“Waiting on the Bench” is an innovative, esoteric novel.
It combines two separate yet correlated works.
On the one hand, the novel consists of 22 chapters and presents the death and afterlife trials and tribulations of a man during 40 days, according to the Orthodox canons.
On the other hand, for each chapter, there is a corresponding so-called counter-chapter dealing with one of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck.
“Waiting on the Bench” was inspired by my own near-death experience resulting from my encounter with the covid infection in October 2011.
Five years later, I almost finished the book—five years of my own trials and tribulations.
Today I offer you one full chapter.
Enjoy!

Chapter Eight

The dead of a party. Discovering the bench. A portal to the other side. A similar world but still different. Getting through the twenty customs.

The burial afterparty had ended. The last handful of mourners drifted away as the sun slipped behind the hills and the afternoon bled into evening. I felt hollowed out and frightened, though I couldn’t have said exactly what. Of whatever came next, I suppose. That’s the trouble with the end: it never turns out to be the end.
My legs shook. I sank onto a bench.
The bench held a peculiar place in the cemetery. Most visitors hurried past without a glance. Only now and then did I see an elderly widower settle there to mourn the one he had lost.
The cemetery sprawled across the hillside beneath a canopy of trees. Beyond the rusty Read more Waiting on the Bench, Chapter Eight ›