Black Jack

by 

Zoltan Bartok

 

Tim died on his sixtieth birthday playing his favorite game, Black Jack.

‘Where am I?’ he asked looking around in the chamber he suddenly found himself in. He was not sure he asked the question out loud.

A moment earlier, he was falling off the chair he had been sitting on for hours at a Black Jack table… and now? ‘What is this place? And where is my body?!’

When he wanted to tap his knees with his hands - those knees that had been giving him more and more pain as he grew older - he realized he had no hands to tap with. Or did he? Well, there was something! He could see the shape of his hands. The same way, he could see the shape of his knees as well as the rest of his body… but the actual body… gosh, that was missing. ‘Then what is it that I see?!' he wondered. 'And what do I see it with?!' Obviously, he reasoned, if his body was not there, his eyes could not be there, either.

The next moment, he heard some noise. ‘Without ears?!’ the thought flashed through his mind. 'And how can I have mind if I have no brain?’ He quickly reached for his skull… but the shape of his hand passed through the shape of his head as if nothing was there.

'I must be dead,' he concluded.

His attention turned to a wall of the chamber. He saw what he thought was a door. That is where the noise came from. He heard it again. At this time, it was more than just random noise, it actually sounded like knocking.

‘Wow! Is someone really knocking?’ he thought. ‘All right, let’s see!’

‘Who is it?!’ he shouted and he actually heard his own voice at this time.

The walls had a foggy shine but otherwise they had grayish, almost metallic color. The frame of the door was more like an outline. And now that door was slowly opening.

When the door was fully open, a shape of a woman entered the chamber.

Tim recognized her instantly.

‘Mag!’ he shouted. ‘It’s you, isn’t it?!’

‘It’s me, Tim,’ the woman answered in that soft and warm voice Tim remembered so well.

‘Wow! Am I glad to see you?!’ Tim said.

‘I don’t know Tim,’ Mag replied, ‘are you?’

‘Oh, your sweet sense of humor, Mag... I would have died long ago, if I had known you’d be waiting for me.’

‘It’s not that simple, my dear,’ answered the woman with a sigh. ‘It’s not that simple… The timing had to be right.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ll explain… later. Now you wouldn’t understand.’

Tim had the urge to reach out for Mag’s hand. Simultaneously, Mag also extended the shape of her arms. They moved closer and hugged.

Tim would have never thought a hug like that was possible. The shapes of their bodies merged… and Tim felt an indescribably pleasant sensation.

‘I guess this is true love,’ Tim thought. ‘However, it seems like kissing is not an option.’ He wanted to ask Mag about that but then he changed his mind.

He was surprised when Mag answered with a laugh: ‘True, kissing is bypassed… but who needs a kiss when one can go straight to the orgasm.’

‘I didn’t ask this out loud, did I?’

‘No Tim, you did not,’ Mag answered after they separated. ‘And here is what you need to know about communication in this realm… It’s all telepathic. It doesn’t matter whether you think you say something out loud or not, it’s all the same. However, you need to know something else… We, old-timers, I mean myself and all those others who have been here for a long time… we can hear every thought your mind generates. You, a newcomer, don’t have this same ability… yet. We can block those thoughts we don’t want others to hear. This is also for your sake. If you had access to all thoughts of everyone here, it would be overwhelming, your fragile afterlife mind would surely collapse.’

‘Did you say afterlife mind?!’

‘That’s right, Tim. Your mind is no longer the product of a physical brain.’

‘I want to know more about this!’ Tim said with excitement. ‘Here… my knees, my hands… I only see shapes, I might even say I only see shades. And my eyes? How can I see without actual eyes?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Mag replied. ‘This will all become natural to you after a while. You’ll get used to it.’

‘Oh, I’m not worried,’ Tim said, ‘I just would like to comprehend how all this works.'

‘Aren’t you asking a bit too much?’ Mag even released a discreet laugh. ‘Frankly speaking,’ she added in a more serious tone, ‘I don’t know that myself. In fact, no one that I know knows it exactly, either.’

‘Interesting,’ Tim said pondering.

‘However, there are those we call the Gods,’ Mag continued. ‘Actually, many of us call them the Supremes. We suspect they know. More than that, we think they are the ones that run this Island.’

‘Island?’

‘Tim, I wish I could just tell you everything I already know. I can’t. Please, don’t be offended when I say this... You are not ready. You would just get utterly confused. Besides, I can’t because there is a lot to know, I couldn’t just give it to you in a nutshell. Patience. Everything in due time. And time, we have plenty.’

‘That was my next question.’ Tim said.

‘I know my love, and the answer is yes. Yes, we’ll be together. I’ll be guiding you… just as I did in the past.’

‘In the past?’ Tim asked puzzled.

‘You want to hear more about that, right?’

