitate me when clearly I should have gone to the other place with the evil kids. Some of those kids who left in the other trucks, most of them, were not unbelievably bad or evil. Not as evil as I am, who killed so many kids with a stupid prank, because I thought I was funny - hilariously unfunny.

This is probably why I had to walk through the metal detector looking machine twice so they could re-check me. Saying sorry surely is not enough punishment.

Vera said no mistakes were made; we are each where we are supposed to be. I am sure somewhere, somehow, someone made a serious mistake. I do not belong here, but I do not want to be on the other side either. I do not want to go to hell, to burn for all of eternity.

The colourful images in my Children’s Bible in my home always managed to instil deep fear in me, although it never stopped me from playing practical jokes on people. If I could do it all again, I will never prank another person ever again, but I was not given the opportunity to do it all again.

I glance at Mark, who has not said a word, and he has a far-off look in his eyes.

Charles says curiously, “I wonder if it works the same way at the other place, where Oscar and Rudi went.”

There is a brief silence and then Emma says, amused, “I am sure they do not have a door called Rapture.”

Carly wonders, “What would their doors be called, though?”

I say, “It is possible there are only two doors, Hell, and Rehab. I doubt they recycle bad souls, no matter how remorseful they are when their turn comes to be judged.”

Emma stands up, and as she stretches her legs, she says, smiling down at Carly, “I am going to freshen up before dinner. Do you want to come with me?” Emma looks at me expectantly, and I am just about to lift myself off the ground when Mark puts his hand over mine on the grass behind me.

I settle down, back onto the grass. “No, I’ll stay out here for a while longer.”

Charles gets up and walks away with Emma and Carly. I think he likes Carly.

Mark looks at me apprehensively when I turn back to him curiously. He says softly after he looks around first to make sure there is nobody within hearing distance. “My brother, David, was sent to the other place. I have to find him.”

His words make my heart stutter and I feel excited, yet afraid, both at the same time.

Continue reading Chapter 9/25

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