"The Life of Death" by Mitchell B. Clarke

The Life of Death

            As the two men walked through the park, one of them bent down and

picked up a dead leaf on the cement. He held it by the stem and began to twirl

it, looking at it inquisitively. He stared at the dead leaf and it made him

think about how he has spent most of his life. He then stood up and carefully

placed the leaf into the inside pocket of his black leather jacket. The man

wearing the leather jacket was shorter than his friend next to him and he had

medium curly hair and had grown sideburns, his name was Del. His friend next to

him smiled when Del stood up and shook his head, and they both began to start

working again. Matt never knew why Del got so sentimental whenever they walked

through the park. Matt was taller then Del and had a goatee, but it was a

brighter blonde than his hair. He was wearing a light blue jean jacket with a

pair of dark blue Levi’s.

            “ Why do you always do that?” Asked Matt.

            “ Do what?”

            “ You always get so … emotional nowadays. What the hell?” Replied

Matt.

            “ Well, maybe if you’ve spent most of your life surrounded by death,

you’d know how I feel,” said Del.

            Matt opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, knowing the

reaction he would get from Del would be anything but pleasant. Against his

better judgment, Matt decided to say it anyway.

            “Del, Stop feeling sorry for yourself, I’m surrounded by as much

death as you,” Matt said, his voice rising because he was starting to become mad

at Del’s self-pity.

            “Hey, why don’t you think about it for a minute? You can stop it.

You get praised for doing your job. You have no comprehension of what it’s like

to do my job. For God’s sake just drop it. I don’t want to talk about it

anymore.”

            They walked for a few minutes and exited the park. They then walked

in silence to the corner of Carlton and Maine. Down Maine Street, were several

clothing stores and at the end was a local Seven Eleven. Down Carlton, were a

bank, a realty office and a construction site where they were going to build the

new mini-mall. In middle of the sidewalk was a street vendor.

            “Which way should we go?”  Asked Del, looking at the two paths ahead

of him.

            “ I don’t know, Delatacious, let’s take Carlton,” answered Matt.

            Del was taken aback by what his friend had just said. Matt hadn’t

called Del, Delatacious, in over a century. This may sound weird because Del

looked like he was in his early twenties. This is because Del was an angel of

Death and Matt, or his full name Matulus, was an angel of Life.

            As they walked down Carlton, Del saw the street vendor was a hot dog

stand. They began to approach the vendor.

            “You want one, Matt? My treat,” offered Del.

            “ Why? We don’t eat. We don’t get any sustenance from food. Our

bodies don’t even register it as food.”

            “ Yeah, but there’s taste. There’s a certain enjoyment I get from

eating food. So, do you want one?” Asked Del, as they stood right beside the

cart. The vendor was wondering whether or not these two men were crazy. The

vendor was around sixty-five years old, with balding whit hair and overweight.

            “No thanks,” refused Matt.

            “ Your loss. I have one dog please, Mister…” asked Del with a

serious expression on his face.

            “Paul. Joseph Paul. Guys, I don’t want no trouble, okay. Just take

your dog and leave please.” A frightened look had started to appear Joseph’s

face. He had been mugged earlier this month and he didn’t want it to happen

again.

            “Well, Mr. Paul, we’re not here for trouble,” replied Del. He looked

over at Matt who pulled out a small scroll. As he opened the scroll, flowing red

writing began to appear on the page, names and dates flowing downward as Matt

read onward. Suddenly the words ‘Joseph Duncan Paul, age sixty five, heart

failure’ appeared on the page. Matt nodded at Del, who nodded back and began

removing his right glove.

            “ I just want my hot dog, with ketchup, and to get on with my job,

thank you,” said Del. He looked at the cart and read the price and reached into

his pocket and pulled out a five-dollar bill. “So, it’s $2.25 for a dog. Here’s

five and keep the change.” As Del handed Joseph the bill, Del grabbed Joseph’s

hand and pulled him close enough to whisper, “I’m sorry,” into his ear. Del

backed away a few steps and looked at Matt.

            “Now?” Asked Matt.

            “Now,” Del nodded. As he said it they both disappeared in front of

Joseph. As they disappeared, his left arm went numb and then a surge of pain

gripped his chest. He let out a gasp of pain and collapsed unconscious on the

sidewalk. A young man ran up to Joseph’s body and took his pulse. Nothing was there. He called for someone to call 911 as he started CPR. As this was happening, Joseph opened his eyes, and stood up. He saw the crowd around him He said, “I’m okay. Look at me.”