‘Yes, of course, please tell me!’

Mag paused. ‘All right,’ she said then. ‘For example, remember that car accident of yours on the Nevada highway one Thanksgiving night?’

‘The one where my car started spinning and sliding on the wet asphalt, changing direction twice, first to get out of the way of that speeding big rig, and then not to slide off the road and start rolling which would have surely been fatal not having the seat belt on?’

‘Why did you have to drive at hundred miles an hour in the rain?’

‘Well,' Tim replied, 'that was really something! After the accident, the only conclusion I could come to was that a tractor beam controlled the motion of my car.’

‘Exactly,’ Mag said, ‘and I was the one controlling that beam.’

‘You were my Guardian Angel?!’ Tim shouted with excitement.

‘You could put it that way,’ Mag said quietly. ‘Now, let me add that I was not your only Guardian Angel. It works a little differently. Those who had hurt you in some ways before they passed away and arrived here also joined in guarding you, and guarding others as well, of course. They did not join because they loved you, they did it out of obligation. You’ll understand later.’

‘I’m already overwhelmed.’ Tim said shaking his head.

‘A lot more coming,’ Mag added with a smile.

‘Now, you talked about the Supremes,' Tim continued. 'Do you know them well?’

‘We don’t… In fact, we just believe that they exist. I have never seen any of them, and I don’t think anybody else has, either. However, their effect is all around us. For example, we feel we receive directives. These directives don’t just pop out of nothing. Besides, this Island must be controlled, managed and navigated. We have no idea how it functions. Of course, we don’t think it’s just an intelligent mechanism that controls itself.’

‘Wait!’ Tim interrupted. ‘Let’s talk about this… this Island.’

‘Well, we call it the Island but it could be called this world, this home of ours or... we could call it this place, this vessel. Whatever this chamber we stand in is a part of.’

‘All right, 'Tim said, 'how about this chamber?’

‘Nothing special,’ Mag replied. ‘It’s just one of the many reception chambers. This is where newcomers arrive.’

‘So, does everyone who dies on Earth arrive here?’

‘No, as far as I know only a fraction of them come. Mainly those who want to come, those who believe they can come, mainly those who can free themselves from their material possessions.’

‘What happens to the rest?’

‘Not sure,' Mag replied, 'but we think they perish without a trace. I mean their soul, their mind, their identity.’

‘Oh, so is that what survived my earthy life, too, my soul, my mind, my identity?’

‘That’s about it. Although, here we do get a new almost invisible body. We don’t fully understand how it works. We only think it’s some kind of an energy body. Your person lives on not in organic flesh but rather in a bunch of photons and who knows what else. We think the Supremes made this possible.’

‘Sounds very high tech,’ Tim said. ‘I wonder how much more evolved the Supremes are.’

‘Much more than we are, I’d bet,’ Mag replied. ‘We think…’

‘Wait!’ Tim interrupted. ’You keep saying we. How many of you are you referring to?’

‘Quite a few. Of course, I don’t know everyone here, so I wouldn’t know the number, either. And there must be a lot more of us than what I’m aware of. As time goes on, you’ll get to meet more and more of us.’

‘Another question about our soul, mind and identity,’ Tim said. ‘Did all my knowledge come with me during this transition? I mean… will I remember everything I used to know on Earth?’

‘As far as I know, yes,’ replied Mag. ‘At least that seems to be the case with me. Of course, I can’t talk for you or for anybody else when it comes to memory. I think if some of your memories did not arrive with you here, you won’t miss them because you won’t know they are missing.’

‘Yeah, that makes sense,' Tim nodded. 'Now, back to this Island, this place or whatever we call it. Can you tell me more?’

‘I will eventually tell you everything I know. Of course, if you have specific questions, go ahead and ask. I’ll answer if I can.’

‘For example, where are we? I mean where is this place, this… this Island? Are we out somewhere in space?’

‘That’s exactly where we are. And you might be glad to know that we are not that far from where we came from.’

‘Not far from Earth?!’ Tim asked in surprise.

‘That’s right.’ Mag extended her arm or whatever it was that Tim could see. ‘Come,’ she said. ‘It’s time to leave this chamber anyway.’

Tim followed the woman who then stopped when they reached the door.

‘As you can see,’ Mag explained, ‘this door is now closed. It closed after I entered. Every door functions the same way, they are all sliding doors and they all close automatically. However, they don’t open unless you give a mental command. If you have no intention of passing through or if you don’t think it should open for you, you may stand here forever and it will remain closed… So, go ahead, open it.’

Tim had no difficulty giving that mental command.

After they passed through, the door silently closed behind them.

‘Wow!’ Tim said. ‘It looks like now we’re in some kind of a corridor.’

‘That’s exactly what it is, a corridor. A very, very long corridor. A circular one. It goes around the Island.'

