Life In Annwn

Chapter 2

“I don’t know… Home, I suppose”.

“Home… All right. Do you want to live in town or on the mountain again?”

“Don’t you already have somewhere you stay?”

“Er, well, er, it’s difficult to explain…” She saw Willy’s face reflect an inner turmoil and she guessed what the cause was. “No, it’s not that. I haven’t shacked up with anyone else - there are no nasty surprises in store for you! It’s just that we don’t need houses, just like we don’t need bodies.

“Think about it. Why do people live in houses?”

“Well, er, it’s normal, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but they want shelter, privacy and security. However, we don’t need to shelter from the weather because we have nothing to shelter and the weather is of our own making. We don’t need privacy because we have no bodies, and anyway, if someone saw that you wanted to be alone, they would leave you alone - or most would… And security? We don’t have anything that can be stolen…”

“Yes, I see”.

“Having said that, lots of people still like to live in something somewhere. Life on the Surface seems to ingrain that very deeply into most people. So, what is it to be, within or without the city walls?”

“The city we were in before?”

“The City of Annwn? Yes, if you like”.

“Won’t it be hard to find somewhere at such short notice?”

“No, we’ll just make the city a bit bigger, and put our house in there; or make a tower a bit taller and put our flat in or on it. Whatever you like. Or we could stay at the Inn while we think about it”.

“Yes! I like that idea. We never did get much waiting on, did we? We only ever stayed in a hotel that week on our honeymoon in Rhyl. Yet when we first got married, I did so much want to give you a lady’s life of luxury, Sarah. It just didn’t work out like that… I’m sorry, my dear, so sorry”. Tears flowed down his cheeks. Sarah shuffled over and put her arms around him.

“I know that now, and I knew that then. I knew what I was letting myself in for, and I did it willingly, because I loved, and still love you. You were always the dreamer, not me, Will Jones!”

“You were my rock, Sarah”.

“And you mine”

“Come on, let’s go and see if there’s any room at the Inn”.

Willy drew his head back to get a better look at his wife, “Now you’re taking the Mick, aren’t you?”

“Yes”.

“Because there will be, won’t there?”

“Yes. You’re starting to get the hang of it”.

“Will our old drinking mates be there?”

“They could be…”

“… if we want them to be”.

“Yes”, she said mounting up. “Come on then, Willy boy, race you again, see if you can win this time” and she sped off with the hounds all around her.

“Wait for me! That’s not fair! I don’t know where Annwn City is! I can’t win!” He watched Sarah turn to face him. She was laughing out loud, looked in her twenties and was dressed like a maiden of the Fifteenth Century. He couldn’t quite remember, but he was almost certain that she had been wearing her normal Twentieth Century gear a few moments before.

They rode and laughed for miles, or was it minutes? Willy could not be certain. It seemed that every time he tried to get a fix on time or a place, it moved. He was trying so hard to think in a linear pattern, but he couldn’t. Every time he thought he had a fix on a concept, it seemed to squidge out between his grasp like jelly in a tight fist.

When he looked up from his contemplations, Sarah was rounding behind an outcrop??? of one of the two mountains and a fear of being alone in this strange land gripped him. He urged his horse on, and found himself at his wife’s side. She had stopped to wait for him out of site, but before her was the huge, pinkish, front stone wall of Annwn City.

A flag, a pennant??? really, Willy thought, fluttered in the breeze atop a round tower within the walls.

“Wow! It’s even more beautiful than I remember it”, he murmured.

“Good”, replied Sarah.

“I don’t remember it being pink though”.

“Don’t you? Oh, well, we can change that…”

“No, I like it… it makes it look more like a comic book castle… no disrespect. More like Camelot in the cartoons, than Camelot…”

“Was there a Camelot?”

“I don’t know, but if there were, I should imagine that it would have been more like Caerphilly Castle than that. I like it though, let’s go in. Now I can race you to the gates!”

Willy arrived at the moat a length ahead of Sarah, but he knew in his mind that she had let him win. He looked up to the crenellated battlements above the drawbridge to see three men, who he supposed were guards, peering down at him. He turned rather sheepishly to Sarah.

“Guard! Squire William Jones and his wife, Sarah Jones, request entrance to the City of Annwn”.

“Good day to you! Why do you make such a request unannounced?”

“We have travelled far and require shelter for a few days”.

One guard disappeared, leaving the other two staring at the new arrivals. A minute later, the third man returned. “Your request for shelter has been granted. Please wait while we provide access” and with that chains could be heard clanking, which caused Willy’s horse to rear up, and the drawbridge began to drop. When it was halfway down, they could see the portcullis being raised too. Willy grinned at Sarah, as if he were enjoying a role in a film.

