Life Sentence, © David Leo, Leominster, MA, 2010
"Good Food, but Pricey" the sign said below "Charles' Diner", but Bert promised it would be worth it, so we went in and sat in a booth, the four of us, and started reading the menu. Pricey, for sure.
The place was outdated 1970's "Age of Aquarious" decor with rock star photos and movie posters, and the lady at the cash register looked like she was home. That was Charles' wife. The waitress was Charles' granddaughter - a Gothic girl with a pearl (I think) nose ring and some color hair. She had a spider tattoo on her throat, and contact lenses that made her eyes like a snake's.
"Coffee?" . . . "Yes, please . . . no venom" . . . She sneered at him, and Bert smirked back.
Lois joined us late. She asked for tea and we all ordered various things for lunch.
"Weird looking kid." . . . "Don't snicker, she's some kind of genius and got accepted to college at 14." . . . "Spiders and snakeyes and all?" . . . "Yeh, and they'll be happy to have her." . . . . "Kids these days, huh?"
Charles stuck his head out through the kitchen slot, a gray ponytail knotted in a hairnet and a spider tatoo on his throat, "Hey Bert, did you say venom or no venom . . . it's fresh today" and he laughed. Audree, the spider girl with a snake's eyes, turned to us and hissed, then smiled at Bert. "Well, Charles, if it's fresh, I have the venom, but just today", and got a giggle of out most everyone there.
We chat, we chat of this and that . . . Bert's broken car, my early retirement, Merriam's garden, Jake's new camera and Lois's court case. The chatter slowed a bit and someone threw out "Reading anything good these day?" just as Audree brought over a fresh pot.
"Oh, yes. I'm reading case histories for Friday's trial. Wanna hear some?" . . . "We'll pass on that, Lois." . . . "Well, actually before this case load came up, I read 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'. Didn't understand it all, but it was facsniating, with it's 'magical realism'. Much better than legal case histories." (Lois was due to defend a drunk driving case she did not want to deal with.)
"I don't read much but magazines anymore. Can't commit to a whole book." . . . " 'Commit' ? . . . what's this homework?" . . . "No, I know, I just can't get into a long, long novel or something, plus will I like it, or waste my time? You know." . . . "So, one, start a short book and, two, stop reading it if you don't like it !" . . . "Ahhh, leave me to my magazines and movies."
"I started "The Kite Runner" and it's great. Different, about Afghanistan, or more about two kids in Afghanistan. Don't know how it ends . . . " . . . "I do." . . . ."Yeh?" . . . "Keep reading, I promise it's worth it." . . . "Worth it, like Charles' pricey lunch?" . . . "Yeh, but you throw in the fresh venom, and it's a deal!" . . . laughs all around.
"I'm reading this . . . ummmm . . . I guess it'd be a 'new age / sci-fi' story about spirits and the universe." . . . "Oh shit, can we just keep this simple?" . . . "No, it's not bad. It's written like sci-fi, but it has this . . . uhhh . . . spiritual theme in the stories." . . . "Spiritual theme?" . . . "I don't mean religious stuff, but what they call new age thinking . . . . you know, connections, the cosmos, spirits and all . . . "
Lots of quiet . . . a few people who overheard, look over their shoulders and over their glasses. "Maybe it's like that magical realism in the book Lois read" . . . "Doesn't sound like it, so far. What kind of spirits. Like aliens?" . . . "No, more like . . . us . . . actually, like us people." . . . "And?" . . . . "And . . about God, you know, like where's God, and where's heaven . . . and hell." . . . . "You mean like we'll all go to heaven someday if we're good?" . . . "No, actually, it's more like we already went to hell. We're here now . . . in hell."
Audree heard that and rolled her eyes at the ceiling . . . "Here we go, folks . . . the Twighlight Zone". Charles only heard "Twighlight Zone" and chimed in from the kitchen with the TV theme "dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee . . . ." Grandma, on the register, held back a laugh, but had to snort for doing it.