‘The walls…Are the walls the same everywhere?’ Tim asked.

‘Yes, exactly the same.’

‘And no difference if I look down or look up? Floor, ceiling, all the same?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Wait a second!’ Tim said. He stepped closer to the wall. ‘May I touch it?’

‘Of course.’ Mag replied.

Tim actually expected his hand to go through the wall but that did not happen.

Mag laughed. ‘Why do you think we had to use the door? Those walls are impenetrable. So is everything else in the Island.’

‘Except us,’ added Tim. ‘Right?’

Mag nodded. ‘Except us, and I mean all the rest of us as well.’

‘I'm wondering what the walls are made of.’ Tim said after a short pause.

‘That we don’t know.’

‘And what color would you say they are? I think they are gray but perhaps you perceive it differently.’

‘Good word you used Tim. Yes, we perceive things here. If you think it is gray, then it is gray. Basically, there are no colors in the Island, and there is no light, either.’

‘No light?! How can I see you then? How can I see everything around me? True, right now I can only see walls but it appears to me that we are in a well lit corridor.’

‘Perception, Tim, perception. However, pretty soon you’ll see real colors as well as real light, and that will be more than just perception.’

Mag stopped close to the wall.

Tim thought he saw the outline of a frame that did not reach down to the floor.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a window,’ he said.

‘You got it. Now, open it.’

‘You mean…’

‘Exactly, just like the door.’

Tim’s thought activated the window and it began to slide open.

‘No way!’ Tim whispered in amazement. ‘Our home, planet Earth.’

‘Our previous home you mean,’ Mag corrected.

‘Breathtakingly beautiful!' Tim sighed. 'Just like I used to see it on those pictures taken from space… Wait a minute! We aren’t on the International Space Station, are we?!’

‘No Tim, we aren’t. We definitely aren’t.’

‘But the distance is about the same, isn’t it?’

‘Let’s say we perceive it that way. In fact, there will be times when we get much closer,' Mag continued. 'The problem is that on those occasions the windows don’t obey our mental commands, we can’t open them.’

‘Why would that be?’

‘There are rumors that the Island approaches the clouds at times of electrical storms to suck up energy.’

Tim had a suspicious thought.

‘I know,’ Mag started. ‘You’re wondering how I know about the Space Station because it wasn’t launched yet when I left Earth.’

‘Yes.’

‘Let me just say that here we know almost everything that goes on down there.’

‘At the same time you don’t know everything that goes on here in the Island?’

‘It may sound strange but that’s the way it is.’

‘Interesting. Well, I had another thought but since you read my mind…’

‘Sorry Tim, I’ll be more careful. I don’t have to do that, you know…So, go ahead and tell me.’

‘This might be a bit far fetched though,' Tim said. 'I thought this Island might be one of those UFOs that could be seen from the Space Station. Astronauts took pictures of those vessels. They sent videos to Earth showing huge disk shaped objects that approached storm clouds that produced lightning. I saw some of those videos on You Tube. You know, You Tube… the Internet?’

‘You’re a brave thinker, Tim.’

‘You’ve just said that this Island approaches storm clouds to collect energy… According to those who produced the videos I saw on the Internet, the UFOs they observed were huge, probably as large as a mile and a half in diameter. You also just talked about this corridor being long and circular.’

‘Of course, you are free to have ideas,’ Mag said.

‘How long would you say this corridor is?’

‘I’ve never thought of measuring it.’

‘Well, how long would it take to go all the way around?’

Mag smiled again. ‘That depends on how fast you go,’ she said. ‘Once you are aware of the almost unlimited potential you can have here, it might take you a split second only, or even faster.’

‘You mean like at the speed of light?’

‘Or faster… Just think about how long it took you to get here from the casino after you died.’

‘I’m getting confused. If I am not aware of my full potential yet, how could I possibly get here from that casino in an instant?’

“It’s simple Tim, I helped you.’

‘Oh…’ Tim turned back to the window and watched the planet for a while without talking. ‘I miss Earth,’ he said finally and tried to give a mental command. It worked, the window closed.

‘If you think you’re ready,’ Mag said, ‘we can move on.’

‘First, let me ask something about this window I just looked through. Is it made of glass?’

‘I’d like to know that myself,’ Mag answered. ‘All we know is that the clear material is just as impenetrable as the walls are, so don’t try to pass your hand through it. And in case you want to look at space again, you can do that from anywhere in this corridor. There are many windows, and as you can see it from the next outline, the distances between them are about the same as the width of the window. Of course, all the windows are on the same side. The other side has the doors that lead to the inner areas of the Island.’

‘Another question for you, Mag… If all the walls and windows are impenetrable, how was I able to come inside here?’

