Life After

I had so many times about what happens when you die. Hundreds of TV shows tell you what could happen, what you see and what you will feel. To tell you the truth I thought all of that was a crock of shit until that day two years ago when I died in a room in the hospital.

I was in an accident out on Walnut Creek. I was driving my car…a 1970 Gremlin that I bought and restored. I remember that the road was wet, slippery and covered with leafs that fell for the hundreds of maple trees that lined the road. I wasn’t being as careful as I should have. My mind was on a concert I was going to see that night…The Rolling Stones were playing in Cleveland and somehow I managed to get second row seats. That was amazing since the concert sold out in less than twenty minutes.

I was about fifteen minutes outside of Erie and I was doing 65 in a 45 mile per hour zone. Unfortunately the car that was coming in the other direction was doing the same.

I dropped into the Walnut Creek valley when I saw something on the side of the road. I am still not sure if it was an animal or whatever but I slammed on the brakes. That made me skid sideways on the road and stop. The thing was it was on a blind curve and when the other driver came into the valley he never saw me and he hit my car broadside. I remember hearing the crash and felling the car flip and roll down the side of the road and into the creek.

Now, this is all speculation, I assume that an ambulance came and took me into the hospital. I couldn’t see anything but could hear what people were saying but to me it sounded like a foreign language It was like I was in another country but I was aware that of where I was before. While I was in the ambulance I know that they were worried. Like I said I couldn’t understand what was being said but the tone of their voice was strong with emotion.

I am sure I made it to a hospital and I am also sure that I was hooked up to bags of fluid, IV drugs and as many machines as they could find.

Suddenly I saw a young girl standing at the foot of my bed. She was dressed in white with a gold sash and a deep violet cloak.  Her hair was blonde, almost white and her face looked like a white marble bust I had seen when I was at the Human History Museum when I was a kid. “You have to come with me,” she said. I didn’t know who she was her eyes showed sadness and yet they were peaceful.

I looked down at her and suddenly I felt a sense of peace but that was tempered with confusion and curiosity.

“Where are we going,” I asked.

She placed her hand in mine and she said, “It is time for you to stop suffering and live in eternal peace and love.”

It felt as if I didn’t have a choice. I held her hand tight as I sat up and stepped down from the bed. It was then that I looked back and saw at least a dozen doctors standing around the bed. I jerked my hand from hers and walked over to the bed. I looked down and saw my body laying with my shin ripped to shreds and the doctors working desperately to try and keep me alive.

“Come with me,” she said as she once again took my hand. “We have to leave.” She turned and she and I walked out of the room and down the hall, finally stepping through a door and into nothingness.

“Where am I, I asked.

“We are in the Netherworld,” she said as a small light appeared in the distance and with it was the most beautiful music I had ever heard. As the light got closer, the music continued but it became most relaxing…more peaceful.

The light was finally right before me. She stepped in first leading me by the hand, I was not afraid and nor was I curious any longer. The music was louder than it had been but there was none of the pain that I had when I went to concerts.

“Come here Charlie,” a voice said from further in the light. It was familiar but it was a voice that I had not heard in over thirty years and there was only one person who ever called me Charlie and that was my mother. “Charlie…,” the voice said again. “…come here. Walk toward me.” I strained my eyes but I could not see my mother.

“She is not as you remember her,” the girl said. “When a person rises their soul takes the shape of their living bodies when they were the happiest.”

There before me stood a woman no more than twenty five or twenty six years old. She had a brown black hair and the darkest brown eyes I had not seen in a very, very long time.

“Mother,” I asked not knowing what the answer would be.

“Yes darling,” she said as she walked up and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I have been waiting so long to be able you hold you again. I want you to know that I have been watching over you for your entire life. It was the saddest day of my life when I passed over.”

“Where are dad, grandma, grandpa and Aunt Sandy,” I asked.

She pointed stand over to a crowd of people who were standing a few feet away looking at me. I recognized my dad, grandma and Aunt Sandy. Grandpa looked familiar from photos I had seen when I visited grandma when I was a little kid. I went over and talked to them told them all about my life, I could understand what everyone was saying except for my grandpa. He was speaking German…a language that I could not understand but I still have an idea that he was happy to meet me.

