Things were dark for what seemed like a very long time and I wondered if this was what death was going to be like. Could it be just a great black void? Finally, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and I followed that light. I could hear Man Killer weeping, but her voice sounded far away. The light was so bright that I had to shield my eyes for a moment to let them adjust. I thought that was very strange, why would my eyes hurt if I was dead?
“That is because you’re not dead, Huckleberry,” Abe Steinman said in his crackling voice. “You’re just visiting.”
I pulled my hands away from my face and sure enough, I was standing before the little old man. He was seated at a long table and dressed in a simple black suit. His eyes shone with an unusual brightness and he was smiling. “Come in, come in. Have a seat, my boy.”
“Who are you?” I asked, staring about the huge room like someone who has just stumbled inside the Sistine Chapel. To even begin to attempt to describe the high-ceilinged room wouldn’t be fair, because there is nothing made by man or on God’s green earth to compare it to. I did as Mr. Steinman asked and sat across the table from him.
“I am a carpenter, Huckleberry. I thought that you may have guessed that by now.”
I stared at him for a long moment, too shocked to think or speak. He gave me a wink and continued to smile at me. I slipped off the chair and got down on my knees. “Oh boy,” I said in an uneven voice. “I mean, your Majesty.”
He laughed at that and urged me up with both of his wrinkled hands. “I didn’t mean that Carpenter. You’ll meet the Boss in due time. No, what I meant was that I built this room and everything inside of it. What do you think?”
I didn’t move from my knees and I spoke with my head bowed. No single man could have ever created what surrounded me. Not in a thousand lifetimes. “I think this is the most beautiful place I have ever visited.”
“Thank you, I was hoping you’d like it. After all, this will be your new home. This is only the entryway, the foyer. What lies beyond those doors is really going to knock you out. Now, get up. I insist. We have a lot to talk about and there isn’t much time.”
The insistence in his voice caused me to quickly get up on my feet and to sit back down at the table. “Where is this place, Mr. Steinman?” I asked, feeling that it was a foolish question.
“I insist you call me Abe. Mister Steinman was my father’s name. This, my boy, is yours as a reward to a life well-lived. I added a room for every good deed you committed yourself to. This is a big place, Huckleberry. You were a hard man to keep up with.”
“That’s not true. I pretty much wasted the past five years of my life.”
“Did you?” Abe asked, looking at me with a keen interest.
“Yeah, I think I did. I drank whiskey every day until I passed out. I think you could call that wasting five years. I am sorry for that, if that helps.”
“You will be forgiven for that, I am sure of it. The important thing is that you never bothered anyone else while you did so. Alcohol causes people to use poor judgment, but you never changed from the person you have always been. You are a kind, thoughtful man, and you lived your life with dignity and respect for others. You followed the Golden Rule, my boy. You looked after complete strangers and tried to make it a better world. You took care of God’s creatures, great and small. That world was a better place with you in it.”
“So, I really am dead, huh? That’s funny, I certainly don’t feel dead. Why do I still need to breathe and how come I’m hungry?”
I was suddenly sitting over a stunning Caesar salad and a heaping plate of teriyaki chicken wings. My mouth watered as I reached for the silverware. “A-hum,” said Abe, bowing his head and folding his hands together. I snatched my hand back and quickly did the same. Abe then said a short, but sincere prayer over my meal; he waved to me that it was all right to eat.
“You see, things are not always as they seem. You are dead, Huckleberry. You just have the option of going back. It is done from time to time. I should tell you a little bit about the world you would be going back to. You and you alone, are responsible for saving the lives of nearly two hundred men. They will die if you do not return. Which; for most of them, wouldn’t really be a bad thing. They will end up here. Of course, they won’t be living in a place like this. The few of those who won’t be heading upstairs, well…”
“I have to go back,” I said, chewing on one of the delicious chicken wings “They’re depending on me. They have families to look after. Why, only a monster would allow them to die. Send me back, my mind is made up.”
“I knew you would see it that way,” Abe said, except he looked sad and he was slowly shaking his head. “Maybe I should tell you a little more about this place.”
“There is nothing more to say. If what you’re telling me is the truth, won’t all of this be waiting for me, someday? I mean, I would just be putting everything off for a while, right?”
“Of course, just as long as you don’t completely change on me; it can happen, you have got to be careful down there. I need you to see someone before you make your decision. Please, have a seat over there on the sofa. I’ll be right back.”
I was suddenly staring at an empty cane-backed chair. I rose to my feet and walked over to the sofa in question, and I sat myself down. The deep cushions were soft and comfortable and I closed my eyes and tried to absorb as much of this place as I could. I felt someone sit down next to me. When I opened my eyes, I was staring into the face of my Man Killer. She was still wearing the bear’s teeth earrings. I reached for her and we exchanged a tender kiss.
“Oh, Huckleberry,” she whispered into my ear. “I have missed you so much.”
