The Inbetween

To say he was confused couldn’t begin to explain the spectrum of emotions that Jimmy was feeling as he looked at Faith. She had just told him that it was essentially up to them to save peoples’ lives. But that wasn’t really what he was supposed to do, was it? Jimmy wasn’t a hero, not really. He was only a man. Or…well, a ghost. Or whatever the hell he could be considered in this place she’d called the Inbetween.

“Do you need a more in-depth explanation?” Faith asked softly, pulling him out of his thoughts. Jimmy gave her a small frown, still confused as he looked at her. She gave him a comforting smile, and then sat down on the ground before looking up at him, as if she wanted him to sit as well. He did so, folding his long legs underneath of him as he looked over at the girl, waiting for her to continue.

“I’m sure that you could tell that the girl we just went to was within a few minutes of committing suicide,” she started quietly, looking up at him. She had such a look of sorrow on her face as she said those words; as if it hurt her as deeply as a person could feel pain. She was genuine in her pain for the girl; she had truly wanted to see the girl live, and Jimmy could tell that she truly cared.

“Yeah,” he nodded, thinking about the girl. She had looked so alone; like she’d lost all trace of hope. In his waking life, he had been a naturally caring person. Seeing a girl in as much pain as she had been in frightened him. He never wanted to see someone hurting if he could help it, and it had disturbed him to see someone as young as her thinking that suicide was the only way out of a cruel world.

“The Inbetween exists for people like her,” Faith explained, a smile on her face as she spoke of the place. “And it’s a beautiful place, wouldn’t you agree? Up here, there is no hurt, like there was for us down on Earth. Here, no one can die, and no one can feel pain.”

“I gathered that,” he said, nodding his head at her. She smiled at him, and then started to speak again.

“You can look at this as a job of sorts, I guess,” she tells me. “Whenever someone down there needs you; when they’re about to let go of the last string of life they have left, we go to them and try to convince them to stay strong and pull through. We can’t force them; after all, humans have free will, just the same as we do. But we can be there for them. We can give them support, and we can help them through the ache and the pain.”

“So…Not everyone will react like that girl?” He asked her, frowning. He didn’t want to think that, if he was stuck here being some kind of wingless angel, that he couldn’t save everyone. He had always been the type of man to do everything to the best of his capability. Faith shook her head, another sad look crossing her face.

“No,” she told him slowly. “We can’t save everyone, Jimmy. There are some people who just give up and won’t feel our presence. There are some people who will ignore our presence when they feel us. And then, there are those people who use death as the coward’s way out.”

Her face turned from sadness to anger at that, and before Jimmy could ask her what she meant, she started to explain herself. “Those types are the ones we generally stay away from. We’re meant to try and help those who need the help, and those who don’t truly want to die. We’re there for those who don’t think anyone cares about them.”

Jimmy was still confused, and he couldn’t help but voice it. “Who do we not go to, then?” He asked her quietly. Faith thought about it for a minute, and then looked up at him with a small frown.

“Criminals,” she told him. “People that are in prisons and want to use suicide to escape earthly punishment. People that did horrible things and never got caught. We don’t try to save the guilty, Jimmy. We might be peaceful beings here, and we might be vigilante angels, but we don’t try and save those who don’t deserve it.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened at the anger in her voice. On earth, he had believed that Heaven and God and all that jazz was about saving everyone. He had thought that even evil people had a chance at salvation; at being accepted into a better place if they repented. But judging from what Faith was telling him, he didn’t think that was so true anymore. He thought about it for a minute, and then spoke again.

“So someone like Hitler, we don’t try to save?” He asked her. She shook her head, that same look on her face as she met his gaze.

“No,” she told him. “A far worse punishment than death awaits them when they die, and they deserve it. We are in no position to slow down that process for them.”

The air between them was silent for several long minutes, and then Jimmy finally nodded before looking over at her again. Faith, he thought, was definitely a beautiful girl. If she was this beautiful in this place, he couldn’t help but wonder what she had looked like when she’d been alive. She smiled at him, all traces of anger vanishing from her face, and she touched his hand softly.

“There is more to tell you, but I’d like to show you more of the Inbetween first,” she told him, moving to stand on her feet. He couldn’t deny that he wanted to see more of this place that would be his new home. She waited for him to start following her, and once he did, she dropped his hand from hers as they walked side by side.

“This place is essentially a canvas for your creation and mine,” she told him, looking over at his face with a soft smile. “It appears as a field right now because this was always my vision of what Heaven was like when I was alive. You can make it your own as well; I was matched with you as your guide in this place because we’re compatible souls.”

