Meet Me Halfway

[3] - Welcome to the Hub

"Welcome to the Hub - the central station for all departed souls!  We are so happy to have all of your with us today.  Please make your way to the Concourse Level, where our friendly customer services agents can be of further assistance.  Once you have been informed of your next steps, please feel free to visit our Food Court in the East Annex were a vast array of delicious food choices await you.  If shopping is more of your think, the West Annex has just what you're looking for!"

Food and shopping in the afterlife?  I shouldn't be surprised - but I am anyway.

"This is AWESOME!"  Bee has someone appeared beside me.  Didn't I see her pushing through the crowds to be the first one off the train?  How did she end up beside me?  I nearly jump out of my skin.  "Food AND shopping in the afterlife?  That's some awesome!  I didn't think we'd need anything like that here, since we're dead and all, but then again, I can totally see that since we're at peace and everything right?  Oh, I hope they have designer shops there!"

Did she die from a Red Bull overdose?  She may not be an angel, but the girl has wings.  "I...don't see why they wouldn't."

She nods furiously.  "You're right, you're totally right!  This is the afterlife. They have everything!"

"Hmm."  Of all the people she had to pick to walk beside, she picked me?  Can't she see that not only am I not perky (and will never BE perky), but also she's draining any remnants of politeness out of me?  Being around someone so energetic is a lot of work!  "I guess we're about to find out, aren't we?"

"Yes, we are!" she sings.  "Did I mention this is going to be awesome?!"

So she says.

A group of customer service agents dressed in an impeccably crisp, wrinkle-free uniforms guide us to the various sets of escalators that will take us to the concourse level.  I walk rather slowly there - Bee, however, bounces while humming a happy tune.  We're immersed in a crowd, yet somehow I don't feel suffocated.  I'm being guided to a specific place, but I don't feel as though I'm hurried.  Bee's exuberance nonwithstanding, this all should make for a pleasant travelling experience, dead or not.  But I still feel tense, and anxiety gnaws at the lining of my stomach.  I can't help but wonder if this is really it...if this is what happens when you die.

Is this my own private hell?

Is this really heaven?

Is this hell?  No, it can't be hell.  It's actually cool here - it's not very hot at all.

But then again, I'm being flanked by a girl named after an insect who i can't swat away.  That's pretty hellish to me.

This sucks...but then again, this is also par for the course.  My life was a series of disappointments.  Everything I ever hoped for never manifests into the reality.  Something else always has to take its place - something that I'm never pleased with internally, but you'd never know it externally.  Please don't misunderstand me - "selfish" and "self-centered" can never be used to describe me.  If anything I've tried to please others, especially since they always seem to depend on me for happiness.  That's pretty much what you sign up for when you become a nurse, but the principle of self-sacrifice ruled my personal life as well.

My life was a constant disappointment.

My death was a disappointment, blamed on an errant banana peel and a well-placed flight of stairs.

And now, the afterlife seems to be yet another disappointment.

...This is so messed up.

Wait..this is the afterlife.  Should I be thinking like this?  Maybe I should stop before I get sent to the other place.  Then stuff will really be messed up.