SINISTER FANTASY ON ITS WAY

Hi All. Had a great evening at yesterday's 'Verbalise', the spoken word evening at The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. I plucked up courage and read the first chapter of a new novel, I'm working on. Working title, BEYOND THE CLOUDS. I want to write a sinister fantasy about how we get to Heaven after death. It's not as straightforward as you may have thought.

The novel won't be finished for sometime. I've only just started and there's a lot of planning to do. However, below is a taster from the first chapter. (you may have to click on read more and scroll down). Hope it intrigues! Should warn you that by the time this novel is finished, this first page may change slightly.

Chapter One - The Contemplation Room

After a speedy ascent from her deathbed, Dorothy found herself sitting in a golden rocking chair inside a pod of mist, no bigger than her garden shed. A single word filtered through the permeable wall: 'Welcome'. She was in no doubt she'd arrived, but where exactly?

Instinctively, she inspected her hands. They were normal; no more knobbly fingers and no more pain. She moved her leg. Nothing hurt. It was hardly believable. When she filled her lungs she waited for the wheezing and coughing. Even that had disappeared. She could breathe normally, easily, like she used to.

She concluded this change in circumstance must be due to the 'heaven effect,' one of the benefits of dying after eighty long years on Earth. She pressed down on the arms of the rocking chair and pushed herself up, chuckling as she took her first unaided steps for five years. She'd almost forgotten what is was like to be free of sticks.

Dorothy took a few minutes to assimilate this miracle. Coming to terms with ill-health had been hard enough, but coming to terms with good health, a complete reversal of fortunes, was daunting and uplifting at one and the same time.

If so many parts of her body had been rejuvenated, what about her face? If only there was a shiny surface in which she could check her reflection.

A soft female voice from somewhere outside the pod startled her. 'Hello Dorothy. We see you're feeling better. Sorry if your journey was a bit bumpy. You're now free to leave the pod. Just walk through the mist and follow the sign. You'll soon find the contemplation room.'

Now that she felt revitalised, Dorothy was ready to take the next step. She had to admit, this wasn't quite what she'd imagined. From the time she was a child, Heaven had always been described as a garden full of flowers and waterfalls. No-one had ever said anything about a mist pod or a contemplation room.

It was easy enough to walk through the ethereal wall as the voice had instructed, but once on the other side Dorothy was even more astounded. In one direction she saw a row of similar pods reaching into the distance and, in the other, an imposing, vast edifice of mist, maybe as big as a football stadium. She was both intrigued and terrified, knowing this would be her destination.

A stream of humanity ambled along the undulating path in front of her. Some, like her, had just stepped out of a mist pod and were making for the contemplation room. Others were going in the opposite direction, stepping into pods with a look of anxiety on their faces.