Fragments 4 xxx Where Am I? xxx

… His heart was still pounding though if he could have seen his body lying in that hospital bed at that very moment, he would not have believed it, would not have conceived it possible that not one flicker of life could be seen on his face or body. The steward was beside him again and they were walking away, he wanted to go back but the grip on his arm told him that that was not an option. He was not in control of his own destiny, he had come to accept that by now but he felt, for some reason, that he could trust this man. No-one else in this place had even acknowledged him, the steward was his best friend here. They were in a dark room now, the steward lit some candles. There were cobwebs on the wall and the dank smell of disuse, it felt like the perfect place for a Gothic conspiracy. He saw a spider running from the candlelight. The steward sat down at a table in the centre of the large room and motioned him to do likewise. He did. The steward began to speak,

“We’ll be safe here,” he said and leaned back in his chair.

“Where is here? Where am I?” Tom heard himself asking from a seemingly long way away.

“I thought that you’d have figured that out by now.”

“Planet Football?”

“Yes.”

“And you are… ?

There was a long silence.

“The Steward?”

He nodded his agreement.

“How did I get here?”

The steward leaned forward in his chair and put his hands together on the table, he steepled his fingers together.

“That’s a very difficult question,” he volunteered finally.

Tom sighed,

“You mean you’re not going to tell me…”

“I mean I don’t know. You were hit by a truck which was bigger and heavier than a small mansion, you travelled upwards of thirty feet through the air, you fell on your head from a great height and yet you did not die, I would defy anyone to explain that.”

“But still I did not live.”

“Yes, you are not alive either, if you were --- there is one young lady standing beside your bed right now who would be very happy…”

“Janet,” he gasped.

“You know about her?”

“Don’t worry, she is OK --- she is sad and she is worried but physically she is OK.”

“Tell me more about her, can you show her to me? I won’t try to communicate with her, I just want to see her.”

“I’m sorry Tom, I’d like to but I can’t.”

“…but if you know about her, that means that you can travel between this world and that…”

“It doesn’t. It means that I am the steward but also the caretaker and security. Security meaning, not steward--type security but gatekeeper—type. It is very difficult to enter Planet Football but that is nothing to how difficult it is to leave, none ever have…”

Tom’s heart sank, he felt all the wind taken out of his body for a few seconds.

“Then my position is hopeless.”

The steward looked at his hands.

“I want to help you,” he replied, “I didn’t have to meet you, I didn’t have to bring you here, it is very dangerous for me --- if some people here knew what I was doing, Well --- you don’t need to know what they would do to me…”