I pulled back and took in her beauty. She was dressed in her buckskin dress and her long black hair was pulled back behind her ears. She stroked my cheek with her delicate fingers and a tear fell from her eye. “I love you,” I said. “I will always love you. We have to go back. We have people counting on us.”
Man Killer’s bottom lip began to tremble. “But, I cannot go back. Those people are counting on you, not me.”
The words hit me like a ton of lead and I shook my head, even though I knew it was true. “You have to come back, how could I live another day without you in it?”
She took me in her arms and whispered. “Because you have to, Huckleberry, this is your destiny.” We then cried together for what seemed like a very long time. This was the toughest good-bye I ever had to say.
And then she was gone.
I held my head in my hands and I wept until the tears were all used up. I had lost her again, my beautiful Man Killer. I hoped that the rest of my life would be a short one, which was probably wrong, given where I was. Still, I hoped for a short life, anyhow.
“I see you didn’t change your mind,” said Abe, solemnly. “Are you ready to go back?”
I nodded, wiping my face with my hands and standing up from the sofa. “I’m ready.”
“I’m going to have to add another wing to this place. I just wanted you to know that. You’re a hard man to keep up with, my boy. Until we meet again…good-bye.”
I found myself hurtling down into the blackness below; the sensation would best be described as being dropped from a great height in the dead of night. I screamed in terror as I continued to fall, faster and faster. I could feel the air whooshing by my face and it threatened to take my breath away. I closed my eyes and screamed again, but I was already slowing down and the falling sensation had suddenly been replaced with a mild headache. I opened my eyes and found myself looking into the warm eyes of my grandfather.
“It is good to have you back,” he said, kneeling at my side. He held his straw hat in one hand over his heart and it looked as if he had been praying. “I thought you were a goner.”
I sat up and found us alone on the lawn of the Soliah Home. I looked up at it and found that it seemed to have aged a hundred years since I had left. The roof was gone and the neglected house looked as if it might collapse in on itsel
f. We got to our feet and I scratched my head. Behind me were Buster and Swinger, but they too, looked old and neglected. They were the machines that I had repaired in my equipment shed, what seemed like decades ago. I waved to them, but they simply sat there in the morning sunshine.
“We are back in our world,” my grandfather said, taking me by the shoulder. He was dressed in a long-sleeved denim shirt and blue jeans. He looked very old and tired. “You have a job to finish, there are men waiting to go home.”
“Do you know where I was?” I asked, feeling the need to share my experience with someone.
“I will find out when my time comes. I don’t want you to spoil the ending for me.”
“It’s not really an ending at all,” I said. “In fact---”
“Hush! I told you that I want to find out for myself. Give an old man some respect, will you?”
“Yes, Oddfather.”
“And do not call me that. I am your grandfather. I am the Oddfather in another world, not in this one. Are you making fun of me?”
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. “I’m not making fun of you,” I said, walking towards the Swinger, determined to finish this job and get home to whatever awaited me there. I wondered if the town would still pay me for the job. I really needed the money.
I climbed up into the cab and closed the door. “Hello, old friend,” I whispered, reaching down for the key. The engine coughed, sputtered, and begrudgingly sprang to life. I gave my grandfather the thumbs up sign and he returned it. He had put his hat back on and the breeze was toying with his long white hair. I eased the controls forward and the Swinger crept across the lawn.
The demolition was a lot of work for one man, and I still had to find a way to haul away the debris. The house came down easy enough and I used the Buster to push it away from the foundation and into a mountain of rotten wood. Satisfied, I joined my grandfather under the limbs of a tall pine. We sat in the shade and talked about this and that, nothing worth repeating. The sun had nearly fallen to the top of the trees when the first of the men climbed up out of the hole in the ground. It was Bing Louie.
He was dirty and his clothes were torn, but he looked no worse for wear. He looked from the hole in the ground to us, and he shook his head in amazement. He then stumbled towards the driveway. He was followed by another man, and another. A long chain of men began to exit the living hell they’d been forced to endure. They followed Bing in wild wonder, walking drunkenly across the lawn and towards their cars. I smiled to myself, knowing in my heart that I had done the right thing. I would desperately miss my wife, but she would be waiting for me.
The last five men to exit the hole were my employees. They smiled and hugged each other, before giving me a quick wave. They followed the others and I began to hear the sound of starting engines. The long string of vehicles exited the driveway and I could hear them crunching away on the gravel road for a long time.
“I guess I’ll be seeing you, then,” my grandfather said, holding his hand out for me to shake.
“What do I do now?” I asked.
“That is entirely up to you,” he replied.
There was a brilliant flash of light and he was gone. A bald eagle stood in front of me and it flapped its mighty wings and flew out of sight. I shook my head, happy to see that everything hadn’t changed. My world would be a dull place without at least a little magic.
It suddenly occurred to me that I had a long walk home.
Epilogue
Brindle's Odyssey Page 43