Stories and promises

Eurydice is lurking on the edge of my consciousness, asking me when I'm going to finish her story, and let her get on with what she wants to do when I've finished with her. She's telling me that I'm probably worse than the counsellors and commissioners for mortal rights because I'm leaving her to suffer and get bombarded with brochures for "The Fields" just because I know the right answer but can't be bothered to write it all down, and she 's more than a little bit fed up of it all, she says. "Get on with it!"

It's a bit bad when your own characters start having a go at you and tell you what to do, isn't it? Mind you, Eurydice ( and all the others, to be fair) aren't entirely mine, are they ? I borrowed them from a myth - or several myths, if I'm honest, myths I'm trying to weave into a story to show how clever I can be. Maybe they don't like it. So I'm expecting Penny's lawyer to have a few words soon about how I'm making her out to be a bit of a tart, which is certainly not how she's portrayed in the real Odyssey myth, and what's more, I don't think Odysseus is too pleased about being portrayed as a serial philanderer telling tales about how he's always getting lost on the way home from the pub. Maybe it is a good job that they are mythical, or I could be expecting a few whacks round the head with a sharp sword or an axe, or an arrow or two heading my way, or maybe Max Clifford selling their story to the tabloids and them taking me for every penny I haven't got.....

Eurydice was a bit of a sweet little thing in the original myth, quite innocent and naive, not the girl I've made her out to be in my version, plotting her own fake death to get her man, and I know that I did borrow a few bits from real people I know to make her what she is in the story. Maybe the way she's acting is a result of this - she's doing what the people I've based her on would be doing if they were there. That could be a problem, as they wouldn't all do the same thing !! Not all of them have read the story, thank god, so they won't be suing - hope they don't mind being a bit of the muse.....anyway, the ones who really matter to me are not in the story at all. They might be closer to the real Eurydice, the one who never wanted to die and didn't expect to be rescued, maybe the rescue will work for her because she didn't expect it !!

There are lots of words going round in my mind, thoughts and ideas and messages to be sent, visions and dreams that need to find a way out, but they are for another time, another time when I can talk to them alone, not in this place. They will be said when there is more time, when this silence ends.

The next thing on here will be the story, your story, Eurydice - that is a promise. Another promise made, another one I must keep. I like keeping promises, they are important. This time.

That's all, see you back in the story next time.......

Words, silences and the story

You can't actually write silences. All you can do is tell people there is one and hope they can find it for themselves. Even then, it won't last as long as the real silence would if it actually happened........unless they stop reading for all the time it says, which is unlikely. I suppose the actual silence in any story is the sound that comes after the sound of the book being closed. But even that isn't really a silence, unless no-one else is ever going to read it again. At precisely the time one person closes the book another may start reading it, so there is never really a silence in the story.

Thinking about it all that way, nobody ever really dies in a story either, unless no-one ever reads it again, because when one person reads the bit where the character dies, someone else is probably reading the bit before that, when they are still alive. They are immortal in a way, quite a bit like Adonis, continually getting killed and being brought back to life.

That makes it very complicated - they are both alive and dead at the same time, and probably doing completely different things too - they could be sleeping for one person, or eating, or weeping, or laughing or kissing or doing almost anything. I suppose it can't be a lot of fun being a character in a story - for a start, the author will probably make you do all sorts of things you didn't want to, if you had a choice, and then each reader makes you do it all again, and, unless the author makes it very obvious, will probably think of a different motivation for you to do it .....what's more, each reader will imagine how you look and sound - so you can never be certain what you look like - you wouldn't recognise yourself in the mirror, and wouldn't know your own voice if you spoke to yourself.

If you think about it too, what do characters do when no-one is reading about them ? Do they still exist ? Do they carry on with their lives until someone opens the book and makes them do what the author and reader expect ?
I'm beginning to think that my characters don't like me much - I've left them to their own devices a bit too much recently, maybe I need to get back to them and get the story sorted out, Eurydice does seem to have developed a life of her own, which is more than a bit odd, considering she's been dead for most of the story so far.....which she certainly won't thank me for.....next time I write, it will be the story again, and it will be very soon, I promise.

