Charlie III
Chapter 1
Rick tried to blink his confusion away since where he was didn't make any sense at all. He was seated in one of two seats that were side by side. He didn't have a seat mate, however. The two seats across from also had just one person. A quick look told him he was right up front of what he was taking to be a train car. There were a number of seats behind him.
He saw there was someone behind him and others behind him. That was when he noticed that men were on one side and women on the other. What he couldn't figure out was why he was on a train. He was…he was…somewhere else. He knew he was somewhere else, he was… Why couldn't he remember where he was? It wasn't here, but where had he been?
He sat there. It was a nice wide seat and he had lots of leg room. He noticed the car was mostly red with black stitching though it also had gold accents. There was an open shelf above him and one on the other side. There was a glass door in the middle of the wall. Since he didn't have a seat belt to hold him in place he got up to look through the door. What he saw was a small space that were the couplings between two cars. He saw the door to the next car in front of him.
Turning around he saw a lot of seats and another glass door at the far end. Why was he on a train? He always flew and never took a train. The car was nice enough but he didn't understand.
Then he heard a door open. He quickly turned in place and saw one of those conductors just like those in the movies. He began patting his pockets. He needed a ticket. Except as he patted then searched his pockets he found each of them totally empty just as this door opened.
Rick was in the way. "Sir, please be seated."
"Sorry." Rick immediately sat down. What could they do? Arrest him and have him taken away and jailed? The train was clearly moving.
"The menu and drink choices." The conductor handed Rick a single card and one to the lady across from him and continued his way down the car. The card didn't tell him what train he was on which would have helped. Reading the card, it looked like he had two choices. Each came with its own sides and the drinks…. The drinks were water and juices. Not sodas and no alcohol. What kind of train was this?
Rick watched him leave and while he did open his mouth to stop him to question him he was gone too fast.
Rick went back to reading his choices. Chicken and steak with very simple sides. It didn't say things like green beans with almonds or bacon or anything. Mashed potatoes and not baked potatoes with everything on top. They were all like that. Really simple. "What kind of train is this?"
ooOoo
The same conductor was back to take his order and he had a book to write it down in.
"May I ask a question?" Rick actually had a lot of questions.
"I'm sorry but I'm on a tight schedule." The conductor turned and took an order from the lady across from him.
"Where are we going?" Rick got in before he left.
"Train station, of course," the conductor told Rick and moved on.
"Train station. Which train station?" Only he just kept going.
He wanted to ask either the lady across from him or the man behind him but that would be intruding into their space so he just sat there.
ooOoo
A different man showed up with a cart that held a few plates that he handed out that he uncovered and handed out after explaining how to raise their table so they could eat.
Right behind him was the man serving water and juices. Rick tried again. "May I ask a question? Where is this train going?"
"Train station," he replied and handed a drink to the lady across from him.
Rick was getting frustrated. "Which train station?"
"The main station, of course," he responded and followed the first server with the food.
"You mean Grand Central Terminal?" Only he didn't answer him and continued down the car.
"At least I'm still in New York." But it didn't answer why his pockets were empty. He didn't even have his cell phone on him. He always had his cell phone.
ooOoo
Rick had cooked better himself countless times, however, it wasn't terrible. The chicken was a touch dry and took some extra chewing. The sides tasted more like they'd come straight out of a can and only been warmed up. Even the rolls felt like they had been frozen at one time.
The orange juice that he had selected as his drink was filled with pulp and not to his taste. Then the same servers that had delivered it showed up to clean up and take it all away.
"Excuse me, but is there any Scotch?" Rick asked after one passed him by.
"No alcohol," he said and kept going.
Rick saw the other man coming with an armful of plates and glasses.
Rick made another attempt. "Is there coffee?"
"No coffee," Rick was told.
"What kind of train is this? No alcohol and no coffee. I hate this trip. And just where are we going anyway?" Rick still didn't know how he'd ended up on this train.
He didn't remember booking a trip to go anywhere. He didn't have need to go anywhere. He had everything he needed in the city and if he was going to go somewhere he would have taken them with him.
Rick never saw anyone else and looking outside didn't help at all. Every time he looked out his window all he saw was blackness. The kind of blackness you only saw out in space.
"A dream, maybe? …Twilight Zone. That's it! This is a Twilight Zone episode. No, that doesn't make any sense. Mother's the actress not me. It's not even my birthday." It wasn't… It wasn't… "Why can't I remember her name? We're married." Rick was sure of it so why would he forget the name of his wife?
Then suddenly light started to shine in through his and everyone else's window. That had him putting his face against the glass to see what was out there.
As he watched they slowly pulled in next to another train until they stopped. And then just like that someone showed up at the door, opened it, and announced that they had arrived and everyone could disembark.
That had him up and past that man, over to the door leading out, and down the steps. It sure looked like a train station.
Walking to the front of the train he saw signs. But they weren't signs that tell him what he was looking for. There should be signs telling him which way to which street. There should also be shops selling all kinds of junk, but there weren't any.