"It's well written, and it's not religious . . . it's new age and it's sci fi" . . . "What makes it new age. What is new age, come to think of it?" . . . "How could it not be religious about God and stuff?" . . . "Hell? This ain't so bad, for being hell!" . . . "I meant it's not religious with a lesson at the end, or a message or whatever. It's this story about how these spirit beings got sent here for punishment . . . like they are what we call our souls, because they have to exist inside bodies in this universe."
"Punished? So the universe we're in here is actually hell?" . . . "Yeh, I guess that's what he's saying." . . . "No, the universe itself isn't hell. I think the fact that the spirits are stuck inside bodies is the hell." . . . "Why is that hell?" . . . "I think it's because . . . I think it's because, life here pretty much sucks compared to being a spirit." . . . "Sounds pretty fucking religious to me!" . . . "No it's more sci-fi . . . like these alien spirits from another universe are actually inside us, right now."
Quiet again.
"So I'm in hell? What did I do? Somebody tell me that!" . . . "I don't think we're allowed to know that." . . . "What? What is this, like The Trial, by Kafka? I got tried and sentenced and they won't even tell me what I did?" . . . "Maybe, yeh, maybe Kafka knew something." . . ."Oh cut the shit with Kafak, will you."
Pretty much everyone in the place was done eating now, sipping out the bottom dredges of their cups, to listen to the rest of this.
"I said it was sci-fi and new age, right? It's not, you know, 'Little Bo Peep'. The author is trying to connect us to this higher world." Charles' wife was standing up now, "Yeh, we pretty much connected to a higher world", pointing to a '70's photo on the wall. "We almost made it home, too . . . our souls . . . almost made it back home, then . . ." , she trailed off sadly. "You're a shit" the spider girl hissed at me. I was now like the black hole of everyone's pleasant lunch.
Charles had come out of the kitchen, while we were talking. He bobbed his head a few times, then went and put the "Closed" sign in the door and locked it, and turned of the neon lights outside, put up another pot and plunked down on a stool. "What, may I ask, the fuck are you trying to say here? What's the name of this book you're reading?"
" 'Sentenced to Life', but I forgot the guy's name who wrote it. "Sentenced to Life. And if this is hell we're in, where actually would the devil be in this new age story? He must be here, with us, right?" . . . "I don't know yet." . . . "Is he like the Pope or the President or like me or who is he." . . . "I don't know." . . . "Why do you read this stuff?" . . . "Because it's interseting. Look how interested everyone is." . . . "I'll give you that, it is interesting . . . if totally bullshit."
Cars pulled into the lot, looked at the "Closed" sign (it was only 2:30), saw the place filled; Charles waved them off, and they drove away confused.
"What if", Charles asked, "this guy is right?" . . . "It's a fucking sci-fi story, Charles!" . . . "Let's just say, what if . . . what if we, our souls, are in prison in our bodies? Isn't that what these religious guys have been saying?" . . . "You're telling me that religion is the same as science fiction?" . . . "No, I'm asking. It's the same idea, right . . . spirits and such inside our bodies." . . . "Yeh, but who says this is hell? The religious people say that hell comes after we die, right?" . . . "Well, maybe they got that part wrong! Maybe the story got twisted around. Maybe heaven was where we were and hell is where we are now!" . . . "What's the point of being in hell if we don't even know that we're in it?". . . "Are we supposed to repent our sins or something to get out? Do we get to go back?" . . . "How do you repent something you don't even know what it is, or was you did that got your here?" . . . "Maybe that's not the idea. What if we aren't here to repent or to get salvation. What if we're just supposed to be in prison?"
The young waitress was upset now . . ."But then, what happens when you die? Maybe you go back? Maybe you get put into another body being born?"
Charles' wife looked up at another photo on the wall. "What if that's how it works. What if you don't get to go back until you lived out all of your life sentences."
The TV above the cash register was on with the sound off, covering the news. There were four video panels framed on the screen, with various scenes of this and that (all bad), and ticker-tape messages scrolling along the bottom, that no one was reading. Someone's cellphone kept ringing.
page written by Dave Leo