The girl walked over to me, tapped me on the shoulder, took my hand and said, “I am sorry but we have been here too long.”

“What do you mean,” I asked as we lifted off of the ground or whatever you call what we were standing on. She didn’t answer but soon we were passing through clouds. It was actually beautiful. “Are we in Heaven,” I asked again without an answer. Finally we left the Earth’s atmosphere and a few minutes later we passed by the moon. “Where are we going,” I asked in an angry tone.

“I cannot tell you where you must go,” she said in a very, very sweet voice. It was even sweeter than when she spoke to me in the hospital. It was actually very relaxing which is what I needed at that moment.

Ahead of us were the planets, stars and galaxies but also ahead of us was a bright white light that appeared to be maintaining its distance from us no matter how fast we were travelling. By the time we actually caught up and entered the light we were beyond the edge of the universe. There were no more stars or galaxies. Ahead of us was just one large blue green planet with white clouds floating in its atmosphere.

As our feet touched the surface the girl told me that this place was my destination and it would be where I would spend eternity. I looked around and I saw cities, farms, paradises and beaches. “Welcome home Charles Cope,” she said. “May your eternity be all that you wish.”

I knelt down to feel the soil and as I did she started walking down a narrow path. I looked up and yelled to her,” Thank you very much,” I said. Then I asked her a question. “What is your name,” I asked.

She looked at me and raised her hand in the way a Catholic priest would do when he was blessing his congregation. “You know my name already Charles,” she said. “I am called God in your reality but I go by other names in other places.”

I looked at her and my mouth stopped working. I just stood there looking and trying to figure out what to do or what to say but nothing was working.

“Follow the trail along the beach,” she said. “It will lead you to a Heaven that you make for yourself.”

I did what she told me to do. I walked down the trail and there it was…the house I had always thought of when I was a kid. Flowers, vines, bushes and a really large brick and wood wall surrounding it, It had everything I ever wanted and so much more and when I got to the door the insides had games, TVs. Musical instruments and a bed lifted ten feet into the air. It was truly my fantasy house.

As I stepped into the house I felt a sharp pain in my chest. Dropping to my knees I wondered what was going on and where you go if you die in Heaven. Then there was another pain and another and another. I lay on the floor praying and asking God to come and help me. I wanted to be there. I did not want to die. She never did come to my aid but my prayers got stronger as the pain increased.

As my eyes closed I felt a hand grab me and throw me off on the surface and into the, pardon the wording, heavens. I felt like I was flying but I could not see where I was going but it felt so familiar. I was being ejected from Heaven. My soul was being sent to Hell but I had no idea why. In my life I lived a good life. I never lied, cheated or stole from anyone. I never killed. I didn’t even eat meat so why would I be going to Hell.

I passed stars and planets as my soul sped up. The pain was still there but my mind was on things. I didn’t want to go to Hell but there was no way to stop in.

Finally the biggest pain of all wracked my soul. It was unbearable but I was still moving. Suddenly the pain tore me apart and the next thing I knew I could hear voices…human voices. I heard someone say that the heart massage and the zapping saved my life.

I opened my eyes and there was no fire and no smell of sulfur. There was a cool breeze, a bright light and the distinct smell of alcohol and medical disinfectant. What in the hell was going on. My mind was wandering, trying to understand what was happening. Then it hit me…I wasn’t sent to Hell. The pain I had felt were the doctors working to save me. I was alive.

Sometime later I was in my room and my wife and kids were standing beside the bed. She was holding my hand and crying. I woke up and saw so many smiles. Even the doctor…the one who massaged my heart was there. “You are a lucky man Mister Cope,” he said. “We nearly lost you.”

You know, I have never told anyone this story. I doubt that anyone would ever believe it anyway but it had to be told and maybe, just maybe there will be someone who may believe it. In my mind it was true and I saw the Heaven that the Church has always been telling us about and believe it or not…it is a paradise. I just hope and pray that maybe next time I might be able to stay.

The Final Goodbye

You know this wasn’t too hard to see coming. God knows that there were many warnings that it was going to happen. Maybe that was the problem? There were so many warnings that people just stopped listening and their thoughts went back to their normal humdrum lives. That had to have been what happened…people just turned numb to the idea that the world was going to end.

