ALL IN THE HEAD 1

ALBERT P. HOFFMAN

'Today we are gathered here to celebrate the life of Albert Patrick Hoffman ...' speaks a priest in the near empty church of St Martin's priory.

A closed coffin stands angled before the steps which lead up to toward the altar and the small attending congregation sit up towards the front of the church taking positions either side of the main aisle.

Albert had lived an unexciting and lonely life. He was a pleasant man, a peaceful man, a suited to living on his own kind of man, and a wouldn't intentionally hurt a fly kind of man, a man who lived with the odd regret or so of which he would not admit to freely.

Apart from one brother and his family, Albert has no living relatives, and it has been close to twenty years since the brothers had last talked to one another and simple stubbornness sees each day come and go without reunion. Despite such things, Albert always had a good heart, he is a good guy, but like anyone else there ever was ... he was not perfect and hadn't always done the right thing.

Letting so much time go by without talking to his brother is just one example of having not always done the right thing, another is when he accidentally killed Missus Brady's cat when he was leaving his driveway one morning a number of years back. When Missus Brady, a number of years his senior, asked him if he had seen her cat, Claudette, he replied that he hadn't, being unable to tell her the truth.

When the accident occurred, he had all the intentions of owning his actions. The thoughts were there of letting his neighbour know of what had occurred but when it came down to it ... he just couldn't do it and the guilt would haunt him, knowing he had taken away her closest companion.

He had known love three times in his life, but as it turned out, each time the love turned out to be one sided, or at least, so it seemed. Sometimes Albert thought of his first love Linda. At the time they were together, Albert couldn't believe someone so beautiful could be in love with him. He loved her so much that after only three months of being in Linda's company, Albert asked her to marry him, and she had accepted his proposal.

Five more memorable months passed and as far as Albert was concerned, things were great, that was until he came across Linda in the arms of another guy on one summer evening. Things had been too good to be true and this loss, this disaster, had become a difficult thing for Albert to get past.

Sometimes second chances come along and sometimes they come along in the most peculiar of ways. Albert would more than find out just how peculiar second chances can be as he was to get a second chance of his own, not necessarily a second chance at love or even life but possibly to put one or two things, maybe even three things, right.

When Albert awoke on the morning of January 19th, 2010, he was surprised to find that neither himself nor his bed were within the confines of his own bedroom. They were both in a bright wide-open space surrounded by a thin grey mist. As Albert got up out of the bed, still in his pajamas; the mist began to lower and rest to just about covering his ankles, strangely enough his first thoughts in this moment were 'how peculiar?'

A bright golden light soon appeared distant and to off to his left and this light began to grow quickly, it got bigger and bigger, growing large as it seemed to be moving towards him from having been some way off in the distance and it kept coming until it stopped just feet away. What it was that had stopped those few short feet away were two enormous bright golden gates, gates surrounded top and bottom by cloud with each gate attached to a tall pillar of red and white brick.

Standing next to the gates was a bald-headed man with a long grey beard holding a scroll. This man, and all that he is, had arrived as part of the package that was and is these enormous bright golden gated shrouded in cloud.