Chapter 3. A wandering soul
"If I was in my own time, I would go for a shower now and take you with me. Here
there is only a basin and pitcher of cold water. Still we can rub each other dry
with these soft cloths."
Each got to see the others body in some detail during the drying. Eric once more
remarked on the welts across covering her flesh. Again he was told to be
patient. Dressing in loose robes, they returned to the kitchen and sat around
the fire.
"I can make tea if you like."
"I thought tea was horribly expensive at this time."
"It is but in my wandering, I get to bring back things from one time zone to
another. I cannot bring much and I cannot bring anything that I wouldn't
actually find in this time. Nor can I pay for what I get so the tea is actually
yours and I stole it on one of my visits. I guess you must have been puzzled
when you found the only packet of loose tea in your cupboard was empty. I
couldn't take the tea bags, they aren't made for another century or so."
"Oh, you little thief. Yes, I did wonder about the tea. I could not remember
using it and knew it couldn't be mice. In the end I blamed some workmen who did
a job in the house. You ought to have your bum smacked for that." Suiting
actions to his words, Eric pulled the woman over his knee, lifted her robes and
gave her a mock spanking until they were both laughing and Violet was squealing
with pretense hurt. "Let that be a lesson to you," he stated, "Next time you can
expect it to be worse but tonight I cannot wait any longer to find out about how
you came to be a wandering soul."
"Well it is really starting at the end of the story but I doubt if you will
understand the beginning if you cannot accept the concept of souls wandering
through time. It is a very rare occurrence and usually produces what most people
would call a 'ghost'."
"I know many in the twenty-first century do not believe people have a soul. Let
me assure you they have. Only ghosts if you want to call me one, can vouch for
that with certainty. When you die, within seconds your soul is collected by
unseen beings and taken to another place which some call heaven. In actual fact
it is a sort of storage place and when a new baby is born, a rejuvenated soul is
taken from storage and starts a new life in the baby. Very occasionally the soul
of a dead person is missed and they become a ghost. A being that is neither
alive nor dead. Most just stay in one place, usually the place they should have
fully died but a few can wander around both in space and time. This is the case
with me."
"I thought this soul business a lot of twaddle but now you are wanting me to
believe it is true," Eric interrupted.
"Oh yes, it is true alright. The main difference between the religion I was
brought up to believe and the actuality is there is no heaven and no hell. I
told you earlier I didn't jump from the train, my husband threw me out. I was
murdered or he thought he had killed me. And I should be dead too. It was all
due to a split second mistake on his part.
I told you he married me for money. He was an inveterate gambler and lost huge
sums of money at cards or racing. While my father was alive, I was relatively
safe because although he was fairly generous in giving if I asked for it for a
specific purpose, he refused to prop up his debts and in fact both my parents
went on an extended trip to Italy soon after my marriage and I didn't see them
for a number of years. When he couldn't get the money from my family, Geoffrey
my husband, loaned me to his friends for payment or used as collateral in his
card games. In both cases it was my body that earned the money and as I wasn't a
pretty young thing, they wanted more than just sex for payment.
Then two years ago mother died and ten months later father met with a riding
accident which I later found out through my wanderings, wasn't an accident but
murder made to look like one. I inherited the estate and the money. Lord
Geoffrey, my husband, now knew that if I died he would get the whole of it for
himself. At first he just whipped me until I paid whatever debt he had or
whatever item he wanted but I moved into my fathers house and he wasn't able to
get at me. But on the fateful 28th September, I attended a funeral of the mother
of a friend in Lowestoft. Geoffrey must have known this and arranged to travel
back at the same train.
He heard of my plans to attend several days before and travelled to and from
Lowestoft on the previous day it must have been then the plan was drawn up. I
had a first class ticket and so did he. It was only at the last minute did he
jump on the train and with very few first class travellers I found myself alone
in a whole compartment with him. I hoped someone else would join us and when one
couple did try and enter our compartment, Geoffrey pleaded that we had just
attended the funeral of a dear relative and could we be allowed to grieve alone.
They moved to the next. I pleaded with him not to cause trouble but he just
smiled and sat opposite me.
We sat almost in silence but I noticed he frequently opened his pocket watch to
check the time. A mile or so before we came to the tunnel, which I didn't know
was there, Geoffrey lowered the window, 'to let some air in and blow the cobwebs
away'. He had a bit of a struggle to get the leather belt from over the brass
stud but the window itself slid down easily enough. When we entered the tunnel,
smoke poured in and I immediately tried to raise the glass again and succeeded
in getting it halfway up before he gave me a vicious clout and said to leave it.
