Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 204

               ‘Look, I understand your frustration with me, Easton, but you don’t really have a lot of choice here. And helping people isn’t exactly going to hurt.’

                It’s the hurting people, which is what holds me back from doing anything Teague wants to do. He is right though. He might stink to high heaven of some form of deception but that prejudice might be my trust issue.

                ‘How exactly do you find people who are stuck in between the worlds?’ I ask.

                ‘That’s something else you can do here. People go out into the desert specifically to seek out the people who are stuck. I hear you can feel them like waves of music.’

                I always felt like the way I could see music was important. It explains a lot of things, like why music can be a healer. How when you’re down or lost, you can listen to music and it can pick you up. I guess through song, the people here become a part of the people who find themselves stuck in the same way as we seek out our old favourites in times of need.

                ‘Do you know anything about crossing back over?’ I ask. ‘Tarquin told me that people feared falling into an abyss? And didn’t feel brave enough to cross to the Great Beyond.’

                ‘It would take enormous faith to step so knowingly into the unknown,’ Teague confirms. ‘I can admit now that I fear the Abyss, more than anything. It took me a long time to conquer a fear of death, but to fall into an unknown place like that?’ He shudders. ‘It’s too much for me to bear.’

                Elle returns to us from talking to the children. ‘Some of their work is really beautiful.’ She smiles. ‘I love seeing what children write, it’s always so brilliant and imaginative and intense in a way that adults can never do.’

                ‘I think you’ve found your calling here then,’ Teague says. ‘You can either take some of my children here, or just down the hall, a lovely lady from India is teaching them music, tempo, cadence, pitch, everything.’

                ‘Maybe I will,’ Elle says, smiling. Now she’s adopted the lilting, peaceful tone Teague, Tarquin and Sandra seem to insist on conversing in. ‘Easton, do you want to talk outside? Discuss what we’ll go on to do.’

                ‘Take as much time as you need,’ Teague says, holding his hands up. ‘Accept it as my gift of gratitude.’

                We nod and walk out into the warm open air. Elle turns to me and whispers urgently, ‘Something is seriously funky in there, Easton.’