Dead!

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Now serving Number 495! Number 495, please come to the front of the room! Number 495! To all others: remember that numbers may be called out of order. Number 495!"

I was craving chocolate again, so I went in line to get myself another mocha frappuccino. Jack and Henri were right in front of me, so I couldn't help but listen to their conversation.

"So what are you going to get?" Jack asked.

"Probably some ice cream," Henri said.

"Did you know that July is National Ice Cream month?" Jack said.

"No, but thank you very much for that completely useless piece of information!" Henri exclaimed.

"Oh come on," Jack said. "You know you love it."

"And you're completely right," Henri said, kissing Jack's cheek.

"There's more where that came from," Jack said. "Did you know that New Zealand consumes the most ice cream out of any country? Or that it takes about fifty licks to finish a single scoop ice cream cone?"

"How do you know all of this?" Henri asked.

Jack shrugged. "I just do," he said.

"So what are you getting?" Henri asked.

"I don't know," Jack said. "I'm not really hungry."

"Me neither, but we can eat as much as we want!" Henri said. "You should get something."

"What if I get a few cookies and we can split them?" Jack suggested.

"Yes, that's great!" Henri exclaimed. He sighed and said, "Today's that concert."

"Which concert?" Jack asked.

"The important one!" Henri exclaimed. "I would have played as a soloist, since I won the concerto competition. I spent all summer preparing that Vaughan Williams piece, remember?"

"Yes, I remember," Jack said.

"And now someone else is going to play," Henri said sadly.

"It's okay Henri," Jack said. "You'll get to play again...if we ever get out of here."

"I'm just scared," Henri said. "What if I don't get into Heaven?"

"Henri, you're the nicest person I know," Jack said. "There's no way that you'd end up in Hell. You worry way too much."

"Maybe it's irrational, but I'm still worried," Henri said.

We finally got to the front of the line, and Jack and Henri ordered their food and left. I ordered my mocha frappucino, which was delicious as usual. I wandered around for a while before running into Samantha.

"Hey Ivy," she said, looking up from her phone. "How are you?"

"I'm alright," I said, taking a sip of my coffee. "I'm just waiting for my number to be called."

"I was just working on my blog," Samantha said.

"You have a blog?" I said.

Samantha nodded. "It mostly consists of political rants, social justice rants, and more political rants, but I occasionally post pictures of cute puppies, because who doesn't love puppies?"

I shrugged. "I'm more of a cat person myself."

"Did you have a cat when you were alive?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah, his name was Dash," I said. "I wish he was here right now. I just want to cuddle with him."

"I wish my dog was here," Samantha said.

"What kind of dog did you have?" I asked.

"I used to have a Labradoodle," Samantha said. "But I couldn't take her to college with me, so she probably still lives with my parents."

"That sucks," I said.

"Yeah, I miss Skittles, but there's nothing that I can do about it," Samantha said. "We're all dead now, and I guess that means that we have to let go of life, even the good parts."

"I wonder if you can get a pet in Heaven," I said, even though I wasn't even sure if I was going to Heaven. I was almost certain that everyone in this waiting room would get into Heaven except for me.

"It's Heaven, you can probably do anything," Samantha said.

"Do you think you're going to get in?" I asked.

"I hope so," Samantha said. "In any case, I'm going to get reincarnated as soon as I can. I want another chance at life."

"I think you have to wait five years," I told her. "Why do you want to get reincarnated so quickly anyways? Shouldn't you enjoy Heaven?"

"Five years is more than enough time to enjoy Heaven," Samantha said. "You know, I wasn't really expecting this. I never believed in the afterlife. I thought that you just...stopped existing."

"I don't think anyone expected this," Ivy said.

"You're probably right," Samantha said. She took out her phone again and started typing something.

"What are you working on?" I asked.

"I'm writing another blog post on feminism," Samantha said. "Because apparently nobody listened when I did a blog post last year about how awful that sexist Dorito who wrote that Blurred Lines song is."

"Okay yeah, that song is really stupid," I said.

"It's so misogynistic!" Samantha complained. "Why are people such idiots?!" She then ranted for about half an hour about the patriarchy, but I won't put that here for the sake of your sanity.

In any case, Samantha and I became pretty good friends, and even as the days passed, we stayed together. It felt good to have friends again, despite the fact that I would lose her as soon as I was called. For now, I just did the best I could.