It took him a few seconds to lower it and then I felt him grab my wrists and
feet and propel me head first through the opening. However, by then we had just
emerged from the tunnel and landed on the grass of the cutting. The speed of
train caused me to roll quite a way and I ended in some tangled undergrowth
where the thick smoke lingered.
Unbeknown to anyone, a drunken woman tramp had lain down in the warm grass in
the sunshine to sleep off the effects of liquor. She was there when the soul
collectors came and in the smoke they took her soul, not mine. I had died but my
soul or spirit hadn't left me. I was dead but still alive. My body felt sore and
bruised but I could still walk and I knew I had to get away. What I didn't know
then was that people couldn't see me. I made my way to this house which I had
bought for other purposes and which Geoffrey didn't know of. Frightened and
exhausted I lay down on the bed in the other room. The place was deserted and
hadn't been lived in for a while."
A hour or so later I was woken by the voice of the soul collector who apologised
for what happened. The tramp woman had been found and it was decided she had
died of a stroke so they kept her soul and didn't need mine but I couldn't be
declared dead because I had my soul and I wasn't really alive either. It all
seemed unbelievable but the voice went on to explain about wandering souls and
how I would keep on living a pseudo real life until I really did die. That might
not be for centuries. It went on to explain how I could move forwards and
backwards in time, how I couldn't alter anything that was officially recorded,
how I could only make myself into a real solid person in this present time
unless my body melded with one from another era and how to remain more or less
invisible. Only when, as now, I am a solid person am I living a real life and
heading towards the end of my natural life span. While I am non visible, I can
live for ever."
"So at the moment you are wasting your life away with me?" Eric enquired.
"It was no waste, Eric dear. That was living. A ghost's life can be quite
boring. How would you like to watch your life on a multi-channeled TV set? You
could watch but do little to alter the programme content. That is what life has
been like for me for the last 135 years. It was interesting at first when I
could go over my life and follow the lives of others. That's how I found out
about Geoffrey. I also found out how he got away with my murder although it not
work out quite the way he expected."
"After he had thrown me out," Violet continued her narrative, "He crawled along
the corridor under the level of the glass windows, to the toilet. On the way
back he walked passed the next carriage and touched his hat to the occupants,
opened the door and thanked them for giving us some time alone. He told them I
was still very upset. As soon as he returned to our carriage he expressed grief
and horror at finding the window open and my not being there. It took some time
to locate the guard and he refused to try and stop the train. They had a lot of
fish in the freight wagons and it had to get to London on time. He did
eventually agree to stop the train at the next station and Geoffrey arranged
with the station master to get back to the site. It took them nearly an hour and
a half to return to the tunnel. By then I was gone. Only the body of the woman
tramp. Everyone talked of it as a great mystery. How could I have disappeared? I
must be alive but although the surroundings were searched, including this house,
nothing was found. There was another theory. I didn't jump from the train but
hid somewhere until the train reached its destination or somewhere in between.
You can read the story in the archives of Times and other old newspapers.
From Geoffrey's point of view, it was a disaster. As there was no body, I
couldn't be declared dead and he couldn't get at my money or estate. He believed
there would be a wait seven years for that and then a cousin of mine might
dispute his right to it and perhaps a long court battle before it was shared
out. He needed money immediately. I had other plans and went back to The Beeches
and showed myself to the staff so they knew I was alive.
All this because the window belt stud was tight. Had I been thrown out a few
seconds earlier, I would certainly have hit the tunnel walls and definitely
killed and my soul taken."
Next morning Eric awoke, turned over to look at the digital clock and couldn't
see it. Reaching out for the light his arm touched the naked woman alongside him
and he remembered. It wasn't a dream. The caressing touch woke her. She turned
to kiss him and felt the piss hard cock touch her belly. "You feel like you are
ready for another bout," she whispered while stroking the rigid pole.
"I need to piss. Guess I have to find my way to the outhouse in this age."
"There's the pot under the bed," Violet reminded him, "and there's a candle by
the bed."
Dawn was just breaking and by the feint light coming through the windows, he
fumbled for the matches and lit the candle. It cast a yellow glow over the woman
alongside him and cast shadows that emphasized the scars on her face. Kissing
them, her mouth and her breasts he crawled over her and found the chamber pot.
Turning his back to her and kneeling he was about to start the flow, when she
asked him to turn and face her way.
