The Afterlife

My spiritedness ended entirely as hers was beginning. At the exact second my simple machine hit a patch of coloured ice, spun, and collided with a tree, she was emerging from the sanctuary of her mothers womb. My soul was knocked from my body, just as hers hard its first-class honours degree breath. I never impression death would be wish this. From birth I had been raised as a Christian, believing in any that Christians do Heaven, Hell, and entirely the rest. These were, to my way of thinking, the only destinations in the afterlife. Whether I was saved or condemned, I believed that death would signal the end of my earthborn responsibilities.Now, I last better. At first, I didnt understand what had happened. I remembered the car spinning uncontrollably, the view out the window blurry until the tree loomed in the night. thither had been a horrible crunching noise, like walking on jam-packed snow, except much louder. My life did not flash before my look in what I now inha bit were the last few seconds of my life. There was the spinning, the blur, the crunch and then black. Not the kind of blackness that appears when you close your look no, make up then little speckles, little neon clouds appear.This darkness was consuming. It was absolute. For a second I felt absolute terror. I remember inquire if this was what it was like to be in a coma, or if the glass from my shattered windscreen had blinded me. In my finitely human mind, I didnt run across that I might be dead. Then I heard a character. It seemed the voice came out of nowhere, or at least from round unclassifi open place in the blackness. It evoked in me the strangest sensation in all my earthly life, I knew Id never heard that voice before. Yet, a take up of me responded to it in a way I didnt understand.The first thing the voice the existence told me was that I had just died. That, to put it mildly, was a shock. A act passed as the being gave me time to register this fact. Too st unned to even feel disbelief, I couldnt seem to reply. In truth, what could I arrive express? There is nothing on earth to prepare some peerless for that knowledge. The beside thing the voice told me was that I owed a debt to God. It did not say this cruelly, or even judgementally rather, it spoke objectively, with no trace of human emotion clouding its delivery. It was difficult indeed, impossible to discern anything about the being. I couldnt see it, couldnt abut it I had no idea where it was. All I could do was find out as it explained what would flex of me.Throughout my somewhat short life, the being said, I had offended and even hurt God on many occasions. I was not unique in this aspect in fact, such(prenominal) was the typesetters case for most who had ever dwelt on the earth. A lucky, selfless few played out their lives pleasing God, and at death they were free. They owed nothing. I, merely, did, and the debt for my sometimes sinful life had to be repaid. The onl y brain was how. The second I had that thought, I felt an marvellous transfigure come over my body or soul, whatever I was made of. There was a brief falling sensation, like go down the first big dip of a roller coaster. The scene in nominal head of me flicked from the void of blackness to an unfamiliar scene.I was watching events in suspended animation, in what seemed to be a hospital delivery room. My mix-up mounted. Why am I here? I asked, directing my question to the beings heading somewhere beside me. I looked at the doctors in their green garb, their bodies run towards a woman on a bed, frozen(p) in a picture of agony. The baby the doctors were lifting from her body had just been about to take its first breath. I tried to see what the scene had to do with me, but I could make no connection with any of the rooms occupants. The last time Id been in a place like this was during my own birth. Do I know these people?No, the being replied, tonelessly. Youve never met any o f them. But. some bequeath become very familiar to you.How can they? I asked. Youve just told me Im dead.Somehow, with the mental homogeneous of a hand gesture, the being drew my attention towards the newborn, framed by the circle of doctors. It was then that I learned how my debt was to be repaid.This, it said, is your charge.My . . . charge? I didnt understand.You know you have a debt to repay to God, I was told. This is how. This child has just been born, as you have just died. On birth, every child is decreed a guardian, one of those who owe God. Something changed in the voice then, a shift so small I only just noticed. Its tone changed, tiresome disembodied and ethereal as it was, it somehow became more human. I looked at the child a girl as I felt the being do the alike(p). You must look after this child every moment of her life. Before her birth, the child was tied to her mother she found all the apology she needed in her womb. Now, that is your responsibility. You testament not constantly be able to protect her, but you must never stop offering her your guidance, your comfort, all the days of her life. Your eternal presence alone is usually enough. looking for back, I curio if the option was there to refuse. Thats not to say I wanted to, but perhaps some have. Regardless, the only feeling I intelligibly remember was of great surprise. Never in my life had I thought this was what happened after death. The question that had plagued mankind had been answered for me but there was no one to tell. The only thing left to do was accept.I looked at the child, frozen under the gaze of assorted doctors, the being, and me. I directed my thought towards the being. For some reason, I needed no deliberation. Yes. At that, the scene in front of me unfroze. The baby breathed, and with her breath came her first cries. Her mother simultaneously groaned and suspireed in relief, a sigh echoed around her by the doctors. The babys life had begun.In retrospec t, I wonder why, at that moment, I didnt feel a surge of panic. What did I know about being a guardian? Id never looked after a child while I was alive, yet here I was, determine to protect this tiny being for the rest of her natural life however long that might be. Yet I found an odd word sense of my new duty perhaps because I didnt have anything else. My own life had ended.Coming out of my reverie, I realized the being was still beside me. I felt it watch with me as the little girl was wrapped in a blanket and given to her smiling mother. Strangely, there seemed to be a sense of sadness emanating from the beings presence, something barely tangible but at the same time undeniably present. It was odd given its earlier detachment.Is it hard? I asked as the mother cuddled her child for the first time. Is it hard to be a guardian?Harder than anything youve ever done, the being replied. No matter how long she lives, it is always hard. But it must be done. The beings voice changed ag ain, swelling suddenly with emotion. You will come to care very much for that child. No one will ever know her in the way that you will, because you will always be with her. I was almost sure I felt the being sigh inwardly. Always, until the end of her life. Then you will show her what to do. as I have shown you.It was only then that I realized who the being was, why I had instinctively known its voice. Elated, I felt my mind reel with a thousand questions. But it was too late. As soon as the divine revelation had came, the being had gone. For a moment I felt a crushing sadness that I would never know him or her someone whod been there for me through every second of my life. But there wasnt time to dwell. Looking at the yawning baby a few feet away from me, I felt the first stirrings of affection. It had been a long time since Id felt such a clear sense of purpose. Inwardly, I promised I would do for her what the being, the presence whod just left, had done for me.