someone recorded a soul

SOUL: [REDACTED CONVERSATION] ...and I told him “It was a damn rainy drive!”

PERSON: (laughing) Well it’s good you could still make it.

SOUL: (laughing along) I wouldn't miss this for the world.

PRODUCER: Rolling.

(Pause, laughs fading out, silence)

PERSON: Do you know why you're here?

SOUL: I was told this was an interview

PERSON: (dismissively) You live within all of us, yet some of us choose to ignore you

SOUL: Straight in there! (chuckles) Okay, how comes?

PERSON: I was hoping you'd have the answer

SOUL: I know what I want, why is it we have to always tell you?

PERSON: A healthy reminder, maybe?

SOUL: But you have just said I live within you?

PERSON: When the stomach cries out for food, we eat; when the ears seek the sounds they love, we give it to them; when they hear a bang or a screech, we cover them; when the heart seeks what it seeks, we pursue.

SOUL: (smiling) Exactly! So, finish that. Why not listen to me?

PERSON: (pondering) I guess you dont cry or seek.

SOUL: How does a soul cry or seek?

PERSON: It probably doesn't.

SOUL: Oh, we sure as hell do, just hidden within the other emotions, other reactions. Why not carry on doing what makes you happy? Why not stop what makes you unhappy? Why do you ignore me when I tell you blatantly what it is I seek, what I cry for. Why do you seek pain, hunger, shock for you to stop.

PERSON: (sits up, stunned) I see truth in that

SOUL: (looking up, solemnly) The souls I know, god, who have lived in bodies marred with bashes and bruises, scars and limbs torn off their being, eyes and ears missing, yet there lies us, within them, waiting to be discovered while they look to treat the shell that gave up on them, that left them feeling worthless. Treating themselves just for others, instead of treating me for themselves. What people see, the outer shell of your being, is the blurb, never the full story.

(The producer goes to hand the soul some tissues)

(Small pause)

PERSON: What are you?

SOUL: I'm what’s ever present. I'm what was there before you and what will be after. I'm the carrier of your woes and wonder, the burdens and pleasures. I am what your God sees, what others seek to find within others yet neglect their own. I am what people want to connect to, without connecting to their own.

PERSON: Do you feel lonely?

SOUL: (nods) It is when the being us souls sit within, finds us, our loneliness fades. The soul wanders as well but finds its way back everytime. Sometimes, our beings take some time to catch up. We understand that.

PERSON: How do I better connect to my soul?

SOUL: Am I yours?

PERSON: No.

SOUL: Then, with respect, ask your own. They have been yearning for that question, just as they yearn for the many other questions you are yet to ask, just as I yearned for mine to do the same.

PERSON: Where is your being?

SOUL: (pause) Where they thought they belonged.

(a silence takes over the air, the person looks down, understanding what the soul had just meant, the soul looked at the person, smiling)

PERSON: Why did your being leave?

 SOUL: Disappointment and numbness. “A flower sitting on a bed of wet soil, looking up wishing for rain”. That’s what comes to me. A being who muted my every signal. I wanted to help, it pained me how they saw themselves, how they saw the world. I wanted to scream. I wanted to show them how beautiful they and life were. How beautiful it can be. They surrounded themselves with likeminded beings as well, however. Validation in their destruction.

PERSON: Are you at odds with your being and their shell.

SOUL: If the being lets me, I shine through the shell.

PERSON: (smirking) Are you at odds?

SOUL: I can't be at odds with myself

PERSON: (Continuing to smirk) Some may say you have an ego.

(The two look at each other, laugh loudly.)

 PERSON: I kid

SOUL: (laughing softly) Well, I am where your ego sits.

PERSON: So, you want the best for us.

SOUL: I only want you to you feel what you're meant to. Only so the plans that either probability or your God, whatever it is you believe in, wants you to have. I am a servant of their wishes, a communicator of their demands and most importantly the most important thing to listen to at times of elation or grief. We also understand our beings want to believe they can figure things out on their own, and we understand that our voices are hard to hear at times when the voices of, as you said, hunger, desire and recklessness, shout louder. But what we want, is ultimately what you want. Once we both deviate, once we both find each other again and speak, properly, that is the reward of our work.

PERSON: (nods with satisfaction) Perfect start!

SOUL:(nods back, laughing) I'm glad you want to understand us. Try to understand yours, understand it when you can, but please do.

(pause)

 PERSON: So, you have a new book coming out this Thursd- (RECORDING FADES OUT)

I am a London-born aspiring writer that mainly finds inspiration with people and the environment - not just nature but the environment we build as well. My background helps me so much with inspiration, a working class family that emigrated from a war torn country in Africa with stories and experiences that shape the way I write. I like to write about mundane things as well as particular emotions, connected with people or the environment, based on scenarios I've either been in or seen unfold next to me.