An Interview with Bimb

[Interviewer]: We have with us today a man known simply as Bimb, one of the main characters in the fantasy novel, The Spaces Between. Greetings, Bimb!

[Bimb]: Hello.

So, Bimb, you go by just Bimb. Do you have a last name?

Last...name?

Yes, like Zhyfrael Lynnheard... or Kahl Reustien...?

Fa.

Excuse me?

Fa is my Fa. I'm just Bimb, and there's Fa. Oh, and Ma, too, but Ma cries a lot. She cries too much. Do you have any more spicy drink?

I—what...? Oh, yes... here. Now, Bimb, it's true that you can talk to the dead, is that correct? Have you ever read The Necroscope?

I don't read. Fa reads. He reads big words. Zhy's Fa is dead...I talk to him.

And what does he say, what do you talk about?

We talk about music and travel. I play the sutan—a ten-string one. It is hard to play ten strings, Fa says, and it makes me happy to play it. I can play and then I talk to Zhy's Fa. He is nice, but sad.

Why is he sad?

Because Zhy is almost dead, he says. He says Zhy drinks all the time. He wants Zhy to be happy. I love my Fa. Zhy loves his, too, but Zhy's Fa can't talk to him to hear it.

Are there other dead people you talk to?

... There are some. They come and go. I like Zhy's Fa best.

Do you love your mother?

She cries all the time. Do you want to hear my sutan? I can play it very well...

Perhaps later, after the interview.

I have to go pee. Do you have more questions?

I—well, just one perhaps. What do you know about demons or the Knights of the Black Dawn?

Fa says demons are made up by the Elders. He says they are not real. I have never seen the night, it is dark.

It is a different kind of Knight... a Knight is a type of soldier.

I see the Counsel Guard come around, but they walk by our farm. We have seven hundred thousand, four hundred and thirty six turnips. Three are broken.

So... you've never seen the Knights who fight demons?

Fa says demons are made up. I love my Fa. Can I go pee now...?

Yes, I suppose so.