Solidarity and Rights for the Semi-dead

The title kind of sums this up. We are all really angry about how we died, and we aren't going to take death lying down. We want to put some life into the afterlife, not just shuffle off peacefully to "The Fields" - kind of asks the question "Do you want to be dead all your life - even after you've died ? "
Part of this is actually an admission that we have all died, that we're not going back to the sunlight up there - which is a big admission for us all, really- our point is that being dead shouldn't stop you enjoying things as if you were alive.
It's not clear to us why the rules are the way they are - seems to be more about controlling people who can't actually do anything than about a proper afterlife.

All the counsellors seem to want is conformity, playing by the rules, not rocking the boat and being nice, quiet, dead people.

I wasn't like that when I was alive, and I'm not going to start now.

OK, so I do understand that there have got to be some rules, but the ones we've got are so, so strict - they are aimed to stop us dead people upsetting people who are still alive, mostly - well, hey, let me just say that they have more choice than we do. It's a sight more upsetting for someone to actually be dead than it is for anyone to be grieving for someone.
No matter how sad you are about someone who has died, you still have the sunlight, the air, you can touch things, touch and hold people, talk to them and see them for real. I do know you can't talk to us, and you may want to, but it's a whole lot quieter down here !!
Yes they may miss us, miss us very much in some cases, be very, very sad about us not being there, but THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!! so they do have a choice about things. We don't.

That kind of sums up our manifesto - we want the in-between bits - to have a choice about what we do, within reason, to be able to do some of the things we used to do, like have fun and a bit of a laugh, and, once in a while, be able to remind people up there what we were really like - even if it does make them cry, or get upset, or get angry. So that's it - it's mostly girls in the group, because they seem to get the rough end, but we have got a few blokes who want to join, which suits us - most of us are down here because of some soppy sap up there who couldn't rescue us, but that doesn't mean we're off the opposite sex - it's nice to have a bit of male company as well, just to prove we aren't completely dead and nor are they.

Didn't see myself as a leader, really, but I seem to be the figurehead of this lot, all because I've stood up and shouted about it. Scary stuff.

I wonder what Orpheus would think of me now ? Or Tony for that matter - be interesting to find out, but I don't know how far off that will be.

Got to go now, got a meeting of the group and we need to get our campaign started properly !!

Will tell you more soon.

Been a long time

It has been a very long time since we last spoke - but time down here does seem to work in a different way to how it does up there.

Last time we did talk was before Tony went off to the world up there. I remember him asking me about snakes and how I got here, but beyond that it's all a bit of a blur. Each day down here seems to last for ever but at the same time to take no time at all. Really confusing.

The counsellors are still having a go at me on a regular basis. I must be making their lives hell, if you'll pardon the bad joke ( again) - they really have no prior experience of dealing with somone like me - someone who still doesn't belive they are dead months after the event, someone who has absolutely no ambition to accept fate and move on to "The Fields" as they call them.

What really seems to be worrying them is that I've got a few friends now, who are joining in with my battle against the bureaucracy of death down here, who are as stroppy as me about it, who won't accept what seems to have happened to them and won't cave in and move on.

They all have similar issues about why they are here - it's always down to some bloke or other - and although we have taken different paths, they are all convinced that someone tricked them into being here - that they had other options, but chose wrong, and they want someone to pay. Interesting stuff - never saw myself as a role model for dead girls somehow - but here I am. I'll tell you all about it next time.

And now the story must go on.....

OK, so the waiting is officially over, it's time to head back to where we were.
Let's play catch up a minute

Adonis is about to go back down to the underworld to do two things -
Firstly, to check with Eurydice to find out what she wants - whether she wants to come back to life and live with Orpheus, or stay dead down there - and maybe be with Orpheus at some point, or maybe not. It is her choice.
You will notice she does not appear to have the choice of being alive and NOT being with Orpheus - that seems to be his mum's decision - and nymphs still have a bit of clout it would seem.

Secondly, to have a "quiet word" with Hades about what he knows and a hint about what will or could happen if he doesn't play ball. That isn't going to be a lot of fun. Needs doing though.

Calliope is off to find Orpheus, to try to persuade him to stop doing what he's doing right now - because it is really annoying the local women and they will kill him if he doesn't stop, plus finding out whether he still wants Eurydice.

Worst case scenario - Orpheus decides he doesn't want her, she decides to be alive and be with him.
Second worst case - he decides he wants her and she decides to stay dead.

All other options are kind of not too bad.

So now it's time to go back to the story itself - mind you, we haven't heard much from Eurydice since Adonis left, so maybe we ought to start with her.......see if she's settled into being dead yet.....could be significant.....