Jack’s Door

Written by: Collette Cottingham

 

Batya pulled the door to the train compartment open, “No, what are you doing, you can’t be here Dalton.”

“I have to be here. I have to be a part of this process.”

“No, Sarin needs to remember in a safe space with no pressure.”

“You need me Batya, you have never done this before, you don’t even know what it is to be alive. You haven’t experienced any of this. You will push too much and Sarin will break.”

“Walker will help with the process. I have not experienced life, but I can feel what others feel.”

“Feeling what others feel is not the same as living through it. You can disappear, you choose who and what can see you. People don’t have those options. People can’t afford to travel around in a click of there fingers. People have to worry about the clothes on their backs, food in their stomach and a roof over their heads. This is a worry you have never known, please let me help. I know what I am doing. I did it.”

“How were you able to do it?”

“It was painful and unbearable at times. The mental toll and the loneliness made me contemplate taking my own life.”

“No, never, you would lose your purpose. All your prelife work would have been for not.”

“I know that now, but at the time the darkness was strong. Something you don’t understand, but I do.”

“Why would you every consider such a thing. You choose your struggles for this lifetime. Every life is about growth, love, learning and becoming. You would destroy all the lives connected to you. How could you?”

“Batya, I am through that phase. I have grown past it, but Sarin will experience the same types of feelings. I will be the person to help her through it. Sarin has no idea what she is walking into. Her whole life is about to change. She will be in a pool of strangers. In a place she doesn’t know. Nothing will be familiar, loneliness and doubt will set in. You know I am right.”

“They will know the minute you move from this city.”

“Correct, but you can make “Jack” disappear.”

“Hi Lily, you remember Jack. He has decided to accompany us.”

“Hello Lily, I hope you don’t mind my intrusion. I needed a break from life.”

“I understand. I feel that way to sometimes.”