Don’t forget,' Mag answered, 'you left your body behind. The energy field, your new body was assigned to you after you entered… Wait, I need to explain. There are very powerful computers here that are capable of long distance interfacing with human brains on Earth. As I had been monitoring you, I knew exactly when to hit the button to download the terabytes of memory from your brain. There is even a copy of you, and me, of course, and everyone else within the system. Once your memory is downloaded, the original file goes through a processor that attaches this almost invisible body and then you are deposited in one of the reception chambers to meet your guide.’

‘Wow!’

‘I know, it's overwhelming. It was for me, too.’

‘Indeed, who was your guide?’ Tim asked curiously.

‘A very old woman from the eighteenth century. She was an Italian scientist. And I say very old because she was ninety-seven when she died. Otherwise, as you may have already noticed, age has no meaning here.’

‘Yeah, I see that... You look exactly the same as the day I last saw you before you died in that car accident, and that was half a lifetime ago... Now, if I remember well, you did not speak any Italian.’

‘You’re right, I did not.’

‘How did you communicate?’

‘There you go,’ Mag laughed, ‘another interesting thing here. Languages don’t matter. Since communication is telepathic, the language barrier doesn’t exist.’

‘Hm… Is she still around?’

‘No, she hasn’t been here for a long time.’

‘What happened to her?’

‘First, when I needed her guidance no more, she received second level clearance. Now, don’t ask me who assigns clearance levels because I can’t answer that question. One day you wake up, and you know your status has changed, you know you are at an elevated level. Anyway, another few years went by and she got to the third level, and that’s when she disappeared. You get third level clearance, you move on. We speculate that third level might mean a chance to become a Supreme. Of course, there must be different levels among the Supremes, too. I don’t think you or I could ever become a real Supreme.’

‘Stop right there Mag! You’re talking about days and years, and you just used the words waking up.’

‘Right. We have days here just like on Earth. And we have weeks, and months, and years. Minutes, too, and seconds. Our Island rotates around its axis. It makes one rotation exactly in the same time as Earth does. Our clocks are synchronized with Earth showing Greenwich Mean Time. As for waking up… Once every day we need to re-energize ourselves. We enter one of the recharging stations, there are plenty of them, and we stay in it for a few minutes at a time. During the recharge it’s like being asleep.’

‘Is that all?!' Tim raised his voice. 'A few minutes of sleep and we are good for another full day?!’

‘That's right,’ Mag replied.

‘Hallelujah!’ Tim shouted with joy. ‘I was getting so tired of sleeping, eating and drinking all the time. No toilets here, either, right?’

‘You got it Tim, no toilets, either.’

‘I begin to like this place. All right, so where are we going from here?’

‘We’ll spend some time at one of the common areas. I think you’ll like it there. However, because this is the first time you’re going there, I’ll have to hold your hand.’

‘Really?’ Tim thought this was funny. ‘Being a kid again?’

‘As a matter of fact, you’re like a newborn by Island standard. As I said earlier, you’ll have to learn much here, very much. Now, holding hands means that our force fields must be connected. Not the same way as when we merged to experience love but we must touch at least at one point. And here is why we have to connect. The common area I’m taking you to is far from here. If you were to walk at the speed you used to walk on Earth, it would take you a long time to get there. It’s almost on the other side of the Island. Going through doors would not get us there because a fairly large area in the middle of the Island is off limit to us. The doors leading there open only for those with third level clearance... So, when I hold your hand and speed up to get to the common area in an instant, I’ll take you with me. Next time, of course, you’ll be able to do it on your own. Once you get familiar with certain areas, or when you know exactly where you want to go, you can generate your mental command to commute at top speed.’

‘Passing only through open space?’ Tim asked. ‘Like in the corridor?’

‘Every area not part of the inner off limit circle opens from the corridor. The door leading to any such area will also instantly open for you immediately when you start your high speed commute. Of course, if you decide to go slowly, the doors will slide open slowly, too, but they will be wide open for you when you get there to pass through.’

‘Incredible,’ Tim sighed. ‘Just plain incredible.’

‘So, ready? Here we go,’ Mag said and touched Tim’s hand.

In no time, they were in what Tim thought looked like a bowling alley on Earth. This chamber was much larger than the one he arrived in.

‘I can introduce you to some of the Islanders here,’ Mag said.

‘Islanders?!’

‘That’s what we are called.’

‘Oh, of course, I should have known,’ Tim said casually. ‘What else, right? Island… Islanders. Makes sense… And… how many of them are there in this… what is this place anyway? Don’t tell me it’s some kind of an entertainment center.’

Mag laughed. ‘Tim, you never fail to amaze me. We just step in here, and you get it right immediately. That’s what it is, an entertainment center. Look around! How many of us do you think you see?’

 

Click Part 2 under Menu in the upper left corner