Trip to the underworld

I had a trip to the underworld yesterday. Because of unique circumstances I stopped in at a gas station I used to go to everyday in my old days. Before pulling into it I thought, "I could run into someone here..."

As I was getting back into my car after buying something to drink then that someone appeared. He was forlornly holding an empty red plastic gas can and making gestures to his pocket as if he needed some money, though he never asked for money. He kept looking at me. "Do I know you?" I queried. He said his name. Yes, he knew me. I recognized the name, but not the face. He was a shade from the realm of the dead.

We greeted each other. I asked him if he needed some money, and gave him a 20. Then he started talking. It was like giving him blood.

He had a strange knowledge of everybody I'd known in my old life. Strange because he wasn't even in all those circles, but his knowledge was coming from the spiritual realm. He talked and talked and talked, and told me what everybody had come to and was doing now. Who had died, who had gone astray of the law.

Then he began to fade, and I gave him another 20. He began to talk animatedly again. I asked him about everybody whose name I could remember. But he mostly didn't need any prompting.

After we'd exhausted all the names from the past he made an obligatory gesture to exchange numbers or see if I'd want to go golfing or something, but my reaction was distanced. We said goodbye, and he went his way, and I drove off.

It was a trip to the land of the dead. He was the shade that came forward.