Get Out Of The Grave, Alan

Get Out Of The Grave, Alan

An Original Story By Chris Richards

There was something about John that made me think he wasn't quite
normal.
I'm not sure if it was the fact that he was able to float four feet
off the ground, or that he kept speaking to people who didn't seem to
be there.

I suppose that for this story to make any real sense I had better
start at the beginning.

It was a beautiful sunny day.
The birds were singing.
The air was warm.
The sky was blue and cloudless.

It was perfect or at least it should have been.

My name is Alan, that much I know. The rest is unfortunately a bit of
a hazy blur as I seem to have lost my memory. I have no idea who I am
or indeed how I came to be lying in a big hole in the ground.
I came to about an hour ago, opening my eyes to see a huge 747 flying
over my head. I lay there for a moment, trying to figure out what the
hell was going on. It was then that John floated into view.
He looked to be in his early fifties, his receeding grey hair swept
back off of his face, dressed in a white suit, a single red carnation
in his button hole.
Looking down at me he sighed.
"Get out of the grave, Alan." He said, shaking his head.
I tried to stand and John offered me his hand, helping to pull me out
of my predicament. His touch was cold, but not uncomfortable, lifting
me up like I was a twig or a piece of cloth. It was at this moment, as
I reached ground level, that I realised I was in a graveyard,
surrounded by a hundred or so headstones in varioous states of decay.
Some were shattered, whilst others were overgrown with weeds. I turned
and looked at the hole from which I'd just emerged, seeing a nice new
marble stone at the head of the grave. For some reason it had nothing
written on it other than my name and that more than anything else
really disturbed me.
Sitting on the grass I looked up at John and smiled at him.
"What's your name ?" I asked.
"John." Said my companion, looking at his watch.
I scratched my head.
"I'm not sure why, but I knew you were going to say that."
John shrugged.
"We'd better be going or we're going to be late."
"Am I dead ?" I inquired. "Or is this some kind of dream or drug
induced fantasy ?"
"What do you think ?" John said and started to float away from
me.
Getting up I started to follow, surprised when John suddenly nodded
and said 'hello' to somebody who I couldn't see.
"Yes. It is a nice day." John paused and nodded back in my direction.
"Yeah, I've got one to take back." He smiled at the unseen person. "Of
course, that would be lovely. Goodbye." And with that he turned away
and carried on, heading towards the huge iron gates that signalled an
exit from the graveyard..
I walked behind him slowly, looking around to see if there was anybody
I could see out there, but there wasn't. I was thinking hard, trying to
find even the smallest piece of information that might tell me what had
happened, how I came to be in this situation in the first place, but to
no avail. In the end I had to ask John again.
"Do you know how I died ?"
John stopped.
"Haven't the faintest, sorry." He said and held out his hand.
I jumped back as something that can best be described as a bus
appeared out of nowhere in front of us.
"In you go." John muttered. "No going back now."
"You mean I had a choice ?"
"Well, no. Not really. Not yet."
"Oh." I said, climbing up the white steps looking at all the empty
seats.
John floated in behind me.
"Morning John." He said to somebody who seemed to be sitting to the
left of where I was standing. "Yeah, it seems to be getting busier
doesn't it ?"
Turning I looked at John and shook my head.
"Who are you talking to ?" I asked.
"John." Came the reply. "You can't seem them, but there are lots of
them here with us at the moment."
"Riiiiiight !" I said, slowly nodding my head, wishing I hadn't asked.
"Where shall I sit then ?"
"There's a seat free at the back there."
"Next to John ?" I inquired.
John looked at me with an expression that told me he had no sense of
humour, so I smiled a smile big enough for the both of us and took my
seat. I suppose I should have been concerned that I was dead, but, for
the time being at least, there seemed to be little for me to worry
about here and as I couldn't remember who I was or where I came from
there seemed little point in mourning my lost life.
As the door closed I looked out of the window, watching as the whole
world started to blur past me.
"This isn't so bad." I said as John came and sat beside me. "I mean
it's not exactly what I was expecting death to be like, but I'm not
complaining."
John said nothing, he just pulled a red handkerchief from his pocket
and mopped at his brow.
"Do you mind if I ask where we're going ?"
"You've got an appointment." John said. "It's nothing to get excited
about."
"Is it with another John ?"
"No, Peter."
I turned to him with a glint in my eye.
"What, as in St Peter ?"
"No." John sighed. "Just Peter."
We spent the rest of the journey in silence.

After what seemed to be about ten minutes the 'bus' stopped and John
told me that I should get off.. So I did.
I found myself in a huge marble building that looked like an elaborate
train station, only there were no trains. In fact the only thing there
was a huge desk, behind which sat an old man with a long white beard.He
too was dressed in the same white suit that John wore, only he had a
pink carnation. I walked towards him, suddenly realising that John, my
John, was nowhere to be seen. The old man looked up at me as I
approached the desk, nodding his head.
"How nice to see you." He said with a warm smile, getting up and
offering me the seat across from him.
"Peter ?" I inquired, sitting down in what was surely the most
comfortable chair I had ever sat on.
"That's me, the one and only." Peter said, appearing to write
something down on a piece of paper that didn't seem to be there, with a
pen that was invisible to my eyes. "What would you like to be this time
?"
"I'm sorry, do I know you ?" There was something familiar about the
old guy, but why I had no idea.
"We have met." Peter said with another smile. "But it was a long while
ago."
I nodded. I couldn't see the point in pursuing the point any
further.
"So I'm dead." I said, stating the point rather than asking a
question.
"For now, yes."
"What do you mean, 'for now' ?"
"Well, you come here to be sent back. Back there they call it rebirth,
I think."
"I get to back to the life I had before ?"
"Oh no !" Peter exclaimed. "You go back to the beginning, get born
again. You get to live a whole new life from start to finish."
I sat there in silence for a moment, pondering what I was being told,
not fully comprehending.
"What about Heaven ? What about Hell ?"
Peter smiled.
"Well, the best way to descibe it is like this." He coughed and leant
back in his chair. "Imagine you've lived a good life, hoping that one
day you will go to Heaven when you die. You go to church, you say your
prayers, you do things for charity. It all helps. But really all you
need to do is be loving and caring to the people around you. That gets
you here." He waved his arm around. "To where you are now. If you are
bad, if for example you are a cruel person, or a murderer, something
like that....." He stopped and leant forward, pointing at at the floor.
"Well, you get sent to the other room."
"Ok." I said, pretending that it all made sense.
"You come here and you can choose what you go back as."
"Are you saying that I can choose to be reborn as a dog or a chicken
?"
"If that's what you want, yes."
"Or ?"
"Or you can choose to go back as a man or as a woman.It is entirely
upto you."
"Do I get time to think about it ?"
"Of course !"
I took in a few deep breaths, suddenly realising how sweet the air
tasted. There was a little voice in the back of my mind that told me I
should be bold and choose something wild, but I resisted it's charm and
spoke my decision with an assured certainty.
"I'd like to go back as a woman."
As I spoke the words a door opened behind where Peter was sitting and
a small girl with blonde hair came out, walking towards me.
"Would you like to come with me ?" She asked and I stood, stepping
around Peter's desk.
"Enjoy yourself." The old man said, but I barely heard a word as I
walked through the door and into a brightly-coloured room that seemed
to stretch on to infinity.
"It wont be long now." The girl said and I suddenly realised that she
had disappeared, that all around me was a sound like a heartbeat.
The air was beginning to get hotter and I could feel a strange
tingling sensation in my legs, a feeling which started to spread up my
legs until I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and I started to
cry..........

The End

Copyright: Chris Richards 2000

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