Corridor Nine by Sophie Stocking

Author:Sophie Stocking
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771871822
Publisher: Thistledown Press
Published: 2019-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

“This exercise involves Seeing the Other. Once you have accomplished that we can move on to lesson three.”

“What was lesson one?”

“Well you didn’t master it completely and we will have to review some more, but you realized that your life was out of control . . . You admitted you needed help.”

“I still don’t understand. You’re telling me that the lessons I learn here I can carry with me into my next life, my next assignment. What if I just forget them, like I apparently did all those other times?”

“You were noncompliant on previous occasions. Never have I met a soul so pigheaded. But yes, the lessons you learn here should stay with you. They will feel like muscle memory, if you understand me.”

Fabian and Bune stand with the packages lying a metre in front of them. Behind the eggs the Membrane does another riff on ‘autumnal afternoon’, golden cheer and cerulean sky, but he thinks only of the bull’s eye map and the elusive sparkle that marks the exit. The eggs flex inside their iridescent rubbery skins.

Fabian gives Bune a squeamish look.

“What do I have to do with them?”

“First we unwrap them.”

“I hate babies. What then, change their diapers? Breast feed?”

“No, just see them.” Bune bends over and examines the more masculine egg. “There should be a rip strip here somewhere, ah yes.” He pulls delicately on a bit of filament at the end of the egg and the whole contraption comes apart like a cardboard tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, baby flesh spilling out.

“Yuck . . . ”

“Just wait, direct contact is not called for.” The wrapper rises up as if pulled by an invisible hand, some gentle tugs from Bune to dislodge from the soft weight of the entity. The baby momentarily divulges limbs as the wrapper pulls free, before contracting to its habitual tuck. The covering stretches, expanding in two-dimensional space. It forms a taut rectangular screen, blocking their view down to the turf. “The barrier simulates conditions on Earth, metaphorically at least. Now your job is to look through the screen and just accurately see the person behind.”

“What person?”

“Do not dismiss the germ of existence. Every life form sprouts from there but also carries that kernel within. Look through the screen and describe what you see.”

Fabian squints at the opalescent surface and makes out his own reflection.

“How can I look through a mirror?”

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