A Night In Annwn. Owen Jones

that now?”

      “Yes, if you want. You are well enough for her. One second, please”.

      Sarah stood up and opened a door that he had not noticed up until that moment. Kiddy bounded in wagging her tail.

      “Hello, girl, how are you?” She jumped up onto the bed and lay alongside his body.. William wanted to stroke her head, but could not seem to make his hands do it.

      “She has been such a comfort to me, since you, er, passed over”.

      “I know, but you were never truly alone for long and after my return to here, there has always been someone with you”.

      “I was sure that you were there, but I didn’t feel anyone else”.

      “Oh, there were many... your parents, your grandparents on both sides, that girl who fancied you in school - I forget her name now...”

      “Gwladys...”

      “That’s the one... and many, many more besides”.

      “I didn’t notice them, I only had eyes for you, my love”.

      “You always were a smooth talker, but thanks for saying it. It still feels nice. We are supposed to try to lose those Earthly pleasures, but everyone agrees that it takes ages…. which reminds me. How on Earth could you allow our lovely home to look and smell like it does? Becky is an absolute saint for taking care of you the way she does. Don’t you realise that she has her own family to take care of? I try not to feel shame and embarrassment any more, but you have managed to make me feel them. I didn’t know what to say when I saw other people like me going to check up on you. Really, William, you must make more of an effort to take good care of yourself! And poor old Kiddy had to live in that mess as well. You should be ashamed of yourself, William, for subjecting your friend to those conditions”.

      “I’m sorry, old girl”, he said trying again to stroke her head. “The dog, I mean, not you, Sarah. I just never thought about her minding, or that my friends and relatives would see how I was living. I am ashamed to think of it now though”.

      “And so you should be, but don’t dwell on it too much, just live and learn. That’s the name of the game”.

      “Does that mean that my parents are here?”

      “Yes, somewhere, but I’m not sure where. I can find out though, if you want”.

      “No, it’s all right for now, perhaps we can meet them later when we go walkabout”.

      “Yes, all right, my dear, I’ll speak to them later”.

      “I have just noticed how vital Kiddy looks… she has lost her grey hair. Do I look younger too?”

      “It is best if I explain something about looks. Here, in Annwn and places like it, your looks are basically an expression of who you are inside, the real you. Since we don’t have the heavy physical bodies that we once had, we can appear to others how we feel, and we can modify that to some extent through will power, although most of us don’t bother after a while. It is far easier to change the way you think in order to have a beneficial effect on the way you appear than to constantly have to be thinking about moulding your body to how you would like it to look.

      “Having said that, those on the Surface remember us in the form we had when we died, which was why you didn’t recognise me for sometime earlier, even though I was calling you by my pet name for you. Do you see what I mean? When I came back to the cottage I had to concentrate on making myself appear old and bent so that you would know who I was and not be afraid.

      “Believe me, trying to hold a false image for a sustained period is hard work. It takes a lot of strength and a lot of skill obtained through practice, which is why I said that it is better to change from the inside out. Still, when needs must…”

      “Is that why you kept shimmering and disappearing?”

      “I wasn’t aware that I was doing that, but yes, probably. It really is very difficult. I would concentrate on holding the image, go to say something and forget about my appearance. At least I won’t have to do that again with you”.

      “Sorry, you didn’t answer my question… Do I look young and handsome again?”

      “You’ll do for me, my dear, but the short answer is no. You still have your body, and it is old with all that that entails… You know, sagging skin, weak muscles, curved spine, grey hair, drooping fat…”

      “Yes, all right I get the picture, and what a handsome one of me it is that you paint too”.

      “I’m sorry, but we become used to working on the inner person down here and one of the exercises is telling the truth… and you did ask. I didn’t volunteer it to hurt you, did I? Anyway, your physical body has sort of moulded the real you inside it, and so without liberation from it and without training, you look just the same here as you do up there.

      “No, that is not quite true. Here you are not actually carrying your physical body around with you, so you will probably feel lighter, more nimble, more active, and that will make you happier. You will probably feel twenty years younger when we go out for a look around later”.

      “That’s something to look forward to anyway… But wait a moment! If I am not dead, er, sorry, if I am still alive, and that’s what you said right?” She nodded. “Where is my body?”

      “It’s in hospital”.

      “I thought the doctor just told me that I am in hospital”.

      “Yes, he did, but he only agreed with you to avoid having to have this discussion with you himself. We thought that that would be better coming from me”.

      “So, are you saying that I am not in hospital, but my body is… somewhere?”

      “Yes, but you could call this a hospital too, if you wanted to. You are recuperating after a very nasty shock. It’s just that we don’t deal with physical bodies here. Your other half is in the Cardiff Heath Hospital”.

      “So, it’s over there, about forty miles away, and I’m down here under the mountains?”

      “Yes, it is an over simplification, but it will do”.

      “Will I ever see it again?”

      “Oh, yes. You will be reunited with it when it and you have recovered sufficiently. It shouldn’t be long”.

      “OK, I am not worried about that… in fact I’m not worried about anything surprisingly…”

      “Good”, smiled Sarah, “that’s the way we like it”.

      “It’s just that I have so many questions. How did I get here? And how did my body get over there?”

      “Ah, good questions.

      “I’ll deal with you first and then your body, because they are two different stories. I check up on you from time to time during the day and night, as you know, and I knew that you went to the pub with Dai, so I left you to it. Sometime later, I checked at home and when you still weren’t there I started down for the village. I came across you and Kiddy by that old resting rock. So, I sort of ‘brought you around’ using terms that you would understand and called back here for help. The help brought you back here for me, because I could see that it wasn’t your time to leave your body for good.

      “However, there was nothing we could do for your body, so I hurried to Becky, who was in bed asleep and spoke to her in her dream. I’m afraid I scared her a bit, because she interpreted what I said as a nightmare. She woke her husband John up and told him that she had had a horrible dream that you had collapsed on the road back from the pub – ‘dead drunk’, was the expression I think she used.

      “Anyway, she wouldn’t give John any peace, so he told her that he’d mind the kids while she went to check the cottage. I won’t tell you what they said about you not having a mobile phone. Still, she found your body easily enough with me standing over