The 31 Near Death Experiences of Jenny Black by F.E. Shearer

Author:F.E. Shearer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: death, public relations, philosophy, metaphysical, self, near death experiences, the afterlife, human consciousness
Publisher: Pumpjack Press

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Cars zoom past on the left. Matthias, Jenny has now learned, never drives above the speed limit. Mostly, he drives under it, plus he hits the brakes for no apparent reason, causing the car to randomly lurch.

The car window is down an inch, cold air streams in; she unrolls the sleeves of her denim shirt by two folds. Matthias takes a sip from a cup of take-out coffee.

“What are those rocks over there, do you know?” Jenny asks, pointing to a curtain of thick hexagonal columns forming black cliffs.

“Old lava. This whole area was once covered in a lake of the stuff, hundreds, maybe thousands, of feet deep.”

“Why do they look like columns?”

“Thick lava sometimes cools into a hexagonal shape. The same way mud dries, and you get mud flats with the six-sided cracks. Salt flats do that too. This is like that, it’s called columnar basalt and the expressions of it here are among the best in the world.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I’m a fount of useless information.”

She watches the cliff features glide by silently. “Were people around when the lava was coming out of the earth?”

“No, it was too long ago. People came later.”

“Seems odd to me.”

“Odd how?”

“They’re so beautiful, those columns, like the organ pipes in a church. And no one was here to witness all that beauty coming into existence. Not odd, but sad, I guess. Or a wasted opportunity. Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure there’s no evidence of people so far back.” Matthias finds this a peculiar way to think about the world, that a witness is required to make it real, or appreciate it. “But who knows? The lava would have burned up all traces.”

That seems to cheer her up.

The gunmetal gray sky exaggerates the peaks, valleys and crags marking the columnar cliffs on either side and reflects off the lacy white-capped waves whipped up by the wind blowing across the river.

“Is this near where you and Loretta were married?”

“Yes, good memory.”

“That was a nice ceremony, super fun. What ever happened to Walter?”

“My best man? Walter died a few years after the wedding. A freak windsurfing accident.”

“That must have made you sad.”

“It did.”

“Did Loretta ever tell you?”

“About what?”

“Walter and I … we had some fun with each other at your wedding.”

“Really? Huh. No, Loretta didn’t tell me.”

“It was in the bathroom, clumsy, drunken sex, but it turned out well, if you know what I mean. We were young and it was easy. After, I couldn’t find my left shoe, and people started banging on the door because it was the only bathroom. I panicked, gave up looking. When Walter opened the door, I was hopping on one foot, and the people waiting, your friends, clapped and cheered. Everyone was fairly drunk by that time. I can’t believe no one told you.”

Matthias smiles. “He was a lucky man.”

“He was nice to me. Maybe I should look for him at the end of the tunnel next time.”

They are quiet for a few miles, separated

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