WALKING BACK TO THE DORM, I had to keep from wandering to explore more of the magic of my new home. I could see fantastic structures off in the distance in every direction. I hadn’t learned yet how material things came into existence here, but clearly they weren’t constructed in the conventional brick-and-mortar way. Things dropped when you let them go so some kind of gravity, but it had to be operating in a different way as I could see long overhangs on buildings with few to no support beams underneath. Also, the architecture didn’t have rigid edges. It was more like they were designed on a canvas as a three-dimensional painting rather than on a drafting table. Also, there weren’t any roads clogged with vehicles belching pollution. People were either walking slowly on paths or gliding like I did with Lydia. I’m not sure how they move more substantial material things around here. Back at the dorm, Lydia was already there and waiting.
“Where are all your new clothes? I wanted you to try them on for me?”
“Oh . . . right . . . I said I needed clothes, didn’t I? Well, I didn’t want to spend such a nice day inside in a store, so I went for a walk, anyway I could see that everyone does there own thing up here and that’s going to take some thought to come up with my look . . . any suggestions?” I probed, hoping Lydia would correct me if I was wrong about just what was fashion forward here.
“First of all about the nice day, there is an artificial day and night here. Night never really settles in. It’s kind of like God turns down dimmer switch on the bright intensity of day in order to provide some sense of night for those who are used to it, which is most of us. Night is bathed with a kind of ethereal moonlight.”
“If we don’t sleep, what do people do during the moonlit phase of the artificial day?” I was curious to know.
“Most of us meditate or pray, but night is also a good time to be creative in any way you like. When new arrivals get here they reside in a quadrant based on the planet they came from. The day-night cycle is set to what they were used to. In the case of Earth, the 24-hour period is recreated. Here, there are few cloudy days, little bad weather, so you never have to worry about not taking advantage of a lovely day, or a day in the 70s because your body is no longer uncomfortably sensitive to cold or hot. That aside, you’ve pretty much nailed it about how people dress. They create unique looks, mainly because their style is a reflection of what’s on the inside. All that time on Earth when the superficial was so important, finally, that’s all changed—things are the way they should be here.”
“So you’re saying pretty doesn’t count?”
“Not really, and that goes for buff or handsome on the guy side.”
“Love was so important on Earth; don’t people fall in love here?” I was more than curious to know.
“Of course, learning to love, practicing love is the most important spiritual skill everywhere in the universe, and in heaven, but you know, most of the time love here isn’t about sex,” Lydia tried to explain without getting too graphic.
“Okay, I get that platonic love thing, but are you saying people fall in love in heaven and want to be together, or to be more blunt ‘know’ each other in the Old Testament sense of the word?” I was almost too ashamed to ask.
“Of course that happens. Why would you think otherwise?”
“Oh, you know, it seems sex is the number one sin on any religion’s top-10 straight-to-hell list,” I admitted, revealing echoes of my conservative Christian upbringing.
“Now, I didn’t mean to imply that people are having sex here, but they do fall in love,” Lydia replied without really answering my question.
“What do they do, then, with those feelings?” I persisted.
YOU ARE READING
Hereafter
Teen FictionYou’re about to read Hereafter. Possibly you’ve already read, Maitreya, and may have a sense that the storyline was not pure fiction. Much of the plot was inspired by made-up stories in pop culture, as in the Twilight characters, Bella and Edward, a...
