Episode summary:
"In
the spring of 1974, Steve Markham is at Rutland University reading History. But
he also belongs to a student group that's investigating 'NDE's' [Near Death
Experiences] and is persuaded by a visiting professor, who is a talented
hypnotist, to try 'Regression'. Believing it to be relevant to his current
studies, Steve agrees to try it. He appears to be a good subject; except under
hypnotism he starts to talk about a future life and not one from the
past!"
Episode Warnings:
Alcohol
– Smoking – Strong language [including racial slurs and references to skin
colours] – Violence [including sexual violence] – Strong Sexual references –
References to drug use - Strong horror & Demonic references.
Author’s notes on
this episode:
[1]
The original Title for this episode was: ‘BACKWARDS TO THE FUTURE.’
[2]
A ‘Jericho Tibbs’ original story.
[3]
Illustration is a sketch used under license
from ‘Istock’.
[4] Episode contains language and customs appropriate to the time and place.
Episode details:
Concept
date: 15th January 2019
First published: Not available
Status: COMPLETED, BUT UNPUBLISHED.
Location: BOOK SERIES 0 – EPISODE 0.
Revisions: 3 [Last revised November 2022]
Version: Final Draft?
Published Episode No. 00
Previous episode: NONE
Next
episode: NONE.
Age
recommendation: 12+
Average
reading time: Approx. 30 Minutes.
Angel-in-charge:
Margret
Team Assigned: Team 74
Human Time: 1974AD-1393AH
Mission:
1 - 774666 - 1 – 1974
Episode Preview:
Anna shuffled her papers about and slowly opened her big red notebook and tried to avoid eye contact with the old woman who continually rolled a hankie about in her hands and smiled at the two young students. Steve sat back and really didn’t know what to say, giving an awkward glance at Anna, as if she should say something. Anna was staring at her notes, scribbled down in some haste, thankful that Steve had suggested recording all the interviews. But the transcription of the interview would be quite a task, and this was only their second one. Steve coughed and sat with hands on head and managed a smile. “So, Mrs. Crisp, may I call you Ellen? [The old woman nodded] you say that the doctor told you that you were actually dead for four minutes, maybe five?"
Ellen nodded and smiled again: “Yes, you people do have such lovely smiles, it must be wonderful to have such white teeth.” Anna really tried hard not to giggle a little and picked up her pencil and the conversation. “This man, you say, who stood with you as you watched the doctors working on you, said he was a ‘Collector’ and his name was Herbert?” The old woman nodded yet again and tapped the desk with her finger, “No, he said his name was Herbie, apparently only the angel in charge ever calls him Herbert. Lovely young man dressed in a very smart black, three-piece suit. When I first saw him standing there, I was a little frightened because I thought he was a bloody undertaker!”
Steve had forgiven the old lady for her racist comment about ‘you people’ and bloody nice teeth and knew that Anna would have a good laugh about that, and so would he probably. Being one of the few Black students on campus, he had heard every derogatory, racist and hurtful comment there was. Quite a few students [and lecturers] had asked which part of Africa he hailed from. He would always try to smile and say, “Yorkshire.”
“So, he sort of collected souls for God? Is that what you’re saying?” Steve asked and Ellen said ‘yes’ quietly, adding that there were thousands of Collectors out everyday picking up the newly dead and guiding them to their judgment with the angel.
“So, this Herbie character told you there was a judgment
of people after they die?” Anna asked, throwing a glance at Steve: this was
their second interview of a surviving ‘NDE’ [Near Death Experience] victim and
both their stories were almost identical!
Ellen sighed, “Yes, I didn’t mind, I’ve never met a real angel before and so I was quite excited about it actually. Herbie told me that he had looked at my….my Human record and I had done nothing really wicked so I shouldn’t be quarantined by angel Margret. That’s what happens to naughty souls, he said there’s no heaven or hell, just quarantine or return. That’s return to life and start again. Pretty obvious really if you think about it. It’s not reincarnation – that’s what he said – because your soul is unique, so whoever you become it’s still actually you!”
Steve now leaned forward on the desk and rubbed his face, “So this Herbie fellow said there was no heaven or hell? Did he mention God at all?” Ellen shook her head, “No, he never mentioned God, but said the devil – as we call him – was his brother and a right naughty so and so.” Steve sat back and took a deep breath: the devil was God’s brother! Anna saw the look on Steve’s face and interrupted the conversation, “So Ellen, do you have anything to add to what you’ve told us already about what happened to you?” Ellen sat back and really thought for almost a minute, then smiled, “No darling, except to say my bleeding piles are a lot better since I died!” [The old lady was undergoing an operation on her troublesome piles when she died on the table and was revived by the surgical team after a few minutes.]
That was it for Steve, who had a cracking sense of humour, he held a hand over his face and tried hard not to laugh, leaving Anna to show the old lady out, before bursting out in quite unrestrained laughter. Anna, closing the door, joined him. “Sweet Jesus, that’s a new one! The devil is God’s brother! This Herbie character must be having a laugh. It’s a pity he lives in old Ellen’s bleeding head, he would be great at parties with lines like that!” Steve picked up the notes and still chuckling, re-read them. He stopped laughing and said quietly, “What did old mister Cope say the damn angels name was?” Anna picked up her notes from the earlier interview and flicked a couple of pages then said quietly, “He said that the Collector told him that an angel Margret would interview him.”
Steve slowly held up his notes of the early part of the lively conversation with old Ellen, “She said that the angel’s name was Margret. Is that some bloody incredible co-incidence or what?” Anna eased back into her chair and folded her arms, whispering, “That’s one hell of a co-incidence, like they both mentioned Collectors, though I strongly suspect they have both watched ‘It’s a wonderful life’ for that revelation. But how the hell did both come up with the idea or ‘quarantine’ and no heaven or hell?”
