“Do you ever think about reincarnation?”
“In what sense?”
“Maybe we are the reincarnation of our ancestors. So, really we are only living our lives over and over like a messed-up version of purgatory.”
“That would mean there is only a set number of people in existence I’m not even sure how that would work. Given that the number of people on the planet isn’t a constant.”
“Maybe more people are just getting a chance to live?”
“Sure, I guess but why? Why now is God or whatever allowing more people to live?”
“Because things are better than they were?”
“Are they though? If anything, things are only worse and getting worse,” she points out. The silence between them comes flooding back in. “What if you never have kids or can’t? What then your family line ends?”
“Then your family line ends I guess.”
“Okay, where do the extra people come from if there is only a set number of us to jump back in?”
“I don’t know. Okay let’s say that if your family line ends then you join another family somewhere else and start over. That could be where the idea of soul mates comes from. They are looking to find their lost family.”
“I think that the idea of soul mates is dumb enough on its own let alone to be part of your crazy theory. Honestly it seems like you are pulling this whole thing out of your ass.”
“A theory by any other name,” a long pause. “Okay, but I’m just saying it could be part of it. It doesn’t have to be the end all be all of life, but it could be. Would explain our inherit need to multiply. Each birth is another chance bring someone back to life.”
“What if you die as a child? How is that fair? Within your theory they didn’t get to enjoy a full life or search for their soul mate. They barely got a chance to do anything. What happens to them then?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You brought it up and now we have to talk about it. I know you are thinking about it.”
“I wasn’t thinking about it.”
“Where else could your theory have come from?”
“I’ll admit it was strange that we tried for so long and it wasn’t until my grandmother passed that our daughter was born. I was thinking about that.”
“So, you think that our daughter contained the soul of your dead grandmother?”
“Well, I don’t think this I’ve only just thought of this because you asked.”
“If our daughter was your grandmother than why?” She pauses trying to keep it together. “Why isn’t she here anymore? She never did anything wrong or hurtful to anyone. Why wasn’t she given more time?”
“I don’t know.”
Valerie Hannigan
For me this is fiction. I have never lost a child, but I can’t say that I have never thought about it. I can’t say that it isn’t a fear either. When I started the story, I wasn’t even thinking about it. Probably had ten million other thoughts on my mind. As my children screamed that they wanted more juice, more food, more of my time, and more of my patience. Then the idea of reincarnation and coming back as something else came into my mind. I’m not sure why, but the desire to be anything else became overwhelming. That is what I wanted to explore.
Maybe, I will go back and explore that idea some other time. Sometimes though we start off wanting to write about one thing and the story takes us someplace else. Some places darker than even we would like. I thought about going into more details and really driving the point home, but I’m not really sure I wanted to go there. Not today at least. I also wanted to push myself to write a story that didn’t contain a setting or a reason for existing. Ambrose calls these passing moment stories. Stories or ideas that are interesting, but don’t go anywhere further.
Writing for the internet is much different than writing for other media. It is about right here right now. Cut to the heart and throw away the rest. I can’t say that I enjoy it more or less. This style is not my preferred way of getting an idea across. I’ll probably never write a story in this format again. With that I am happy with the way it turned out. The story said what it needed to say and so did I.
When She Finishes a Book… We Will Promote It…
Fuck off.
Until Then We Do Have Other Things…
Nothing with my name on it.
I refuse to be ignored.
Is That A Funeral? 