Body Swap Sequel: Remember me

Heaven is a place on Earth

I felt my heart convulse as I searched the shore for any sign of Hailey. My mind began panicking as fear took over. I knew I placed her far away from the ocean so she couldn’t have been washed back into the sea. Where the hell could an unconscious body have gone?! This couldn’t happen. My heart began to slow as I looked back at the sea, feeling the tears well in my eyes. I didn’t go through the past few days for nothing.

I looked around for any sign of the jumper I’d left as a pillow for Hailey underneath her head. The jumper would surely be floating on the sea surface if she was washed in. Where was it? It must have been a good sign that the jumper was not in the sea, it must mean that Hailey was safe… but if so, where would she be? No-one else was around for miles. It took me days to reach civilization, so there was no way someone would have found her.

I walked slowly towards the sea and looked out at the calm waves. By night fall, it would be transformed into a black swirl, desperate to sink its tendrils into any sign of life and devour it. I slowly treaded further and further into the ocean, feeling numb. I continued to place one foot in front of another robotically until my head was covered with water, and let myself float deeper and deeper into the sea. I just had to wait until night fall for it to all end. I just needed to wait to be re-united with Hailey.

*

When my eyes opened again, hell didn’t look like I imagined it to. It was white, for a start. There was also an annoying beeping sound and distant conversation as background noise. I blinked and tried to sit up, before feeling weighed down again as if there was a weight on my chest. I wasn’t sure whether it was physical, or whether it was because of the heartbreak I felt.

I’m sure by now that I must have passed away – once nightfall came, the ocean would have ripped me apart. That was what I wanted. I wanted my body – my heart – to be ripped into pieces. I couldn’t live with the pain of not being with Hailey. She was gone and I knew there was only one place that she could have gone unconscious – into the welcoming arms of the treacherous ocean. It was almost poetic – both of us ending our lives in the same place. I felt my heart beat pick up at the idea that she might be here with me. No, she wouldn’t be in hell. She was pure and innocent; she would be in heaven, perhaps sharing a rice cake with Jesus.

The white walls… the white ceiling… maybe I was in heaven too? Maybe that was my prize for giving Hailey all of my love and devotion. I heard a door open with a swoosh, before footsteps neared. Jesus?

“Mr Hudson?” I didn’t expect Jesus to be a woman. I sat up as much as possible without feeling like my head would explode, and saw a woman in a white coat and a clipboard in her hand. I didn’t think people in heaven dressed in white button down coats. Maybe it was fancy dress day. I felt a little under dressed.

“Yes, Mother Teresa?” I whispered, feeling my heart race. Her eyebrows rose as she surveyed me for a while, before writing something down on her clipboard. Maybe she was surprised that I knew who she was? I mean I wasn’t Christian, but I did know a few things. Ok, that was a lie. I had no idea what mother Teresa looked like, I just figured that she was probably mother Teresa because she’s the only female religious person I knew.

Come to think of it… I’m not even sure if mother Teresa had anything to do with Christianity. I have a slight suspicion that she may just in fact be a good mother, famed for her talents of motherhood. In which case, I may have offended the woman in front of me terribly. For all I know, she could be Jesus’ daughter. I don’t think Jesus had a wife and he doesn’t seem like the type of lad to sleep around, but maybe heaven is his place to have some down time and relax. If she wasn’t mother Teresa, she must be some other religious woman.