III
Riley looked around at the vast landscape, down to what seemed to be olive trees and various religious buildings. Everything was clear and the fog that clouded his vision was gone.
“Why can I see clearly now?” he said to Death. It was a bit of a shock to go from this grey tone monotone view of the world to being flooded with a clear blue sky and rich green hill sides.
“Oh, right the foggy stuff. Well, that haze happens when their are living people around. Things sort of fog up.” Death replied with a tone that wasn’t very reassuring. “I honestly, don’t know why things get fuzzy around living folks but, it happens.”
“Like a spider sense for the dead?” Riley asked with a laugh.
Death looked at him wryly. “Yea, sure.”
Riley took in the surroundings but, wasn’t entirely too impressed. Maybe in a time when people didn’t have the internet or pictures, this sort of thing was awe inspiring. “Where are we?” he said.
“Mount Olivet. Or better known as Mount of Olives.” Death shot back quickly.
“Oh, hm. Jesus had something to do with this place, no? Didn’t he get crucified up here” Riley asked.
“No, not here. He was crucified somewhere else. This is where he spent some time talking to folks. Everyone has a favorite place of theirs, this was probably one of his.” Death said slowly.
“So, you’ve been around huh. You saw Jesus talking to folks and everything. That’s pretty far out,”Riley said with a new found sense of perspective. He had just realized the scope that Death had when it came to time and space. Death saw Jesus give sermons, which could only men he saw him live and consequently die. You probably know where he is going with this. The next question would obviously be on the tip of his tongue. “Did he get resurrected, after all? Did you have anything to do with that?”
“Oh ho ho, when was the last time someone asked me that,” Death laughed. “Yes, I was apart of that. But, it wasn’t a pure resurrection. Like I told you, you can see living beings if you will it and at times they can see you. I only made the whisper thing fabric of reality between this world and the living world much thinner for him.”
“Oh, I see. How interesting. So you talked to this God fellow,” Riley asked hesitantly.
“Well, talked is not really what I do with God. We sort of…”Death’ face contorted a bit. He was looking for that exact word.
“Telepathically comuunicated?” Riley answered.
“Yea, that works. He asked me to give this Jesus fellow a special leeway into the realm of the living so that his could in fact at times becomes corporeal. He was able to use his body again but, he brought that body with him to this realm of the living. He was the only one able to do that, everyone else leaves their body behind,” he explained.
“I understand. Soooo, there is a heaven?” asked Riley.
“Yes, sir.” Death replied.
“And a hell?” Riley asked already knowing the answer.
“Yup.” Death replied again with a zest. “Peter is a great guy. And I don’t think I remember who guards the entry to Hell. I think it’s more of a self service joint.”
“I guess that’s where I will be going in a few days. I’ll send you a postcard.” Riley said. He was angry that he had been wrong all these years. Dropping his beliefs would now give him a one way ticket to eternal damnation.
“Not necessarily,” Death said with a smile. “I’ll explain it to you later. But, first let’s go see Peter. I haven’t had a chat with him in awhile and you’ll be able to see the pearly gates.”
“Really?” Riley said excitedly.
“Yea, why not. Just don’t curse, Peter hates people who curse. It really bugs him.” Death said silently as if in a library. “Just consider yourself a tourist.”
And with those last words, the green olive trees had transfigured into clouds. The sky still as blue but now not only above but below. Heaven, much to Riley’s approval, was a very stark white and serene looking place. That is, the entrance was. Large gates that seemed to have constructed by the marriage of wrought iron and pearls, with an illustrious shine that mirrored the sun. Divine was not a fitting enough word to describe it.
“This is really beautiful. I wonder how all those painters got it so right. It’s as if they had a field trip here, took photos then went back to reality to paint them. Really, just stunningly beautiful.” Riley said.
“It’s nice. I’m not a fan of so much white but, I imagine you must get used to it.” Death said. “Anyway, let’s go talk to Peter and then we can talk about what will happen to you.”
II
Riley was already standing over his corpse slowly realizing what just occurred. He just stood there looking over at himself, trying to remember what he was thinking before his brain disconnected from his spinal cord. He couldn’t remember. He was just about to look up at the rest of the world in it’s newly filtered gaussian blur-esque quality when a voice broke the silence. He could place it as directly behind him but, he felt no breath on his neck. Though, he contemplated that it would probably be stranger if he did feel a breath.
“When you die your body stops functioning but your ‘soul”, as you guys say it, still functions. Not forever though, you’ve only got a few days before you’re completely dead and it will be end of the line for you,” came a voice from behind Riley. The voice sounded like that of a woman who could make a living as a phone sex operator.
