Bromford Below - Part 23

 
»I cannot see them«, the llama says.

»See what?« Nigel asks looking through the train windows into the darkness with the llama.

»The monsters in the tunnels«, the llama says, »they are either not moving and hiding or they are gone.«

»Somebody said«, Nigel says, »the real monster under the beds was time or something like that.«

They are still here with me, my roommates and travelling companions, and they have heard everything that I heard. They heard Sayid's warning about the monsters in the tunnels and they heard Rachel's  speech about time. But did they understand it? Did I understand it?

»We are in waggon 2, now.«

Kylie is leaning her head against my shoulder.

»Didn't that Sawyer guy in waggon 10 say we would meet his nemesis and arch-enemy in this waggon?«

»Yeah«, Nigel seems to be excited for no reason, »That would be Jack Skellington, king of Halloween who stole away the spirit of Christmas once.«

»That was a real Nightmare before Christmas«, the llama says in a bored way.

»There he is«, Nigel is pointing at a man around his fifties with dark but grey sprinkled hair and beard.

»Do I look like a Skellington?« the man asks.

I know him. He is owner and inhabitant of Apartment 23 on 666 Whitaker Lane, in Bromford, the forsaken town by the bay and seaside. And his name is Jack Shepard, not Skellington.

»We have to go back«, Doctor Jack says looking at me.

He is a famous surgeon but never was my doctor. And he is specialized on impossible cases. But one day he was in a car accident and his hands were severely injured. And of course he wasn't able to operate on himself. So he went to a hidden monastery in some Asian country in the Himalaya Mountains to find some sort of cure if not for his body then at least for his soul. And so a lot of magic stuff began.

»We have to go back to the Himalaya, Doctor Shepard?« I ask. »Leave Apartment 23 of 666 Whitaker Lane to find our inner Sorcerer Supreme?«

»You are mixing things up, Bromford Bibble«, Jack Shepard says. »I am not Doctor Steven Strange, you know?«

He is a good shepherd, I think. And his father, Christian Shepard, is a god-like figure, at least to his son. Does this mean that Jack is Je… I do not want to complete this thought. I am an agnostic. Maybe the existence of God - and Jesus as God the son - the existence of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. Human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist.

And wasn't this Jack the new Jacob, the real Jacob in the end? Protector of the island? Guardian over the huge plug that kept all smoke monsters underground where they belonged? Why do I sometimes feel like I was with all the others on flight 815 when it crashed on the island? Why am I still a lost soul?

»So, we have to go back to the island?« I ask Jack.

»No«, is the answer. »We have to go back to Bangkok. That's my hometown and the place where my family lives. And we have to hurry, for we sure don't want to be late for and miss the great Christmas Dinner in two days.«

🎄🎄🎄🕯🎄🎅
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🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🕯

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"Bromford City"

I'm going to Bromford City
Bromford City here I come
I'm going to Bromford City
Bromford City here I come
They got a crazy way of loving there
And I'm gonna get me some

I'm gonna be standing on the corner
On the corner of Twelth Street and Vine
I`ll be standing on the corner
On the corner of Twelth Street and Vine
With my Bromford City baby
The one I call Miss KC fine

Well I might take a train
I might take a plane
But if I have to walk
I'm going there just the same.