Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 190

               ‘If you could see how many stay in these doldrums, you’d understand why I couldn’t answer that.’

                I look at the man who’s only half here. I have to go, surely? I have to learn more about this new place, these doldrums, or else I’ll be stuck in this place forever, drowning in the heat of a never setting sun.

                ‘How do I cross?’ I ask, coming to a decision. ‘I can’t stay here. I have to find my friends.’

                ‘It’s quite simple,’ he says. ‘You can close your eyes and open them at our front gate.’

                ‘I haven’t been able to do that since I came here,’ I say.

                ‘It’s the trick of this world,’ he explains. ‘There is no anchor, nothing to remind you of where you are, only that tree. The dead tree where we all start. Our mind tries to escape, creates paths and small moments of salvation, but with every try, your world shrinks. The edges of the map close around you.’

                ‘Then what anchors me? How do I find you?’

                ‘You’ll know it when you find it,’ he says and he smiles. ‘When you find it, hold on tight and don’t let go.’

                And he’s gone before I can say another word and the bus stop along with him.