Steve pushed his notes about, thinking, “There’s more to this than we thought possible. The accepted thinking is that dying people ‘dream’ what they think happened to them after their heart stopped for a few minutes, like some kind of residue thinking. Then when revived, they believe it actually happened. But to come up with that, in two quite separate cases, is certainly something to think about.”
[Note: Multiple hypotheses have been proposed, with some bearing on particular elements of near-death experiences. For example, out-of-body experiences in NDEs may be accounted for by the disruption of the temporal parietal region, key to the sense of embodiment, as the brain approaches death. And some have suggested that the tunnel imagery of many NDEs is due to the effect of slowed-down blood flow on the retinas. However, the neurological basis of NDEs is not yet fully understood, and some researchers are open to alternative accounts that go beyond brain activity. This was 1974 and research into the subject was basically in its infancy.]
Anna stood slowly and straightened her very short mini skirt [high fashion at this time] “We’ve one more, Mr. John Kite, the motorcyclist who was dead for almost nine minutes after crashing his bike, then we’ll call it a day and write everything up.” Anna walked back to the door, she really fancied Steve in a big way, like most girls on campus. He had real old-fashioned charm and was good looking as a bonus. Some of the girls wouldn’t go out with him – despite fancying him – because he was black. Their families would ‘string them up’ if they turned up on the doorstep with Steve in tow. This was 1974 and that’s how it was. She knew that awful fact was true because that’s what her family would do. “Remember it’s the poker party tonight, Devine will be there, and so will ‘unsteady Eddy’, probably throwing his dad’s cash about, the prick.” Anna said to Steve, then stuck her head out the door and smiled at the big man sitting there, gripping a walking stick. “Mr. Kite?” She asked and he struggled to rise up, leaning on the stick. He tapped the side of his head with his free hand, “Wouldn’t be here today without my skidlid, bloody saved my life it did. These people moaning about wearing crash helmets, should come and see me.” He walked awkwardly and Anna showed him to the chair in front of their desk and introduced Steve to him. Mr. Kite stared at him and unbuttoned his thick jacket slowly and deliberately. He had a dark blue T-shirt on with white lettering saying, ‘Keep Britain White’. There was a real awkward silence between the two until a slightly embarrassed Anna asked Mr. Kite to explain what happened to him.
“I got knocked off my bike by a bloody Paki driving a Datsun, the bastard was an illegal and didn’t even have insurance. I was rushed to the York Royal and apparently, they revived me after a few minutes, but the doctors told me later that I had been dead for nine minutes. I understand he walked from the court with just a year’s ban and a suspended sentence. And me? Crippled for life and can never ride my bike again. Didn’t even have insurance and now I have to beg bloody social security for help. He’s gone back to running his bloody corner shop I expect and having a laugh about it all.” Mr. Kite was clearly an angry man who blamed everyone except himself for his troubles. He carefully left out that he was drunk at the time and riding the wrong way down a one-way street!
Anna managed a sympathetic smile and asked Mr. Kite about his after-death experience. He grunted and stared at Steve again. “Well, this young woman was talking to me as I lay in A&E, I thought she was a nurse or something who wasn’t in uniform. But then I realised that we were both standing by the curtain watching the doctor working on me. I sort of knew that I was dead. You, know, I wasn’t afraid, just sort of puzzled and she told me that we should walk into the light when it appeared, and I just sort of agreed without any argument. She told me that I would meet an angel who would decide what happens next. So I asked her if I was going to heaven, and she sort of smiled and said there was no heaven or hell. If I had committed no real bad things, I would jump back amongst the living and could start afresh.” He rubbed his injured leg and gripped his stick with both hands, “She said if I had done some terrible things then I would be quarantined for a while, then I would jump back into life, if allowed. Now that sort of scared me. I ain’t been a bloody saint, so I didn’t know what was considered really bad. When I asked her about that, she said angel Margret would decide what’s really bad.”
Both Anna and Steve sat upright and stared at each other: the same bloody name again! Anna cleared her throat and found that her hand was trembling a little as she wrote her notes. “What happened then Mr. Kite?” Steve asked and he replied, but to Anna it was noticed. “I heard the doctor shouting something and he seemed quite excited, and the strange young woman just nodded at me saying something like you’ve been recalled or sent back or something. I remember staring into the young doctor’s face and I was back on the bed, being violently sick. I spend six weeks in hospital thanks to that Paki bastard!” Steve and Anna both sat back, and Anna quietly thanked Mr. Kite for his shocking contribution to the students experiment, asking if he had anything else to say about his strange experience. He shook his head and muttered something about he wished he possessed time travel, because he would never have turned down that bloody street, given the chance again.
Ana showed him out without further comment and closed the door, taking a breath, “Steve, I think we’re onto something here. The same bloody name for the angel: three times! And all three subjects said that someone appeared to collect them. Now that is no bloody co-incidence, it simply can’t be!” Steve sat staring at his notes and quietly nodded his agreement. Then looked at his watch, standing quickly and gathering up his notes, he switched off the ‘Sony’ tape deck. “Come on, we’re late. That professor is here, and he said he would regress one or two of us. The others will already be there.” Anna nodded and quickly gathered up her papers and managed a smile: “I bet he picks you, I heard he likes handsome young men as his subjects!” Now both smiled.
End of Preview.
"ALEXANDRA'S BACK TO THE FUTURE EXPERIENCE." 
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
“All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.”
CAUTION:
“SOME OF THESE EPISODES CONTAIN VERY STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, HORROR AND SEXUAL REFERENCES. Some are RECOMMENDED suitable for persons aged 15+ years only.”
THE AUTHOR.
Copyright © 2011-2025 0Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without permission.