After They Die At The End

🕙 Part 1 - Chapter 5

(Image credit to Pinterest https://pin.it/4bBmQyk)
Mateo
"And yeah, that's how I became 'me'", I say as I finish showing her a few things. I'm glad she showed me how this presenting part works, so that I could collect only the best moments to show her. Those included some birthdays, special moments with dad, who Lidia is, Penny, and I also show her Rufus, but I don't mention anything specific about our relationship, I don't know if I'm ready to tell her anything yet, or even what exactly our relationship is, me and him should talk about this once we get to see each other again. I actually even wonder if she knows anything about that, like how to talk to other spirits, like right now. Her reaction to it all is better than I expected, and I'm glad to see that.

"I'm so proud of you, for everything you've showed me and even what you didn't," she tells me. I smile softly.

"Momm, how are you so good at parenting already?" I say in a playful manner. She smiles back at me.

"Well I had some practice up here..." she says, to which I look at her, confused. She looks at her hands, her expression dimming a bit as she begins to explain.

"There are some souls here who don't exactly accept being dead or died young like me, or are even children's souls that had to deal with a hard life on earth. So, there are these kind of centers up here that attend people like that to help them move on, weather it's going to a new life or coping with being dead. It's not exactly an easy thing for everyone," she says. I hesitate as I'm about to ask something that might be a sensible topic.

"Mom...did you..?" She catches on to what I was about to say.

"Yes, I went there for a few sessions, but I turned out alright.... that's why I decided to help them out and learned how to help some of the children's souls up here, since I wish I could be down there with you and your dad. You could say it's where I used my 'parenting skills', until today: now, I have the chance to be your parent here as we work through getting back out there at some time,"

I nod a little, finding that to be quite interesting about how afterlife works out. She then changes the topic of the conversation, probably to make it a bit lighter.

"Mateo, while I waited for you to come, I actually made you something," she says, standing up. I look at her, curiously, and get up too. I follow her down the hall as she goes ahead to a door with a name tag on it, but I don't get a chance to read as she opens it as soon as we get there. Looking through it, there's the inscriptions of the day I was born and the day I died, but there is nothing else in it but an empty white room.

"This can be your room, if you would like," She says, "People of the same families can live together, so you can stay here if you feel like it,"

I think I'm starting to like afterlife more and more, I can stay here for as long as I want to, I can 'live' and talk with my mom, and me and Rufus can likely spend more time together, unlike on earth where we only had one day. I'm hesitant to live here with her though, I've lived and taken care of Dad for so long, it seems different when it's with her. I want to consider both my options, to stay here with her or discover some things on my own, though that does seem like a more difficult thing to do. I think for a second on how to reply back to her.

"Mom, thank you so much for the offer, but before I can say "yes" or "no" to it, I wanted to know how your life up here has been, like how does it work up here?" I ask. I think knowing a bit about how she lives might help me make a better decision, also considering that I'm not intruding or anything at any time.

"Oh, well, I usually wake up around what you would feel like 7 am and go out for breakfast, and then walk to the center and spend the day there, going out sometimes to relax at the park area, and then return around what you would feel like it's 6 pm," she says.

"It wouldn't disturb you at all if I were here?" I ask, "I'm still not really sure how or what I would be doing, but I do want to look for my last friend,"

"It's no problem at all," she tells me, "Also, thought I'd let you know that eating here isn't actually a mandatory thing, people just do it for fun to be able to taste some of their favorite foods before returning with a new life and tastes and all,"

I smile, this doesn't seems too bad, and I could use the company since I don't even know how meeting people here works yet. If meeting people and making friends was already a tough thing for me there, imagine now that I have literally all the time to do whatever, including not leaving this safe space? Having Mom around will be nice, since I'm sure we'll get to know each other more and she can help me find Rufus. I accept this very kind offer, getting a hug from my mom in return.

"This feels, unreal, but in a good way," I say. She nods a little. We go back to the living room and I ask her about some things I was wondering about living here and all, as well as how to decorate my new room.

"Well, you were made aware of the welcoming ceremony, right?" She says, to which I look back confused.

"No? Well, it's this ceremony where the older spirits, that kind of run things here, call all the new coming spirits to a stage just to be welcomed into this new community, it's quite the sweet thing," she says. I nod, it is thoughtful of them. And, I guess this will make it easier even for me to find Rufus! I hope he's doing okay, and that he was able to see his family again. It's going to be cool to meet them, I think. If they raised Rufus, I'm sure they're nice! He got to open up to me about them, maybe seeing them can help that process of how things went down now that they are together. His sister is someone I want to meet too, he told about me how close they were.

Me and Mom continue talking through the day, me telling her what are some things that changed since she passed while she tells me more things about living up here. I suddenly have a question about something I remember from the message I got when I arrived.

"Mom, how does the reincarnation thing happen?" She thinks about it for a moment, before coming back to me my response.

"I'm...not fully sure, people who sign up and say they're "ready to return" just end up not appearing again, and their homes start to fade with time," she says. I realize that there might be some thing up here that maybe are a mystery to everyone, like how Death-Cast knowing when everyone died was something that we didn't know.

(1274 words! I'm going to try my best to post every two days or so, hope it's understandable :))