You won't find the Valley of Lost Souls on any map. It exists in limbo, a tract of land where souls wait in purgatory. Each afternoon, a train winds into the valley - crossing the frozen river - bringing with it another thousand spirits awaiting their destiny. Indeed, some have tried to escape: Jonny Winterbottom, the diabetic pop star (died of a sugar overdose); Michelle Omega, the trigger-happy shotgun repair expert (died while looking into a gun barrel); Edgar Chu, publisher of the Ever Daily newspaper that people pick up only to immediately throw away (died in parenthesis); Helen Hamer, the school bus driver (died while looking over her shoulder on a steep curve: "Remember it's a long weekend, kids!"), and; Raul Ortega, housekeeper/arsonist (died of internal combustion, after setting afire eight corporate executives' wastebins). Those that try to escape get rounded up by the league of henchmen. The escapees are returned to their icy pods where the constant hum of energy from the thousands of neighbouring spirits singes the air. Among today's new arrivals is Jessie Dumont, who is convinced he'll cross over to the high ground (spiritually speaking), once he admits his error of not wearing clean underwear while crossing the intersection at the moment when Susan Taylor's Mercury Zephyr pinned him into the pavement.
© BILL BLAIR 2011
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