I just want to tell you before you continue that if you are reading this….I am already dead.

It all started, let’s see its September I think, so it started just about a year ago. The CDC was experimenting with some new superbug that they thought maybe hitching a ride back from the spaceships that travelled to the Moon and back. I think they were up to three or four flights a year and they knew that there was a possibility that someday something would come back. They took about a month to find it, isolate it, and create “breeding colony” for their research.  They found that it was airborne and it was extremely fatal to anyone and anything that happed to breathe it in.

Now, remember that the United States government did everything they could to keep it a secret and it worked until they tested it in a secluded valley out in Wyoming. The test was for a herd of cattle to be gassed and the measure the results. Needless to say it worked…a little too well. Unknown to the Feds there was a campsite on top of a mountain a couple miles away and when the gas reached them they all died within seconds. Their bodies were found a few weeks later half rotted and dehydrated. It was almost as if they died of thirst despite the fact that there was a creek less than fifty feet from their camp.

The government decided that more wide-spread testing was needed so they launched an attack on a small village in the country they were at war with at the time. There had been so many since President Bush launched attacks in Iraq in was hard to remember what country. Anyway, the entire population was killed. That weapon was perfect…it killed everything and it was easy to deliver. The thing was there was one thing that the government didn’t know and that was the way those creatures reacted after they were let loose in the air…they continued to live long after an attack.

By the time they learned that they had unleashed a pandemic on the world they had given it a name The Imperian Bow named after the mythological bow created by Hercules. It was said that it was the ultimate weapon and was used once during the war between the Greek gods and the Titans. The original bow was never found but this on proved that an ultimate weapon could be created.

It didn’t take long for the disease spread. Wyoming was the first to feel the effects followed quickly by the Middle East. It was spreading at a rate of more than a hundred miles a day killing every…humans, animals and even plants were affected. Within a week most of the western and central United States, Canada were wiped as were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Greece. Cities, forests and water basins were empty.

Once they realized what was happening people tried finding places to hide but to no success. The underground places they were hiding had air brought in from the surface and their filters were not made to filter out something as small as the plague that filled the air. One by one their “safe” places became the 22^nd century versions of the ancient crypts of Egypt.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones or maybe not. I was in a Lear Jet flying from England back home to the United States when the worst of it was just finishing. I landed outside my hometown of Casper. My car was waiting in the hanger just where I left it so it only took me about ten seconds to get from the plane to the car.

It took me about twenty minutes to get in to town. It was hot outside. That was rare for this area so I turned on the air conditioner at set it to recycle the air inside the car.

As I was driving I saw corpses lying on the side of every street. Whole families were laying together some must have died separately while others were holding each other tightly as if they had a final moment or two to gather their loved ones close to them before they died.

Finally, I reached my house. I was afraid as to what I might find but I had to know. I pulled into the garage and went into the house. My wife was slumped over the kitchen table and the baby was in her highchair. My wife must have been feeding her when she died. I looked for my son. He was nowhere to be found. Then I thought about it for a minute. We had always sent him to camp the first week of September. Odds were that was where he was. Then I looked back to my wife and baby. My only thought was that I hoped that they didn’t suffer but as for anything else it was too late.

Before I left I walked into the bedroom and took a package out of the closet behind the door. I stuck it in my pocket and walked out, got in the car and left. I had nowhere to go and I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to do what I knew I had to do.

I took back roads all the way into the mountains. It was so quiet. There was not an animal or bird anywhere, God, how could a whole city’s residents just die off at the same time?

I finally made it to Dinwoody Peak and I was lucky…I found a road that lead up near the peak and it was a quick ride. When I got there I was having trouble breathing, I was sweating like race horse and my mouth was so dry but there was no water to be found.

I got out of the car with my package and started walking the last one hundred feet to the summit. I knew what I was going to do when I got there. That package I was carrying was a 22 caliber pistol. I wasn’t going to live on a planet all alone and I was goddamn if I was going to die like everyone else. Before I was going to do that though I wanted to write this and maybe leave it as a warning for the next version of human being. I just hope that they would be smarter than we were.

It is time to go. There was a beautiful sunset and that would be a perfect last memory for me. All I had to say was “The rotten bastards finally did it” and then it was finished.