Jimmy figured she’d explain more about that to him later on, and watched in wonder as she moved her arm slowly up. As if it was a fluid movement with her arm, the scenery changed from a field into a beach, with an ocean as far as the eye could see right beside them, a beautiful sunset in hues of soft pinks and vibrant purples painting the sky.

“This place is our reward,” she told him, turning to face him again as they stopped beside the water. “I’ve never fully understood why I was given this place,” she added with a slightly confused tone of her own. “But the fact is, we’re here now. The only thing we do here is keep an eye on Earth, and make sure we’re there for those who need us.”

“What about our families and friends?” Jimmy asked her, unable to help himself from doing so. The entire time he had been here, he had been unable to stop thinking about how his family and friends were feeling. He knew they were devastated by losing him; that many people had been devastated. He wanted to know if Faith had a way in which he could be there for them, too.

A strange look crossed her face, and then she smiled at him as she stopped, moving her arm in a small wave motion again. Like he imagined the Red Sea had in that one Bible story his father had always told him about when he’d been a child, the ocean parted ways, and he saw down to Earth. Instead of looking like it was millions of miles away, it was as clear as if he was only five or ten feet above the city skyline. He knew that he was looking down at Huntington, his hometown. His eyes widened when he saw the woman he had left behind, his wife Leana.

“You can be there for them as well,” Faith nodded with a small smile. “But you must be careful with them. It’s best to watch from a distance, Jimmy. When dealing with close family and friends, you need to think about their earthly need for closure. Your death left deep, painful wounds in them. You were an important person in their world. Be there when they absolutely need you, but my advice is to watch from a distance. There are others who are watching over them as well.”

Jimmy listened intently to her words and then finally nodded before giving her a small smile. He knew that what she was saying was the truth, and he too felt that it was probably best. He didn’t want to hurt them any more; not after how his death had affected them. And he knew that they would all recognize his presence if he were to be there for them. He wanted them to know that he would always be there, watching over them, but he also wanted them to move on. He wanted them to live the life he’d been cut off from, and staying separate was what he needed to do to make sure that could happen. He understood this, and when Faith saw that he knew, she placed her hand on his shoulder in a reassuring manner.

After a few more minutes, the water closed up again, and she gave him a small smile as she looked at him. “Now you try,” she said softly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Try to make this place what you envision your heaven to be. Just close your eyes, and imagine yourself in the place that makes you feel most comfortable.”

Jimmy watched her for a few more moments, and then nodded as he let his eyes drift closed. His mind was blank for several long minutes as he thought about it, and then he smiled, knowing exactly what he wanted to envision. He felt Faith’s hands grab his own, and he kept his eyes closed, continuing to imagine himself in that place.

“Now open your eyes,” she said softly, her tone of voice excited. Jimmy let his blue eyes open again, and a huge grin formed on his face as he slowly looked around him, taking in what his vision had created.

The ocean was no longer there, and neither was the field. Instead, the Inbetween had been formed into a perfect image of what he’d been thinking of. The grass was a lush, tall green, and there were more than just one tree around. He saw animals in the far distance; zebras, gazelles, and other different African species of wildlife, and a large, crystal blue lake in the distance as well. The sky itself was a bright, cloudless blue, and in a nearby tree, there was a large treehouse with a ladder that led up to it, the roof woven from tall African grasses and the wood a dark, rich color.

He had no idea why this place had come to him. The only thing he could think of was that when he had been alive, he had always wanted to go on a safari in Africa. He knew it was childish, but it was something he’d always wanted to do. To see this beautiful place as his own personal heaven made him realize that he couldn’t take this existence for granted like he had his waking life.

He was here in the Inbetween for a purpose. He was here to help people; to try and save them from a fate worse than living through whatever pain they were going through on earth. He didn’t know what happened to the ones they couldn’t save, but he knew that Faith would explain it all to him in time. For now, he just wanted to take it all in and soak it up. He wanted to relax, and to let everything sink in.

Faith started leading him over to the treehouse, and let him climb up before she followed him. He smiled, grateful for her companionship. She might be the only other person here with him, he thought, but she was someone he could imagine spending the rest of his existence here with. It wasn’t a romantic kind of kinship that he had with her already; it wasn’t anything of that nature. It was something deeper than any connection he’d had on earth, even to the people he’d held closest to him. Her words came back to him, and he smiled as he thought over them.

“ I was matched with you as your guide in this place because we’re compatible souls.”