Joe Smithson had lived to the ripe old age of 97. Perhaps him being born into a farming family and his almost living outside all and everyday had helped. He had never listened to what was meant to be bad for you foodwise, but just ate what he fancied, when he fancied it.
He had been walking his favourite dog, on a freezing cold winters day in February, walking across the field by his house; he was given no warning of his impending doom; no symptoms of any kind and certainly no feeling of foreboding. In fact he felt happy, but that was his normal frame of mind and is probably the main reason that he had lived so long.
He opened the big old back door and was grateful for the rush of heat that greeted him from the roaring logs in the old- fashioned large fireplace. The dog rushed to his favourite spot in front of the fire. Joe sat down in his usual bow - backside windsor chair and put his old hands on to the cherry wood kitchen table that he had had for as long as he could remember. His hands patted it, as if thanking it for being here .He had never done that before, and he wondered if he was saying goodbye to it, but that didn't make sense, as he had no intention of getting rid of his trusty kitchen table.
.He suddenly remembered all the great times he had had at this very table.The laughter, the great meals, the tankards of ale or carafes of wine all flooded back to him with a force and clarity that surprised him, as he rarely thought of the past.
He looked at his beloved collie dog who was now sitting up, staring at him with a very sad look in his eyes
The dog started making a weird crying sound. It was then that Joe's heart stopped beating.
The next thing he knew he was walking up a bright tree- lined avenue. The grass under his feet was very short and intermingled with a strange sort of moss. It was the colour of the grass that amazed him though, as it was a luminous green. Everything around him seemed to sparkle. The huge trees all seemed to possess their own twilight style light.
He saw that at the end of the avenue there was a bright dazzling white light. He knew that he must pass through this. As he got nearer the light, he was surprised to see that, despite of its brightness, he could see people on the other side; people he was sure he knew.They appeared to be waiting for him.
He suddenly heard a voice he hadn't heard for thirty years. It was his father.
"Welcome home Joe"
Then his mother calling," We've been waiting for you Joe ".
He started walking faster, though somehow it didn't feel like normal walking. He had never felt so fit and light since he had been a young man, but he felt lighter than he had thought it was possible to feel.
He walked through the light that didn't, he was surprised to find, dazzle him.
He now seemed to be walking on some kind of mist, yet he could still feel the grass and moss under his feet.
Everyone he had ever loved and been friends with were standing in front of him . They were all lined up as if waiting for a photograph to be taken. At their feet were all the pets he had had.
They broke up and gathered round him. Everyone was saying the same thing,"Welcome Home Joe".
There was so much to say, so many questions to ask. He felt overwhelmed.
His mother hugged him and said ,"Joe, listen, you must go and see the P.E. at once.''
The P.E.- it rang a bell .
" The Principal Elucidator has to see you at once." She said smiling that smile he knew he would never forget.
Joe suddenly found himself sitting alone on a soft fluffy cloud. Through the cloud emerged a very impressive looking man dressed in a white gown.
"Welcome home Joe" The voice was strong , but gentle.
He continued,"Let me introduce myself because you are bound to have forgotten me. I'm the Principal Elucidator Trained Envoy Regulator. Quite a title eh ?" His eyes twinkled.". In fact my full title is, The Sequential Time Principal Elucidator Trained Envoy Regulator. Most beings call me St. Peter for short."
Joe gasped."You're St. Peter. Then I must be dead "
St.Peter smiled. "You have been unhooked from the Holotime frame yes, and to you, you think you are dead, but in fact you are more alive now than you were when you were in the game."
Joe stared at him in amazement." What game are you talking about?. I don't understand what's going on ? ."
He spluttered staring at St. Peter.
St.Peter started walking slowly on the cloud. "Look, He said," You are a bit confused at the moment, and that's perfectly natural. This is your home. You have been participating in a game. You have simply now stopped playing the game. In fact you decided when you signed up for the game when you would exit it.You even decided how you would exit it . You made a very good choice. You wouldn't believe how some people choose to leave the game. It takes all sorts I guess, "
Joe looked around him.So , He thought, I have died, but what this guy is talking about doesn't make sense to me. I was living on planet Earth, and he's telling me it was all just a game How could it have been just a game ?
" A game like Charades ?" Joe managed to blurt out when he remembered the games he used to play at Christmas with his family.
" That's an excellent comparison Joe, "ST.Peter assured him."But the Holotime you chose to be in is more like Call Of Duty or Warcraft, with all the bloodshed and wars in that particular Holotime sequence".
Joe thought for a moment and then asked," What's the game called then ?"
St.Peter sat down. He had the look of a man who was delivering the same speech he had said a thousand times before.
"Well, you know those games they had on Earth, in the Holotime you were in, those computer games. You were in, what you would understand as , a highly advanced computer game called The E- Adventure Ride Through Holotime .We call it, again for short, The E- Arth Game, or simply" The Earth Game."
St.Peter paused to let this information sink in. He then continued,"Look, it's a bit of a shock for you now, but this really is your home and not the Earth. If you liked it so much you can play the game again if you like. It's up to you.The reason you're confused is , we took your memory away before you started the game. It's that that makes the game seem so real. Think about it, if you remembered being here you would always know that you were just playing a game. After all, it is one of the most popular games we have, despite it being really nasty sometimes."
St. Peter stood up again and pointed," See that cloud nearby with a rainbow's end on it."
Joe looked where he was pointing. "Yes" He said, What about it ?"
" I want you to walk over to the cloud and say to the rainbow one word, and that word is 'replay'.
Then on the rainbow, a screen will appear and you will see your life as you would watch a film. It will all flash by ,what you would consider as quite fast, but as there is no time here it won't really do that. Never mind, you can't understand that as you still have the Holotime frame of mind. As you watch your life you will understand and learn a great deal that didn't make sense to you while you were in the game. You will experience a host of emotions, but that's still really part of the game. We call it the Postscript. You understand ?"
Joe started standing up, " Yes, St. Peter I understand, but after that what happens?"
St.Peter laughed softly, "Then, to really be back home you have to drink from a river. This will appear before you, directly the replay of your life has finished .Drink by putting your hands in the river and then you will truly understand what it's all about ".
As Joe walked over to the rainbow, he called back," So I wasn't really a person ?"
"No, you were a Hologram", came the reply across the clouds.
I see , thought Joe, but he didn't really see at all.
He sat down with the end of the rainbow in front of him.
"Playback," He said .
The rainbow changed into a large screen."The Life Of Joe Smithson" appeared.
There was his old farmhouse kitchen, and there he was a baby crawling on the floor.....
Mike Selley.
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