Denied again
The tall, gold-brimmed gate towered over the bright sunless sky as the old man walked out from the front of the line with a red ‘Rejected’ stamped onto the card in his hand. It was his seventh time standing in front of a guardian---different every time---of the gate. Like a veteran poker player he hid his smile among his wrinkled face and walked towards the hole in the wall marked as ‘Exit’. The guardian letting the bodies through the gate one-by-one, kept the man in his line of vision. He walked slowly like a dog approaching his last days; his shriveled body resembled that of a distorted young tree; the suit hanging off his skeletal, dry body. His face would be the most forgettable face in the world if not for the wrinkles that showed his age. The bureaucracy of the afterlife knew of this man and the authorities were amused by his attempts to cheat death. It was an inside joke, amusement over-the-coffee for those that controlled heaven. The guardian, however, watched ...