The Gemini

62 - The Death of A Gemini

With my loving heart. With my willing body.
And with my eternal soul.
Never shall we part.

The words spoken by his wife repeated. For the fifth time in his ears, it chimed, keeping him company while traveled about.

Stranger in a foreign land. An alternated earth that didn't belong to the living. Even if he had not have pushed through a gate to enter, he still would've known that this isn't his planet. It all looked the same, yet it didn't. Exploratory eyes were wowed by the brilliance around him.

There's grass and yes it's green, but it isn't any shade of green that he'd ever seen. The same went for every other color that he saw here. Clear and crisp. An earth mind knew but couldn't fathom. Only one word sufficed. Perfection.

Without blemish, the roads and pavements on which he walked glittered and glinted pleasantly. Mixed in the cement is gold, flecks and nuggets ranging in size from medium to small. They blended perfectly. An image far more conventional than the one Sunday school painted for him.

White clouds in a blue sky. Though sunlight shone and the soothing warmth of its rays could be felt, there isn't an actual sun present. A now he felt joy. A joy that he didn't fully want to feel. But here, he'd learned, it seemed that there is no other choice.

Walking along these streets, he saw people conversing with one another. Going here and there about their business as though this were just another day. As if they weren't in the afterlife. Each of them had one common denominator: they all possessed the same joy. Even if they weren't smiling, happiness radiated from them.

Roger found it intensely comforting. He also didn't want to feel it at all. All he wanted is find his way back home. Back down to his wife. To continuing living out vows that he'd broken so soon.

But it feels so good here. His soul never wanted to leave.

He slowed his feet as he came past a meadow of lush greenery full of flowers so beautiful. Most of them he'd never seen on his earth. Unable to fight the urge, he took a detour in his walk to nowhere. In the field he laid out on his back. A smile coming over him.

The clouds above, so fluffy. He wondered what it would be like to lay in them. Eyes closing, a breeze of calm blowing by caused him to drift away.

And then his eyes shot open as his body remembered what he needed to do.

The sky seemed much closer than before

Too preoccupied to think much of it, "I gotta get out of here." he muttered to himself.

Quickly he stood and set his left foot forward to walk, only to come to a wobbling halt when he saw his new location.

The sky.

Roger was about to step off the edge of a cloud. His usually sturdy joints teetered as an acute case of vertigo set in. Before he could topple over, a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Turning around, he looked up at his rescuer.

"What are you doing here?" Andre questioned with genuine surprise in his tone.

Roger's reply tinged with disdain, "I could ask you the same thing."

He wouldn't have guessed that Heaven allowed within its gates a,

Lying, conniving, backstabbing, no good, motherfu–

His train of thought interrupted as from his mouth sounded an elongated yelp when Andre pushed him, sending him freefalling backward. Instinctively Roger turned his body, positioning so that maybe somehow he could break his fall...wherever that might be.