Learning To Live

Chapter 6

The scene of the bridge and the pole were gone along with the strange gray smoke. They were replaced by a scene of buildings. I felt something then touch my shoulder and i jumped at the touch.

"Relax, it is just me", Kayla said after she felt me flinch.

I immediately felt better since Kayla was there.

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere, you will see."

Kayla led me to one building that looked more official than the other buildings. She took me inside and we went through a few doors and up a flight of stairs until we halted in front of one door. The door was wooden and looked exactly the same as every other door that we had gone through in the entire building. We went inside. There was a man in the middle of the room and he seemed to be waiting for something or someone. My guess was that the person he was waiting for was probably me because when we entered, the man turned around and greeted me with a huge smile on his face. His smile was really fake and looked forced but at least he made an effort to be nice.

The man introduced himself as Tedd Emerson. He told me to call him Mr. Emerson though. Kayla had left the room a minute ago and now it was just Mr. Emerson and myself in the room.

"Do you know where you are?"

"No", i admitted.

"You are in the afterlife. You are dead. Although, there is no reason to worry or panic. You are in a better place. Some people have all different kinds of ideas about what it is like after a person dies. Most of those people are wrong. There is still an afterlife, though", Mr. Emerson spoke with the tone of a person that has said the same thing over and over again. It sounded rehearsed and he had probably given the speech to many newly dead people before me.

"In the afterlife, there are roles that every person has. These people are then called on when they are needed."

"I do not understand", i admitted to him. I was having a hard time to process everything that he was saying with everything that was going on at the moment.

"You see, there are three totally different jobs that a person in the afterlife can have depending on factors like personality, privilege, and age. The first job for people in the afterlife are to go back to land of the living as a spirit to, therefore, help guide people through their life and also make the right choices in their lives. The second is where you help to guide souls that have already passed to the afterlife. Basically, you are guiding the dead. That is the job that Kayla has, to guide the dead souls to the afterlife. The final job that you could have is where you help with the actual afterlife. You can be a counselor for people who need a little encouragement about being dead and all or just help with all of the organizing and running of the afterlife like i do. The choice is up to you."

I had no response. There was too much information for me to process all in one sitting and i did not even know what to think. My mind was completely blank. For once in my life, or rather death since i was no longer alive, i had absolutely no idea what came next. Such a big decision would be final for a long time of my death. Who knew that death was so hard and that a person could not just relax after living. Nope, once someone died, they really would know just how hard they had to work when they are dead. I did not even know the specifics of the jobs and i was already dreading them and if i would do a great job or ruin everything. I would then forever be known as the person who can not even do something right when they are already dead and that would be just wonderful in my opinion.

I thought of the first job of going back to the land of the living to guide people through their lives. I would be a kind of guardian angel i guess. I could be that little voice that whispers to people when they need it most to guide them through their darkest times. I could be that feeling to either go get something that a person really desires or to not do something in order to forewarn that things will not turn out very well in the end. Although, what if i missed living when i would be invisible and unnoticeable. Nobody would ever be able to see me there and i would be just a spirit. People may even think that i was a ghost or some kind of monster that was not supposed to be there if i was too obvious in my job of guiding people. What if i mess up and give someone bad advice that leads them to failure? I would never, ever be able to forgive myself if i happened to ruin a person's life.