He finally saw someone in a uniform. "Excuse me?" Rick needed answers.
"Through the doors at the end. All passengers go through the doors." He pointed and told everyone behind him the same thing. From what Rick could see only his train had any passengers that were getting off. But as he stood there looking around he saw a train start to leave.
"Fine." Rick headed for the main double doors along with everyone else. He felt like a cow being herded or a lemming heading for a cliff. He was simply doing what everyone else was doing.
After going through the doors everything changed. He was in a room that reminded him of the room in China or Canada at the Disney World Showcase. There was something to hang onto and what looked like screens all around him.
"What? How did I get here?" He certainly hadn't walked here. He'd simply gone through the doors along with everyone else then everyone vanished. "HELLO?"
That seemed to have gotten him something as a man walked in carrying a computer pad by the look of it. "Great, where am I?" Rick asked him. Instead of answering him the man pressed something on his pad and suddenly all the screens around him erupted to life and Rick saw pictures on all of them.
"Richard Alexander Rodgers. Richard Edgar Castle. Born April 1st –"
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Rick asked him.
"I'm your reviewer," he said. "We need to get through this since I have several more to do that came off your train."
"My reviewer? What is there to review?" Rick didn't get it.
"Your life. Everyone goes through a review to determine where they go next. It looks like you've been busy. Thrown out of every boarding school you've ever been entered in." Rick suddenly saw pictures of each and every one, including people he'd long since forgotten.
"A cow on the roof." Rick saw a picture of the cow on the roof. "And a police record, I see. Stole a horse –"
"Borrowed," Rick informed him.
"Borrowing any object suggests that the owner allowed you to use it. You had none, therefore you stole it. And you were naked at the time." Rick suddenly saw his naked ass on a police horse.
"How did you? Where did you get that picture?" His…his… Rick was forgetting someone or really two someones.
"We have every picture of your life. From the moment you were born, to the moment you died."
"That's impossible no one… Died!? Did you just say died?" Rick questioned him.
"Try to keep up, Mr. Rodgers, or do you prefer Mr. Castle."
"Castle. I died?" Rick questioned him.
"That's why you are here, Mr. Castle. To review your life and decide what happens to you next," his reviewer corrected him.
"So this is Heaven?" Didn't look like any Heaven he had ever heard about or even dreamed up.
"This is a train station, Mr. Castle. Surely you remember your trip on your train to get here?"
"My train trip." Rick remembered his trip but now why he was on the train?
"The train picked up after your death and brought you to this station so we can review your life. It looks like you've had an interesting life. You've gone from a self-absorbed, egotistical jackass who was only interested mostly in himself even after having a daughter." The reviewer then went back to looking over his pad.
"Alexis!" Suddenly as if by magic he remembered Alexis. How could he have ever possibly forgotten her? She was the center of his life.
"Then you started following around a homicide detective." He put up a series of pictures about that time in his life after taking down the ones of Alexis.
"Kate." Just seeing her had his heart swell even more.
"You've handled quite a number of homicides with her over the last few years. Even this one." Rick looked and saw the wall around him filled with pictures of Bracken. If there was ever a man who deserved to be caught it was him.
"Bracken. All those people he had ordered killed. All those drugs he had sold and all those lives he had ruined. All those families he had destroyed. All because he thought being President was going to change things." Rick closed his eyes since he didn't need to see him any longer.
"She was your third wife. Third time is the charm they say," the reviewer offered as Rick opened his eyes and saw Kate in three different wedding dresses. Only one of which he actually recognized.
"How? Who are you?" Rick didn't know how he got all these pictures. He also knew far too much. He knew there shouldn't be any pictures of any of this.
"My name is Aron Mordke Kozmiński. I'm your reviewer to your next phase of life," Aron told him yet again. Though he was used to this. Actually so far Rick was keeping up and handling it better than most. Most broke down and sobbed though their entire review.
"Aron Kozmiński. I know that name. Where have I heard that name?" Rick tried to concentrate. Then he had it and his eyes shot open in shock. "JACK THE RIPPER!?"
"So you've heard of me?" Now it was his turn to be impressed. "That was a different life. Then I died, went through my review, and ended up here."
"You didn't end up in Hell?" How had he not ended up in Hell? What he had done more than deserved it. He hadn't just killed those women, he had butchered them. Carved them up almost like they were cattle.
In Aron's mind this was Hell. He was forced to review millions and millions of lives and decide where they went to next. Yes, there were others, but time here didn't mean anything at all. Richard Castle could have been there for years for all he knew. Actually, everyone he saw could have been here for years. Time, he had learned, was not linear. Time didn't progress like everyone thought it did.
"We're here for you and since I have several thousand or more to do, we're done here." Aron pressed a button on his pad and opened a far door. "This way, Mr. Castle."
Rick watched him head toward the door. What he wanted to do was go back the way he'd come. Surely they could have saved his life and he could go back!
