A Survivor's Guide to Eternity(14)

The fox’s ears pricked up as his head came to attention on his brown furry neck, sprouting elegantly from his relaxed horizontal body.

“In all honestly, probably not. We both seem to have very different experiences and beliefs. I can’t see anything in there to suggest that.”

“I agree,” replied Ed before continuing, “I might, however, have been ‘praying to the wrong one’, as you mentioned earlier. We can’t exclude that.

The more I think about it, the less I consider religion as a possible factor. There are just too many factions and religions to choose from. There must be something else.”

“I agree. Can you remember your last moments yet, Ed?”

“Well, to a point but not really. It’s sketchy. I was driving back to London from a business trip. I owned a company that was doing quite well. I was a bit of a wacky inventor and some of my stuff started to get noticed.”

“What sort of stuff?” enquired the fox, sitting upright.

“I had invented numerous things that hadn’t really taken off, but then I invented a really clever unit that melted snow off your shoes before going indoors. It was basically a solar powered box that you would step into. The base was a pressure plate and the weight on it would turn it on, gently close the four sides above your ankles, and streams of hot air would be pumped onto the top, sides and backs of your feet. There were also jets coming out from the footplate underneath to clean the soles. The snow would melt off and disperse through drainage pipes on one side of the device and the feet would be thoroughly warmed in the sixty second cycle. It would then open up, and after you got out it cleaned itself with high powered water jets coming out of all the pipes excluding the footplate. It was a big hit in Russia and Scandinavia but the real deal maker for me was the solar power system I used. With the use of mirrors, I devised a way to multiply tenfold the power generated by solar panels. That led to the development of my company, ‘CubiZ’, which developed this technology to the next level. It ended up with a translucent cube structure with multiple solar cells and mirrors inside. With the use of the mirrors, the light would be trapped going between the cells numerous times, magnifying the charge. I started doing little portable ones which had a cable and one, two or three plugs as an extension. Then they started to get bigger and bigger until I merged with another company specialising in power generators and we started to develop much more ambitious devices. We had got to the point where music festivals such as Glastonbury and Sonicville were using them for most of their onsite power.”

“Fantastic ideas. You must have been worth a few quid then?”

“Well I’d ploughed the majority of it back into the company. Developing the larger units was very troublesome. They would sometimes overheat, even melt in some instances. I was comfortable for sure, but it would have been a few years until I could really have sat back with the mattress full of cash. Things were starting to go well though. As it happens, I became a tortoise instead.”

“Well look on the bright side, at least you’re still naturally powered,” said the fox as he lay back down into reclined luxury on the twigs and leaves.

“Yes, that’s some compensation. Better laughing than crying - that’s if tortoises and foxes could laugh.”

“Anyway, back to my previous question. What can you remember about that last trip?”

“Just flashes, like people holding up big cardboard backed pictures for a second or so and then they’re gone. Snippets and glimpses. I definitely remember getting in the car and driving the 303. I ended up on the M3 heading into London. I had numerous annoying texts coming in on my iPhone. That’s all I can remember.”

“In all likelihood you probably crashed your car because you were sending a bloody text. How idiotic can you be? What age were you?”

“I was in my late thirties. Yes, it’s pointing towards something as ridiculous as that. To be honest, if it was a car crash then I’m really glad I can’t remember it.”

“I was in my early fifties. It’s good having this opportunity to discuss things because you can rule certain things out. We were different ages, different religious beliefs and died in completely different ways. It’s very important for us to discuss as much as we can in the next day or so. I realised how important this is after many rebirths. Until I met you, I hadn't met another Transient like I did on my first visit. You are also very lucky to have met me first time, Ed.”

“I can see that.”

“Each encounter is not to be taken for granted. Make the most of it, try and find out if there is any common ground, any rhyme and reason why this might be happening,” replied Sam, twisting and turning in the twigs and leaves, trying to convince himself against the odds that the new position would be more comfortable than the old. A brief silence ensued, pristine and still.