"Eric, dear," she said, "I have spent many hours watching you when you didn't
know I was there. I have seen what you do in bed, at the computer and on the
toilet so you have nothing to hide from me just because you can actually see me
now. Last night we did very intimate things to each other. Let's not get
embarrassed by simple body functions. I not only want to watch, I want to feel
it too which is something I couldn't do when in my un-solid state." Suiting
action to words, Violet slipped out of bed and knelt on the other side and
lightly held his cock. It was still semi rigid but she was able to bend it
sufficiently to aim it inside the bowl but it took a little while before the
flow started.
Eric, unused to being so close to undiluted piss, was somewhat surprised at the
strong smell. Violet shook his cock when the stream abated and then gave the
foreskin a few rubs. There was a slight coating of urine on it from the
splashing so she lifted it to her mouth and suckled it. It both delighted and
surprised Eric. Remarking on it he was taken back when she said, "As you will
see in your travels with me, I have been made to do much worse."
Taking his place she peed in the pot and when finished, Eric decided he should
perform the same service on her. His tongue found the piss soaked hair and
licked around the entrance to her slit. It wasn't as unpleasant as he expected
and soon his tongue probed the entrance to her cunt before his lips closed
around her clitoris. Both were now very aroused and before long she was bent
over the edge of the bed while he took he doggie style.
"Do you mind it this way?" Eric asked.
"Just do it Eric, I have had it every possible way, in every hole by men and
women who had no love for me. For them I was just a means of getting some sexual
satisfaction. You at least seem to care."
*****
"Eric?" They sat around the kitchen stove having had breakfast and washed the
dishes. "Are you ready for this?" She was silent for a few moments and Eric
waited for her to continue. "Until last night, I had no real feelings for you.
From what I had seen of your behaviour, I just thought of you as a writer who
liked seeing cruel things done to a woman. After last night, I find that was
just on the surface. Underneath you are tender and loving and I have begun to
have feelings for you. Feelings I have rarely had before. Feelings you seem to
have for me. When I came into your life I just wanted a writer that could put
the record of my life straight, to show my life in a very graphical way and to
point out that I was murdered and did not try to commit suicide. I knew I would
have to give my body in return but I had been forced to do that so many times
before that I could not possibly matter. Now I am not so sure."
Violet paused as Eric put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
Looking into his eyes, she went on, "If I take you back and show you what I did
and what was done to me, you might be so repulsed and disgusted by it all that
you won't to see more that one fleeting glimpse. I know I can take you
unwillingly but after last night I feel less inclined to do that. You will see
me and others whipped and crying out in pain. It will be real pain, the cries
will be real, not the fakes of your videos and I suspect you will want to
interfere. You can't. All you can do is watch and remember that I will be
alongside you and the pain you see me in and the actions I am made to perform
are in the past."
"You mean you are going to take me and show things that happened to you and you
are going to have to watch and re-live the whole thing? How can you stand it?"
"Yes. It is a very strange experience to watch yourself as if on a film being
tortured and abused. At first I was very traumatised as it brought back memories
of the horror but I have been through it so many times now that I sort of shut
out the person, perhaps like you do when watching things on your computer but
you will be seeing it for the first time and it is your reactions I am worried
about. I am concerned it may affect your whole life. You may be so totally
disgusted with what I did you will never wish to see me again" She paused and
Eric was lost for words. He had no idea how he would react to seeing someone he
had become attached to being hurt, raped and possibly worse as she had hinted.
Eventually he told her so.
Both were silent for some minutes before Violet went on, "You probably know the
times I lived in were far more cruel than your time period. Whippings were
accepted as the normal form of punishment. I think for a our first journey back,
I will show you some of the things I saw happening to others. At the time I only
glimpsed part of the scenarios but we can see everything, particularly the
beating and rape of servants, which went on even in the best run houses. After
you have seen these early life stories, I will take you back to your time and
you can decide whether to continue or whether you would prefer it if I went out
of you life and left you alone completely. This whole thing would just become as
a dream."
"Vi, after last night I want to be with you always if that is possible. I could
probably even get used to the crude sanitation and facilities here if I had to."
"That's easy enough to say now, wait until you see some of the things I did and
were done to me. First though, we will go back to 1839 to my first experience of
sex. I was 13 years old. No, I didn't have sex at that age but I did witness it.
You have to remember, sex was a taboo subject then. It was not mentioned by my
parents, nor by my governess. I knew it existed in a vague sort of way from what
I heard from servants children who were far more educated than I on that
particular subject. Remember too that I was a disfigured girl, who hid herself
away from others at much as possible. In any case many of the servants children
thought I was a witch and kept away from me. So let us go back to my father's
house on an estate near Chelmsford. He was an industrialist specializing in
ironwork especially iron bridges and with the expansion of the railways he was a
wealthy man. Wealthier than many of the titled gentlemen. Hold my hand."
