Dots

Existence

Every once in a while, Life and Death get together on earth. They see each other quite often in our realm but they hardly have time to catch up and so when they do, something big happens. This big 'happening' usually involves a human.

On this particular October morning, this human is Richard Deans. He is 17 and living with his parents and sister in a small apartment, packed into the city. His existence would be decidedly average, if not for the fact that he was, unequivocally, a good human being. He was the type of human who'd give the jacket off his back if he saw a stranger shivering, the kind of human who didn't make the world a bad place and the kind of human who loved all life.
As such, the debate of his existence was a tricky one for Life and Death on that October morning.
Life insisted that the human had done nothing to deserve the fate he was about to receive but Death argued that what he'd done made no difference to the fact that his time was up.
As this agrument was taking place, Richard Dean had been rushed to the ICU, after falling and convulsing during a charity run. His parents fell apart in the waiting room and his sister, just old enough to know the deeper reach of pain, was praying for her brother. Amidst the chaos of doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with Richard Dean, Life and Death had finally  come to an agreement.

The heart rate of the human stabilised but the doctors looked grim. They called in the family and Richard was brought out of an induced coma. The human of such little experience, let out the exuberance of such warmth and life that both Death and Life could only stand back and watch contentedly as he hugged his parents, telling them not worry and held his crying sister's hand as he made her promise she would be a good girl and take care of everyone.
Momentarily, Life had won but Death knew otherwise.
The doctors pulled the parents aside and broke the news to them. Richard's heart was slowly failing and there was nothing the doctors could do about it. Richard's parents fell apart and his sister shouted angrily that there must be something they could do.
Almost as angry as the sister was Life, who disappeared in a fog of defeat as the heart rate monitor stopped beeping and Death took the human.

Death realised that what had transpired may seem like a game to humans... But it was not. Death knows that Richard was a good human but he also knows that Richard's death isn't about Richard.
It's about his sister.

The sister who will grow up, inspired by her brothers memory, to become the greatest heart surgeon and cardiologist in the world. She will save many lives and in old age, when Death does finally come from her, Richard will have indirectly saved the lives of millions and his sister will have been an even better human than him. Life will come to realise this too because in the end, Life and Death are friends and they help each other out. Life just wants to make people happy but Death just wants to make people better.
Death is wise and Life is forgiving.
So when next they catch up, wandering through the dimension of Earth, looking for humans worthy of their debacles; they will fight and then resolve the balance.
They are the ebb and flow of existence, waiting on the people who give their presence a new meaning.