Rick ran to catch up to him. "You sure this isn't a Heaven Can Wait episode?" Rick questioned him.
"That was a movie, Mr. Castle. We don't make mistakes here." Aron stopped inside the next room. He had seen all the rooms that exited the screening room. Even the one he had been taken to.
"What is this?" Rick was standing in front of an enormous tree that had hundreds of cards on it. No, better make that hundreds of thousands, if not more, and it was massive in size.
"It's Christmas. It was Christmas. I was out shopping for the perfect gift. It had to be perfect. She deserved the perfect Christmas gift after the life she'd gone through already." Rick now knew where he was and what he had been doing. Kate deserved all he could give her.
"This is the Reincarnate Tree. Pick a card then board your train and be taken back to Earth where you'll live your life again," Aron said somewhat impatiently.
"Reincarnate? You sure you don't mean resurrection?" Reincarnate meant go back as something or someone else and not go back as himself.
"How you lived your last life dictates how you will live your next life, Mr. Castle. This is your next life. Select one then go to your train," Aron told him again.
"How many are there?" Rick couldn't begin to count.
"Eight point one million different options to reincarnate into and that doesn't include the various options for each animal."
"Eight point one million. …What do you mean options?" Rick wasn't following.
"Say you select dog. There are three hundred thirty-nine different breeds of dog. Man has messed with God's view of the Universe quite a bit over the years."
"So there is a God?" Rick caught him.
"Of course." Aron thought that was a given. "Pick one, I have another person to review." He always had another person to review.
"What if I don't pick one?" Rick challenged him.
"Then you will be escorted to the train that will take you to Limbo. Where you will remain for the remainder of time itself." Aron explains. He was actually thinking maybe that would be better about now if he had known then what he knew now.
"Pick one. You mean like just randomly pick one? I can't even reach most of them." Rick pointed out a flaw in this system.
"Just point, Mr. Castle. It's not like we won't know which one you actually pick." They didn't make mistakes.
"This sucks!" Rick pointed out the obvious or what was obvious to him.
"That's life, Mr. Castle. This is how the Universe works." Aron informs him if he didn't already know.
"Universe. …The Universe is talking." Rick closed his eyes, raised his right hand, and extended a finger. A moment later Rick was walking out of that room and being escorted by a robot. "Is this a real robot? Are you like a real robot?" Rick felt it take his arm and walk him out of the room as Aron went through a different door.
ooOoo
Rick found an empty seat to sit in and wasn't surprised that this train looked a lot like the last train.
He still had his card in his hand. It was, he saw, actually an envelope and he was betting there was a card inside telling him what he was going to be turned into. "This is nuts!" Rick muttered and just kept looking at it.
Just as the door opened and he watched a man in a uniform walk in and hand him a card, likely telling him what meal options he had. He also heard people who were undoubtedly looking at their cards.
"Dolphin!" one called out.
"RAT! I'm a goddamn rat!"
"Using his name in vain. Now he knows why he's a rat," the man with the menu cards murmured softly and continued walking.
That had Rick looking at his envelope; now he was really afraid to open it. He looked at the menu instead. "Steak and Lobster or Crab Legs. Why couldn't I get this on the other train?" Rick wondered aloud.
"It's your last meal as a human." The same man with the menu cards came back and left through the door.
"Great." Rick sat back in his seat. He was dead and headed back to Earth by the sounds of it, though to be honest he wasn't even sure about that. He suddenly didn't even remember how he'd died. "Well, maybe it was quick and painless."
Rick chose steak, medium, and the lobster for dinner and unlike the last meal this one was really delicious. He even got coffee to go with his meal. "Now this is a meal."
As they came by to pick up the trash, Rick asked, "Is there Scotch?" It was going to be his last.
"Of course, sir," Rick was told and soon watched someone come back, set down a glass that had ice in it, and pour liquid gold from a bottle.
"Macallan 1950!" Rick saw the label as he poured. "Eighty-three thousand dollars a bottle." Oh, he was going to enjoy this. "Thank you!" He might have been rich but he wasn't going to spend that much for a bottle of Scotch.
"My pleasure, sir. You should read your card before we arrive or it will be a surprise," he warned him and went back through the door.
Actually Rick was too damn scared to read his card. So he took a sip to bolster his courage. "DAMN, THAT'S GOOD!" Rick finished his drink and sucked on the ice to get every last taste.
Then instead of darkness out his window he saw light. If it worked like last time they were coming into a station. He didn't understand how they were going to get everyone off this train in animal form. Especially that man who had said Dolphin.
He wasn't sure the man that had said Rat was going to last a minute after exiting the train, but who knew.
Rick was still sucking on the last piece of ice and opened his envelope. His card was face down so now he had to turn it over to read it. At first he choked on his piece of ice after he turned it over until he managed to spit it out and have it land on the floor where it would eventually melt. "Seriously!?"
THREE MONTH OLD MALE IRISH RED SETTER