When it was down, they trotted over the drawbridge and acknowledged the salutes from the guards inside. ‘This way, my Lord”, said Sarah light-heartedly and moved up in front. As they reined in their horses outside the inn they had visited before, the same landlord came running out to greet them.

“It is lovely to see you again, my Lord and Lady! I have the finest room anywhere in the city, if that is your requirement. Permit my lad to see to your horses. Boy! The horses, and look sharp about it!”

Willy and Sarah dismounted and followed the landlord inside. “It has been a lovely day, landlord”, said Willy getting into the swing of things.

“That it has, my Lord. Indeed it has. Shall I have your things taken up to our finest room?”

Will looked to Sarah, unaware that they had any ‘things’ to take up.

“Yes, landlord. Please do that, but ask your boy to be careful with them. The caskets hold great sentimental value for us. They have been in my husband’s family for generations”. Willy looked at Sarah with an open mouth.

““Certainly, milady??? Please, take a seat, if that be hour pleasure. Oi! You lot! Keep the noise down or I’ll stop your beer! We’ve got a real gentleman and his lady here now, and they don’t want to have to listen to you rabble swearing!”

Willy looked behind him and noticed six men drinking at a table, who he presumed were the same ones as before. Sarah, only smiled at him and urged him by gesture to sit opposite her. “Do you want anything, dear?” she asked.

“I could murder a Ploughman’s Lunch and a pint of bitter”, he replied. “All that riding had made me right hungry and thirsty”. Sarah peered briefly into his eyes, but it was enough to get her message across. She placed the order with their host.

“The riding didn’t really make me hungry or thirsty, did it?”

“No”, she smiled, “you did. You expected to feel hungry and thirsty… either that or it was he excuse that you might use because you wanted a pint and something to eat. Either way,it doesn’t matter”.

“Well, what was all that about our luggage? And what ‘things’?”

“Oh, that? I was just indulging him, like I do with you. He was expecting us to have luggage, so I decided not to disappoint him. I didn’t have to, but, well,it makes him feel better… in the same way that eating and drinking will make you feel better.

“Or to be more accurate, it won’t… it will produce the empty satisfaction that buying something gives you. It lasts a few hours or a few days, but then you have to do it again. Like getting drunk every night… sooner or later, it is hoped, one will discover the complete futility of it and fix the cause for wanting to get drunk every night, so that you one can get on with one’s real life”.

“Which is?”

“Which is to learn, to acquire knowledge, and to put that knowledge to good use by helping others. Wisdom and altruism, in two concepts, if you like. If you have no knowledge, your desire to be helpful or altruistic might actually be harmful. You might do more harm than good… AND by doing good, you enhance your own Karma, thereby helping yourself!”

“Win win”, he said, already convinced, but not wanting to hear the old mantra again. Hearing it still made him feel uncomfortable somewhere deep inside, even though he ‘knew’ it to be true. “Yes, I agree with you, but it doesn’t trip off my tongue as easily as it does yours. I’m not ready to sound like a Hari Kishna yet”.

“I know you’re not, but you have already jumped the highest hurdles. You believe in it, and you live by it - more or less - but you are not yet prepared to come out and admit it to anyone but me”.

He looked at her across the table, pursed his lips, then realised that he had done it, and so looked down at his hands. She had always been able to read him like a book, even before she had passed on. He was grateful when the landlady approached them with his food and drink. “Do you want anything, my dear?” he asked, immediately feeling foolish again.

Sarah grinned. “Yes, OK, I’ll have a cheese sandwich and a glass of water to keep you company. Thank you”. The landlady, a large jovial-looking fifty-odd-year-old in a rough dress and white apron, performed a slight curtsey, smiled broadly, and turned on her heel. “Won’t be a jiffy, madam”. She returned almost instantaneously and placed her wares before Sarah. “Enjoy your meal. Just shout if you need me. I’ll be just behind that wall in the kitchen”.

“You didn’t have to do that just to please me, Sarah, but that you anyway. The strange thing is that I’m not really hungry any longer”.

“That’s not all that strange really. What would be strange is if you didn’t want that pint either”, she replied with a wicked grin.

“Oh, I can still find room for that”, he laughed, playing along, but he realised that actually, he could take that or leave it as well. He took a mouthful and licked his lips. “Mmmm, Nectar???”.

“Get away with you!” Willy looked down again, avoiding her gaze, and was surprised to see that Sarah’s plate was empty bar a few crumbs. He looked up to see her watching him and smiled, she tilted her head to the side and smiled back. Everyone was happy - they had all gotten what they wanted. Willy took a bite of cheese and willed he rest away, but he was still surprised when it vanished before his very eyes.

Sarah clapped silently and mouthed ‘well done’.

“OK, if we’re not going to eat,and not going to drink… very much, what are we going to do? Do you want to go upstairs?”

“Willy Jones! What are you suggesting?” she said pretending to be affronted/offended.