Page 154 - Musings 2020

“Yeah, the general processing and admittance take about 4-6 weeks. We’ve been standing
here for three.”
“But…”
“Yeah, I know. Only seemed like a few hours?”
“...I was going to say minutes, but… really? Three weeks?” He held up his pocket watch,
pressed a tiny button on the side which allowed the cover to swing open and reveal the
beautiful antique face. The face seemed to be normal, except there were many more numbers
than the standard twelve.

“Time moves much slower in the afterlife, Mike.”
“Are you serious?” I smirked as if he were playing a joke on me.
“Douglas Adams had it right.” He said as he closed the watch pack up and placed it back in
his left breast pocket. “Now where were we?”
“I was remembering my wife and son.”
“Oh yeah. What about them?”
“Well, if I figure it correctly, I’m a ghost right now, right?”
“Technically, but...”
“But what?”
“Well, do I have to go now?”
“Mike, where else are you going to go?”
“Well, I’d like to say goodbye, if I can.”
“Sorry. That’s against the rules.”
“Eternity has rules?”
“Well, they’re more of guidelines than rules. You don’t want to get yourself tangled back up
into the world of the living. It’ll only lead to anguish, Mike.”
“What do you mean?” He motioned for me to follow him. We began to walk down the road
where the accident originally occurred. As I looked around, I noticed that the accident had
been completely cleared away, and we were walking through streaks of red and white as we
crossed the freeway. He put his hands behind his back and looked out towards the horizon.

“Mike,” he sighed “…when I died back in, oh… when was it… ugh... I can’t even remember,
I was confused and disoriented just like you were. I was in my mid-twenties and I was killed
in battle, riddled with arrows actually. And my first thoughts were of my bride back in our
village. Since the reaper wasn’t friendly, he just said NO... IT IS FORBIDDEN and I took
off. I ran to get back to my village. But, when I finally got there, I didn’t take into account the
time change. Time moves differently here, and instead of a couple of days for me to return, it
was a couple of decades. My wife had already remarried and had a new family of her own. I
was devastated.”
I stood there enamored by his tale.

“Trust me, by the time you get back to your family, they’ll have moved on, and many years
will have passed. If you truly love them, just wait a little longer, they’ll come around.”
“Whatever happened to your bride? She had to have died. Did you two ever meet back up?”
“We’re not here to talk about me, Mike. This is your time.” With that, he took a small device
out of his right-hand coat pocket. It resembled a Game Boy with its green screen and a couple
of red buttons on the console. He slid his clipboard under his arm and typed in a few
commands that were answered with a series of heavenly chimes and tones. From above,

154