“Once your body dies, your soul just lives on and you can now wander the earth without the usual physical boundaries that would contain you.” The voice continued.
“So now with that, I bid you ad—“
“Are you Death?” he interrupted before she could finish her sentence. He turned around to see what he had always envisioned as the perfect woman. She had long cherry blonde hair and everything about her was to his specification. Coca-Cola bottle curves with voluptuous breast and piercing blue eyes. Speaking of Coca-Cola bottles, I’m pretty sure you rest one on her derrière but, that’s beside the point.
“Why yes I am. Most people don’t even turn around to say hello to me. I would ask how you are doing but I think it’s pretty obvious.” She with a smiled.
“I figured death would be a beautiful woman. God is probably really hot too.” He said and turned back to the car crash. He bent down and looked again at his own mangled corpse and semi decapitated head hanging over the brim of the bloody window. “Could you do me a favor and change yourself to look like someone I’ve never seen before. It would make it a lot easier to talk to you.”
“Well, I don’t plan on speaking to you more than another minute but I guess I will consider it your dying wish.” Said the voice, which went from a beautiful voice to a monotone bellow. The woman shifted into a white male between the ages of 25-30 though it didn’t really matter to Riley as long as the person dooming his existence didn’t give him a hard on. That is if he had a fully functioning penis anymore. Another concept he quietly contemplated to himself.
“Is there anything I could do to speak with you further or must you attend other arrivals?” Riley said as he got up and turned to his new friend.
“No, I’ve got all the time in the world and it’s mostly an automated process. Why you feeling lonely?” said Death as moved next to Riley. “Sheesh buddy, I’ve seen some horrible shit in my day. This one goes into the scrapbook.” He said as he took a snap shot of the contorted cars and corpses on the street. The Polaroid camera seemed to have been dangling from his neck the entire time though I guess Riley didn’t notice or care for that matter. “Well, what do you want to talk to me about? It’s not very common for someone to want to talk to me.”
“Why not? I find you fascinating. I find this entire ordeal fascinating,” said Riley staring Death in the face. “So do I reincarnate after this or stay in this limbo forever.”
“Yea, no. You’re pretty much doomed to a fate of nonexistence after a few days. The rest of the human race just wanders around the earth and looks at everything they couldn’t. Mostly, they just follow their physical body around as it goes to the hospital, funeral then eventual final resting place. I’ve seen some folks lay in the incinerator with their former hosts or even just let themselves be buried with the casket.”
“Creepy,” Riley said.
“Yea, I always thought so too.” Death said unapathetically. “Kind of pathetic if you ask me. If you picture a place in your mind you will just appear there if you want to. You have no body to carry anymore so science and everything you learned don’t matter. I could try and give you the scientific reason why you can do it but, we don’t have any scientists and I’m the only one that sticks around here. So, why follow yourself when you could just relax on top of the Sphinx or hangout in the Oval Office and find out what really goes on.”
“I would want to see what happens backstage at a wrestling match.” Riley laughed. “These huge guys pretending to hate each other probably go back stage and hop in the jacuzzi together. Paint each others toenails and watch Oprah.”
“You’d be surprised,” Death said ponderously. “Actually, not really.”
Riley sat down next to his car and looked down at the street. Everything had an ominous fog, as if the road ended in a few feet. All those artists that tried to visualize the afterlife did a pretty good job. It never startled him that he was no longer alive, he seemed more curious as to how they pegged it so dead on in those paintings. No pun intended.
“So do ghosts exist? Am I a ghost?” Riley blurted out.
“Well, I guess you can call them ghosts but, nobody can see you” Death replied. “In the freak accident that a living human being sees a ‘ghost’ it is only for a few days. If they continuously see the same ghost then after that, then they are just either hallucinating or on expired medication. That’s why you can’t see the cops and media wagons that are all over the place.”
“Hmm…interesting,” said Riley.
“I mean you can if you will it.” Death said with a shrug.
“Maybe some other time.” Riley replied.
“Well, it seems that I can’t get rid of you.” Death said putting his arm around Riley. “This place seems pretty bleak if you ask me. Let’s head somewhere with some pizzaz.”
“What do you m—?” uttered Riley. Though right before the last word could find it’s way out, he was looking over miles and miles of green landscape with white spots of civilization below. Death looked over at Riley and smiled.
“So what else are you curious about?