       But no one looked. And then Joseph looked down and saw he was still lying there.

      “What’s going on?” He asked as he looked around. All the people around him were dark and translucent. A fog surrounded him that seemed to go on for miles and miles. Even the sky had seemed to turn black.

      “That’s simple,” replied Del, as he and Matt walked through the mist to Joseph. “ You’re dead.”

      “ That’s not true,” exclaimed Joseph, looking at his own corpse beside him. “I can’t be true.”

      “ I’m afraid it is,” said Matt, “You touched his hand. You were touched by Death.”

      Oh my God, this can’t be happening. Why is this happening?” Cried Joseph, tears beginning to form in his eyes.

      “ Don’t bring him into this, it’s not his fault. Anyways, you still have judgment to go through. Don’t worry Joe, you don’t mind if I call you Joe do you?” Joseph shook his head. “No, okay then. This is all part of the circle of life. You’re born, you live, you die and then you get an afterlife. It’ll all be fine. Believe me, I’ve gone through it before,” explained Del.

      “ Who’ll be judging me? You two guys?”

      “ No, no,” said Matt, “ We don’t even touch that section. Um, if you’ll follow us, there’ll be a tunnel. If you choose to go through the tunnel, you will be judged and the fate of your afterlife will be decided. Understand?”

      “ What do ya mean, if I choose? Does this mean I get a choice, whether or not I want to be judged?” As Joseph said this, a smile began to appear on his face.

      “Well, kind of,” explained Del, “ If you choose not to take the tunnel, then you will be forced to roam around forever. Like this. In this realm. That’s why most people tend to choose the tunnel.”

      The smile instantly vanished from Joseph’s face. “So, I’d be a ghost?”

      “Yeah, basically,” said Del nonchalantly. “ If you follow us, we’ll take you to the tunnel. Sound good?”

      “ Yeah, I guess, if I have no choice,” replied Joseph.

      “ Actually, you do get a choice. It’s just that your second choice isn’t exactly optimal. Now let’s get going, unless, of course, you want to spend eternity in here?”

      “ Fine, let’s go,” retorted Joseph as they began to walk down the street until they found a nearby alley.

      “ Well, let’s go,” said Del.

      “ What the hell are you talking about? There’s nothing here, just a stupid alley,” said the ever more confused Joseph.

      Matt pulled out the scroll he had used earlier and outlined a doorframe in the air. As he finished, Del pushed on the middle of the imaginary doorframe. As he pushed it, a blinding light began to consume everything in the door’s outline. Pure white light filled the darken world that the three men stood in. Joseph looked into the doorway and saw a white tunnel.

      “ What do I do?” He asked looking back at Matt and Del.

      “ You walk through the door, then you walk down the tunnel to the very end. When you get there, a man…”

      “ It might be a woman today. I think Celia’s working now,” Matt interrupted.

      “ So,” continued Del, “you will meet a man, possibly a woman, and they will direct you from there.”

       “ Direct me to where?” Asked Joseph.

      “ Well, depending on…” began Matt. But before he could finish Del sighed loudly.

      “ Get lost! Oh, and have a nice flight,” said Del as he grabbed Joseph by the shirt collar and the belt and threw him through the portal. As soon as Joseph passed through the doorway, it closed and the alley looked normal again.

      “ Why did you have to do that? Asked Matt.

      “ I was getting sick of his whining, so I just gave him a push in the right direction.”

      “ This is why you hate your job. You’re a jerk to some helpless loser, and then you feel bad for it later,” said Matt.

      “ Whatever. Hey, what do we have now?” Asked Del.

      “ Actually, we’re good ‘til tonight, then we have hospital duty.”

      “ No. Not hospital, I thought we were done doing the crappy little jobs,” complained Del. “ Really, we’re Senior Channellers. We’ve been doing our jobs for two millennia. Doesn’t that get us out of doing hospital duty?”

      “ No,” replied Matt. “ This section is short on personnel. So we have to. Also, it seems you haven’t matured one bit, during the last two millennia I’ve worked with you. Oh, and tomorrow we have a meeting at…” Matt pulled out his golden scroll. He opened it and the flowing red writing began to appear. “Eight’ o’clock. A.M.”

      “ Eight’ o’clock, in the morning. Life sucks. Where?” Asked Del.

      “ Number one, death sucks. And number two, The Department of Afterlife Affairs. We get to train two new people.”

      Del snapped his fingers and they reappeared in the world of the living. They looked down the street and saw the crowd that had formed around Joseph’s dead body. The ambulance had just arrived and had just put him onto the stretcher.