The Host - From the beyond and much more - My We-Write Short Story
Regards! This is my entry into We-write, a space for the narrative, created by @zeldacroft and @freewritehouse, from an initial story, which in this case was written by @ntowl and the idea is to continue it.
We-Write # 13
This Week's Prompt
The Host
The silver orb gleamed in the light. Resting on a long metal tube extending from a circular base, nothing had ever terrified Jonathan more. He glanced at the clock. Three minutes left. He rolled his chair closer to the desk, grasped the tube in his right hand, and pulled the orb closer. A wave of heat flashed through him and he dabbed his forehead with a towel in his left hand. The roaring in his ears grew louder as he double checked the status on the monitors. A quick high-pitched but not unpleasant beep, beep, beep broke through the noise in his head.
"Two minutes to go Jonny. Ads are rolling now, I'll start your introduction when they end. You'll go live immediately after, just like we rehearsed yesterday," Steven's calm voice came through the headphones Jonathan wore.
He nodded, eyes wide.
"Jonny? You there bud?"
"Yes."
"We must have an audio issue. I can barely hear you. Damn! I knew we should have run a few more tests. Ok, give me a sec-"
"It's ok," Jonathan said louder, and swallowing hard. "I-I just lost my voice there a bit." He dabbed his face and released his death grip on the microphone. It's shiny surface reflected a distorted version of himself stretched around the sphere, broken in spots by the mesh that let his voice travel through.
"Yeah, that's better. Look, I know it's your first live show and your nerves are probably on edge."
You have no idea, Jonathan thought as his heartbeat began pounding in his ears.
"Everyone's nervous their first time. But you're here for a reason, remember that," Steven paused, "Time check, thirty seconds. Take a couple of deep breaths, shake out the nervousness and be ready to go at the end of your intro. We've already got ten calls on hold for you. They warned me you'd be popular! No catching up on my reading during your show. Time check, fifteen seconds. You got this bud, right?"
"Yes. Yes I do," he said sitting up taller in his chair, dabbing his forehead again. "No problem at all..."
"Awesome! Remember I'm here for you behind the scenes, keep an eye on the system chat in the bottom left corner of the screen. Time check, intro rolling..."
The bumper music played in his ear and a man with an unbelievably deep voice told the audience how lucky they were to be listening to the internet radio station KFLY and their newest host. The introduction ended and Jonathan miraculously became Jonny.
"Hey everyone. This is Jonny James on KFLY radio and I'm so glad you could join us for the premier of Everything and Anything. I'd like to jump right in and take some calls rather than bore you with the overly pedantic babbling I tend to do. Sooooo, Caller one. Tell us your name, where you're from, and whatever it is you want to share tonight."
From the beyond and much more
The sound in the call was not the best, there was a lot of static, but you could hear a trembling voice mixed with the noise.
"I'm your Uncle Raul"
Almost by instinct, Jonathan replied: "Good joke, Lord! That's also valid...call to joke! Take advantage of this space that was created for you and your needs of expression!"
And the voice behind the earpiece, he insisted:
"I'm-your-uncle-Raul."
The nerves squeezed the host and his voice broke a little as he replied:
"Well, I don't have an Uncle Raúl... or I did, but he died a year ago. If it's one of my family members playing a joke on me, They're wrong because it's not funny."
"It's me, boy! I need you to help me. I can't sleep and I can't wake up. I don't know where I am, but I could hear your voice and here I am, you're my only connection to the world."
Jonathan could not believe what he heard, and his big open eyes looked into Steven's eyes, as if asking him to cut the call, but he waved his hand in a circular motion, saying to continue.
He made a heart with his guts, when he exclaimed: "Well, gentlemen, you can't complain about our signal, it's coming to the beyond and much more!" In fact, he was terrified, but Steven's vivid expression of approval drove him. "Tell us, Lord, what do you want to share with us?"
"I need you to remind me how it is that one wakes up after a long sleep. I only hear your voice in this oblivion. There is nothing and no one around here. All is silence and fog. Your voice took me out the lethargy. But, now I don't know what to do or what to say. I am and I am not... Is this being dead?"
There was a brief silence, before Jonathan reacted. His mind was focused on the sound of the voice of the speaking lord. He didn't know whether to be scared or happy, but in truth, it was the voice he remembered of the guy who raised him and loved him like a son of his own.... "Yes, it was my uncle Raul!" He thought, but, refraining from expressing it, he would have to take the thread of conversation to topics of interest to radio listeners, to his uncle and to himself. So he faked an unscheduled pause: "Here Radio KFLY, don't leave and don't stop listening to us, we're back after these short messages."
And out of the microphone, quickly, he continued talking to the person on the other side of the phone. "I'm still not sure if this is a joke or not, but we're going to help each other. I ask you and you answer or you ask and I answer you, but always in the line of creating interest in the rest of the listeners. Well? We go out on the air!". He was nervous, but hysterical with emotion, many things went through his mind to take advantage of the situation.
"Thank you for your preference! We are back, this is your KFLY station, I am Jonny James in the premiere of Everything and Anything and we continue where we left off, because today it reveals the mystery of what you live after death with this call of the other kingdom. If you have special questions about death, call and leave them with the operator, that I will ask Uncle Raul. So, without further ado, we continue... Uncle Raul? Are you still with us? Uncle Raul?..."
The sound on the call was worse, there was a lot of static. And all that was heard was some kind of scary music far away, psicofonías and after that, just silence.
09/11/2019
The image is from Pixabay CC0 Creative Commons:
Separators:
For your kind reading, simply THANK YOU
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Great continuation.
Thank you!
👍
I'm not sure what has happened, but it seems that Jonny was given a blessed opportunity to speak to his Uncle again, and I was glad he went to break to do this. But in the end he chose pleasing his listeners over helping his uncle. I feel very sorry for Jonny for being so shallow. Have I got that right?
All of these stories are helping me see how vulnerable one of these talk shows is when they take random calls.
Yeah, that's an excellent interpretation. I'm glad you read my sequel and found a coherent meaning. Greetings, @owasco!