Black Orchid

My father owed it and he got it from his father who got it from his father in Germany and only God knows where he got it. What is it you may be asking? Well, it is an extremely rare black orchid that blooms once every two hundred years. They all made sure that it was watered and kept healthy even though the most adverse conditions. When my father died he stated in his will that my wife Sandra and I would be the new caretakers of what we started calling our little pain in the ass.

Every year that thing would bud but as soon as they formed the buds wilted, died and fell to the floor. The thing was it would only have one bud and no more.

I got the damn thing when I was 25. I just moved to Cleveland, got a new job as a, if you can believe it or not, a botanist and Sandra was pregnant with our first child. Then it came into the house. It stood more than seven feet tall and its leaves covered the one wall of the living room of our new house. To say that is was big was definitely an understatement.

We had it about a year and half when it budded for the 15^th time but this time was different. The bulb was different; I was well over four feet in length and nearly as wide. The leaves were different and just the feeling of the air around the orchid was different. It was hard to tell but we knew that something was going to happen, we just didn’t know when.

The baby was just starting to crawl in high speed so we had to watch her, watch the plant and male sure that we kept everything pretty much normal.

One day the bud started to open, it was very, very slow in opening but I could see the edges of the petals. They were the deepest purple I had ever seen. I just stood there and watched as they opened inch by inch. Oh my God, I thought, this is it. It really is. I pulled Sandra close to me and she had the baby on her hip. There was nothing left to do but what something that, for the two hundred years, my family had been waiting and praying to see and it was happening now.

It took hours to open. It reminded me so much of waiting in the hospital when Sandra was in labor except this time no one was trying to break my hands or reach down to rip my nuts off and I sure as hell not getting yelled at because of my gender.

Sandra fell asleep in the corner of the couch while holding the baby. I was wade awake all night looking for something to watch on TV and the thing was even with all those channels I could not find anything to watch so I settled on some old Jackie Gleason Show reruns and then I settled back and watched.

It took almost two day for the flower to open. The petals were shiny black and there was a violet tint to the edges. The inside of the flower were as black as night except for the very tip of the stigma was a bright blood red.

 I called Sandra out of the kitchen to look. “Oh my God,” she said. “That has got to be the most beautiful flower I have ever seen. How long will it be in bloom?”

“No one knows,” I answered. There has never been anyone live long enough to see it bloom before.”

Sandra walked over to the plant very slowly. “The smell of this plant is totally irresistible,” she said. “I have never smelled anything as sweet as this.” The smell was not just localized to right around the plant…it was filling the room and into the other rooms of the house and eventually to the entire neighborhood. A large group of neighbors filled the yard in front of the house all asking the same question…what was making such a scent the no one could resist.

I  decided to open his house to the neighbors so that they could see the miracle. One by one they filed into the room. The bloom was now completely open and anyone who saw it couldn’t speak. It may have been because of its size or it could have been the beauty they were looking at. There was no way to tell for sure but everyone was amazed.

They mulled around for several minutes, conversing and just hanging out. No one bothered to shoot a video or even take pictures of the incredible sight that was before them. That was really unfortunately because, although no one noticed, the petals starting turning into a grey powder that covered the floor below.

“Oh my God,” one guest finally yelled. “Look!”

As the group looked the petals were dying and not one by one they were all dying at the same time. Sandra ran over and tried to spray water on the plant in an effort to stop what she was watching.  As soon as all of the petals were gone the Leaves starting turning into the same deathly grey power. Then, silently it hit the stem. It died as quickly as the rest of the plant and by the time anyone had the chance to say anything.

After all the people left and Sandra and I were standing alone in front of a pile if grey dust and a big flower pot. I hugged her and told her that everything would be alright. Then we saw something that we never expected…a small green shoot was sticking out of the grey ash.

We laughed for quite a while as the sprout turned greener and greener as we watched. As I watched I went to the computer and wrote a note to my son. It read, “Son, this is a blessing from many, many generations of your family. Please raise this plant and leave it to any family you may have. It will be your legacy.” I sent as an e-mail to my lawyer with orders to be delivered when died. I know that he will be a good man and he will keep the tradition alive.