The Holding Room

Awakenings Peggy Wilson was the first to die. She was also the first to awaken. The surroundings were strange. There was no bright light as she had expected. Instead there was only a darkness that was darker than anything she had ever seen before. It was as if the darkest sky yielded nothing in the way of light from the faintest of stars. It was blacker than the blackest black she had ever seen. It was cold and damp. To add to the confusion there was a strange physical sensation she had never before felt and the troubling thoughts it produced. The sensation was both exciting and sexual, coming from the area inside her groin. Suddenly she knew exactly what it was, and the thought of what it might be caused her to repulse. “An erection!” she cried out with the horror of a woman who thought all such thoughts to be pornographic at best. “What the…hell,” she screamed. Glancing downward, and daring to take a look, it appeared her first thoughts were indeed correct. At first she was afraid to touch it, let alone continue to look at what was now becoming obvious. The bulge in her pants left little doubt as to what it was. It was, “An erection?” But she was a woman, or so she thought. Almost as startling was the response to her question. It came out of the darkness. The voice that answered came from a person across the room, one that she had not seen when she first awakened. She found it hard to discern just who was doing the talking. There was a faint outline of a person, but because of the intense darkness it was difficult to make out the features. She was sure it was the voice of woman and quite certain it sounded vaguely familiar. That’s when she saw the body from which the voice emanated. It did indeed come from a woman and it was a woman who was extremely familiar. It was her, or at least it looked like her! But if it was her, then who was this strange person nursing an erection in the body of a man looking back. Peggy Wilson was speechless and confused and excited. “Yes, let’s just say that things are a little confusing at first,” the voice coming from her body replied. “Confusing!” she screamed. “It’s an erection! How can you explain an erection in an 84 year old woman,” she screamed. “I know what one looks like…now, as to what one feels like that’s a different subject!” As she continued she noticed the deepness in what she believed to be her voice. A voice as foreign as the body she now occupied. “You were an 84 year old woman,” the voice replied. Your body still is. That is the body that I now occupy. You spirit is elsewhere. Based on the fact that you are speaking for Peggy Wilson, it would appear that your spirit is in another body…his body.” “So let me see if I have this right. You are in my body and I am in someone else’s body?” “The body of a man to be correct….” Peggy Wilson took a few moments to digest what had just been stated so matter-of-factly. “Am I dead?” “Very!” the voice replied. “Are you?” “That would seem to be the case,” the voice replied. “God!” “Yes.”