I
He was driving home from work with a splitting headache, the kind that throbs so bad you can’t have the air conditioning on or the music too loud. This headache was a common occurrence to him due to the sun, which aimed at him and was at just the right spot to be under his visor; one of the small personal tortures in life. Now, on this particular day the last thing he would be worrying about is his headache, his lack of sleep or what he would do when he finally got home to his unappreciative girlfriend. She cheats on him regularly with his best friend since high school, James, but that is information that won’t pertain to our protagonist until much later in the story. On his way home he had no idea he would soon be part of a small convoy to the after life. He wanted the left over Chinese in the fridge from last night. He hoped she didn’t eat all the Sesame chicken; she always left the cartoon with only the sauce and vegetables inside. No chicken. Though before we get into his problems let me explain a little about him so you can get a rough outline of his persona and life style. I would of course recommend you read this in a car with the sun staring you in the face for a total experience. Well, parked of course.
His name was Riley and he was at a point in his life where he was just not happy anymore. He had a girlfriend named Cassie whom he was in a relationship with for over 3 years. They were in love for the first half of their relationship but Cassie got bored of the constant routine though didn’t want to lose the security of having someone at home. Riley was oblivious to most of it though he knew something was up when he came home once and started to clean his room and there was one condom less then he remembered having. He was the type that would indeed count them. He was also the type that when he did count one missing he passed it on as his miscounting, rather than start an argument. Confrontation was not a word highlighted regularly in Riley’s personal dictionary.
Other than his sad yet, common love life he wasn’t really sure what he was doing in life. He was in his final semesters in college but since last year knew he had made the wrong decision. Almost done with a degree in Organic Chemistry but, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed so contrived to him. He had wanted to be a doctor since the concept was conceived in his mind. Though during a routine day at his job at the hospital as an intern, he realized that it wasn’t at all what he wanted to do. That’s all right though; it won’t matter in a few minutes. Riley is the type that will then feel bad for feeling bad for his failed decision. We all cope in different ways.
Now, on this normal Wednesday in February there was a man named Frank who was not having a good day at all either. He had just left his mothers’ house because she refused to pay his college tuition, she said, “You sit home all day, eat shit and never help me out. I would help you if you at least had a fucking job to pay me back with. But you’re a fucking bum and I refuse to just give you money to sleep in a class.” Well, Frank didn’t agree with her logic so he tied her up in the kitchen and told her to tell him her bank account pin codes so he could withdraw the money. He had to persuade her eventually and even cut her a few times on her leg to prove that he was serious. Around the point where she gave him the information he realized that he could use the money for anything his heart desired. Frank was not well in the head but his single mother was too poor to take him to a shrink and hoped that good motherly love could cure the psychotic tendencies that really brewed inside Frank’s mind. It didn’t work out as she wanted and Frank put his mother in his trunk. Frank then in a frantic rush to go to Wal-Mart to buy himself an inebriating amount of beer missed a red light and drove his car into Riley’s passenger seat.
Now, Riley didn’t know what happened because as soon as Frank hit him his head whip lashed to the side and through his window, which basically guillotined him; a quick and painless death. Frank, sans seatbelt, flew through his window into the side of Riley’s car and crushed his skull completely against the frame. Frank’s mother was still in the trunk and during the accident hit her self against the door of the trunk though lived long enough to know her son had died. She called out his name but, no reply was given and she knew her days were over as she died of blood loss and shock in his trunk. The police did eventually show up but only after a passerby called. That was around ten minutes after the actual accident happened; it’s a slow street.
One of the officers on scene, Dave, whom has no importance in the story beyond this, was a friend of Frank’s from high school. He knew Frank’s episodes and had been there when his mother would reprimand him for not helping take out the trash, do dishes, or drive to get groceries because he was busy doing something else, like sleeping or playing solitaire. He was luckily the first on the scene and was also the first to discover Frank’s mother in the trunk. Suffocated with grief he took her and put her in the passenger seat so that it didn’t end up that Frank was portrayed as crazy in the newspaper and that him and his mother just died together in the accident. This was the last favor he could do for his old friend.
So now we have Riley dead and this is where the story begins.
Advice from a friend
Greetings,
I have decided to take upon the advice of my good (only) friend Andre. I need to get my creative juices flowing and will be following the popular “post ___ a day” trend that is sweeping the internet like the bubonic plaque. I will instead be posting writing and other articles involving words and sentences, with images only as bait to get an audience. I believe I will take the approach of posting a chapter every Sunday (hence the name) of a larger body of work i’ve been muddling over and posting every mid-week a short story, poem or idea.
Let’s see how long this lasts.
You can now go about your business as usual.
D
