Dead!

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I sprinted up to the front of the room and waited by the desk until an older lady came up to me. "Are you #667?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered, and I showed her my ticket.

"Excellent," the woman said. "Follow me." I followed the woman into a secluded room. Like the waiting room, it was very bland. There were few decorations, and the only furniture was a large desk with a computer on top of it and two chairs. "Sit down," she instructed, and I did so. I looked around and noticed that there were two doors - one was the one that we entered from, but I didn't know where the other one went. "What is your name?"

"Ivy Livingston," I answered. "What's yours?"

"You can call me Mrs. Tipton. Okay, let me find your file," the woman said. She sighed, started typing something into the computer, and said, "Ever since Steve Jobs came here, the afterlife has been overflooded with new technology. It takes some getting used to, but it's better than that crazy file system that we used to have. Ah, here's your file! Miss Livingston, it says here that your birth date is March 21, 2000 and you were born to Sean and Kathy Livingston. Is this correct?"

"Yes," I said.

"What was the date of your death?" Mrs. Tipton asked.

"November 14th, 2016," I said.

"Cause of death?"

"I was killed," I said.

"Could you be more specific?" Mrs. Tipton asked.

"Anthony Wilson shot me and four others at Millard Fillmore High School in Cedar Creek, Iowa," I said. "What else do you need to know?"

"Oh, it was that incident," Mrs. Tipton said. "Yes, we dealt with Mr. Wilson a few days ago. If I am correct, the judicial panel sent him to Hell for his crimes. Can you list the names of the others that died with you?"

"Raj Gupta, Henri Lavoie, Jack Snyder, and Maya Jackson," I said.

"Thank you, Ivy," Mrs. Tipton said. "What was your last permanent address?"

"54 Summit Street, Cedar Creek, Iowa," I answered.

"So the Sector Transfer Form doesn't apply to you," Mrs. Tipton mumbled.

"What's the Sector Transfer Form?" I asked.

"It's only if you died in a sector that you didn't live in," Mrs. Tipton explained. "It doesn't apply to you since your last address was within the Iowa Sector."

"Okay," I said. "Why are you asking me all of these questions?"

"It's for our records, and it will help the judges make their decision," Mrs. Tipton said. "Occupation?"

"Uhh...I had a part time job at Panera?" I said.

"I'll just put down as a 'Student/Part-Time Food Service Employee,'" Mrs. Tipton said. "Were you diagnosed with any mental disorders in life?"

"No," I answered.

"How about physical disorders that did not directly contribute to your death?"

"No," I said.

"Do you have any friends or family members that died within the last ten years?" Mrs. Tipton asked.

"My grandma died a few years ago," I said. "I guess the other people I died with count too, even though I'm not friends with them."

"What is your grandmother's name?" Mrs. Tipton asked.

"Anne Livingston," I answered.

"Let me look up her file...yeah, she's still in Heaven," Mrs. Tipton said.

"You can leave Heaven?" I asked.

"You can be reincarnated after five years in Heaven," Mrs. Tipton explained. "Most people end up getting reincarnated at one point or another. Only the really high-level employees at the Celestial Bureaucracy stay in Heaven forever."

"So Grandma's still in Heaven?" I said.

"Yes," Mrs. Tipton said. "I will contact Anne Livingston to let her know that you have arrived here and you will be sorted into Heaven or Hell shortly. Since minors in Heaven have to live with an adult over the age of eighteen, should I send you to your grandmother if you are sorted into Heaven?"

"Sure," I said. I hadn't really thought about what would happen to me if I did go to Heaven. I was assuming that I was Hell-bound. "Just out of curiosity, what happens to really little kids who die? I didn't see any little kids in the waiting room."

"Children under ten are reincarnated immediately," Mrs. Tipton answered.

"Okay, I was just wondering," I said.

"Any other questions, or can we continue with this?" Mrs. Tipton asked. "I still have more people to interview after this."

"No, I don't think so," I said.

"Great," Mrs. Tipton said as she opened the door. "Mr. Yates will help you in the next room. After your examination is finished, we will call you again to notify you that the panel has made their decision. I will meet with you again if you are sent to Heaven. Good luck, Ivy."

"Thanks Mrs. Tipton," I said as I entered the next room. It was even smaller than the first room, and the only things in it were a chair that looked like it was pulled right out of my orthodontist's office and a short, bald man, who I presumed was Mr. Yates. He smiled and said, "Hello. How are you?" as he set up some equipment.

"I'm okay, I guess," I said. I went over to the chair and lay down on top of it.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Ivy," I said.

"Well Ivy, have you ever broken a bone?" Mr. Yates asked.

I nodded. "I broke my arm in first grade."

"Remember how the doctor took an X-Ray of it?" I nodded. "Well, this is a little bit like an X-Ray, except instead of looking at your broken arm, we're looking at your soul." Mr. Yates ran over to turn on the X-ray machine. "You won't feel a thing," he said, and he was right. Only seconds passed, and the whole thing was over. "Ivy, you can go back to the waiting room now. Go back through that door, and then go into the waiting room."

I opened the door and wandered back into the waiting room. "Now serving Number 666!" I heard. "Number 666, please come to the front of the room! Number 666! To all others: remember that numbers may be called out of order. Number 666!"

I laughed as Maya sprinted to the front of the room. Then, I looked around. Raj, Jack, and Henri were in the middle of a conversation, and Samantha was mysteriously missing.

So I went back to my old friend: Joe Faulkner, the man who had been stuck in purgatory for two hundred years.