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An Atheist in Heaven

Lawrence Pratt
Copyright 2019

    Karen Adams opened her eyes slowly and tried to take in what had just happened. The last thing she remembered was an overwhelming pain in her chest as if someone wearing a spiked, iron glove was squeezing her heart and punching holes in the vital organ.
    Afraid to move, she attempted to assess her situation and noticed that the pain in her chest was gone. Amazingly, her entire body was free from any discomfort, including the aches and pains that were a chronic physical presence for someone in their early 70s. For several minutes, Karen lay motionless, not daring to move lest she set off another round of suffering. As she reclined in anticipation of the worst, Adams surveyed her surroundings as much as possible without moving her head.
    As near as Karen could tell, she was on a bed in a large room with a soft, earth-tone décor and low intensity lighting – an arrangement that provided an almost overwhelming sense of peace and security.
    “This,” she muttered to herself, “has to be the most comfortable hospital room in the world.”
    Just as Karen was about to take a chance at moving, there was a soft knock at the open doorway followed by a woman’s voice that remarked “Ah, I see you’re awake.”
    Adams turned her head towards the voice and asked “Is it alright for me to move?”
    “Oh, yes,” the woman replied. “In fact, feel free to sit up.”
    Karen moved her legs over the side of the bed and eased into a sitting position, pleasantly surprised that she remained free from pain. For the first time, she noticed that she was not in the clothes she had on before everything went black. Adams was now attired in comfortable beige pants, a somewhat loose tee shirt, ankle socks, and light athletic shoes. She noticed the absence of any undergarments and, as someone who never went “commando”, felt a distinct shiver of uncomfortable self-consciousness.
    “Do you know what happened and where I am?” Adams asked.
    “Oh, yes,” replied the woman. “You had a major cardiac event and you are now in a transition facility. By the way, please call me ‘Bev’.”
    “Okay, Bev. Does this mean I’m in some kind of physical rehab?”
    “Um, no,” Bev replied, “it’s more complicated than that. Your cardiac event proved fatal and you’re now in the first stages of transitioning to your place in eternity.”
    Karen was speechless.
    “I don’t understand,” Adams replied after a few moments as confusion and panic began to take hold.
    “In the simplest of terms,” Bev continued, “you’re dead and your cosmic essence or, simply, essence, is now in the process of transitioning to an eternal existence. I’ll be your mentor in that process.”
    “Dead? I’m dead?” Karen repeated. “That’s impossible. I’m a fit and healthy woman barely seventy and I was in the middle of a 10K walk-run for charity. I’ve got a solid ten years before I even start to slow down. No way I’m dead.”
    “Yet here we are,” Bev replied, always amused at the responses she received upon telling the recently deceased about their new position in the universe. At least Karen didn’t strike out in frustration — not that it would have done any good.
    “How could I die?” Adams continued. “This is absurd!”
    “Actually, while you think you weren’t in such poor condition,” Bev remarked, emphasizing the past tense, “at the time of your passing, you had been developing an aortic aneurism for almost fifteen years and it finally burst. There were no preceding indications of this issue that could have prevented your passing. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but you were dead before you hit the ground.”
    Adams opened her mouth to reply with what she considered an appropriate string of protesting obscenities but the words wouldn’t come.
    A look of sympathy crossed Bev’s face as she knew full well Karen’s intentions.
    “I’m aware of what you’re feeling and what you want to say, but we don’t permit that kind of language here,” she remarked.
    Karen sat on the edge of her bed, seething in silence. Then tears came in a torrent of fear and anger.
    “It’s not fair,” she protested. “I was a good person and still had a lot of things I wanted to do. My oldest grandchild hasn’t even graduated from high school. I’ll miss everything!” her voice moving to a wailing scream of grief.
    Bev sat down next to Karen and eternity’s newest arrival buried her face in her mentor’s embrace as the tears and sobs continued until Adams had exhausted her sadness.

#

    “How long have I been dead?” Karen finally asked.
    “About three months,” Bev informed her. “Pretty typical for transitioning from mortal to your initial immortal consciousness.”
    Adams just shook her head in disbelief, attempting to comprehend all that had happened.

    “So what happens next?” Karen asked as she quieted and began the process of acceptance.
    “I’ll be with you to introduce to all the opportunities you’ll have in your eternity and mentoring you until you’re ready to fly solo,” Bev replied with a warm, sisterly radiance.
    “Fly solo?” Karen questioningly repeated. “You mean, like an angel? Wings and everything? Is this heaven?”
    “Not quite,” Bev replied, “besides, you’re an atheist, aren’t you?”
    Oh, no, I’m busted; there is a heaven and I’m gonna get kicked to the curb, Karen thought as she felt a look of “deer in the headlights” come across her face.
    “Don’t worry,” Bev consoled, “we don’t work along the lines of conventional Christianity or any religion for that matter.
    “Now, how ‘bout we get out of here where you can be yourself and start on your eternal path?”
    “Sounds great,” Karen replied, having tired of the sterile arrival area. “Where do we go?”
    “Wherever you want,” her mentor replied, spreading her arms in open invitation. “It’s your eternity. Just think of some place you’d rather be than here — maybe somewhere associated with your best of times.”
    Adams closed her eyes and envisioned her favorite place. A moment later, she was indeed at the spot she considered to be the most perfect from her mortal days.
    “Very nice choice,” Bev remarked as she looked over an endless expanse of ocean. Scanning to her left and right, she noticed they were standing near the edge of cliffs that extended over five miles from north to south. “So, where are we?”
    “It’s called ‘Bodega Head’,” Karen replied. “A massive, high-cliffed, granite peninsula that forms the western face of Bodega Bay, about 60 miles north of San Francisco,” she explained, feeling a bit like one of the park’s docents.
    The two women faced the expanse of the Pacific Ocean and Karen inhaled fresh salt air driven by a brisk sea breeze.
    “So,” Bev remarked, breaking their contemplative silence, “let me conjure up a table and a couple of chairs. If you’re interested in a bit of refreshment to go with our conversation, again, just think of what you’d like.”
    A few moments later, the duo was facing the ocean and Karen was sipping a latte from a favorite East Bay shop and enjoying nibbles from one her mother’s holiday fruit cakes.
    “I’ve never seen a loaf like that before,” Bev said. “May I try some?”
    “Absolutely,” Adams replied, “I’d be most interested in what you think of it.”
    The mentor plucked a piece from the loaf, brought it to her nostrils, and inhaled tentatively at first, then more deeply. She nodded a first sense of approval as she placed the morsel in her mouth and smiled.
    “This is fantastic!” she exclaimed. “What is it?”
    “My mom’s holiday fruit cake,” Karen replied.
    “Really?” Bev said in disbelief. “Everything I’ve heard about ‘fruitcake’ compared them to construction bricks, so I’ve never tried it.”
    “Well, most of them are like bricks or worse, but not those made in my family. The key is lots of candied fruit, dark molasses, a generous drizzling of brandy, and a week of curing wrapped in cheesecloth.”
    “Again, fantastic,” Bev repeated. “Now, let’s chat about where you are and the basics of what lies ahead.”
    Again, Adams felt herself gripped by anxiety.
    “There’s no need to panic,” Bev assured her charge. “You come to eternity as what we call a ‘tenner’ and that means the mortal life you led puts you far ahead of most others who have lived and died. Essentially, everyone’s eternity is based on what he or she actually did, not what someone intended to do or what beliefs were held.
    “A ‘tenor’?” Karen queried with a puzzled tone. “I don’t understand. Like a singer?”
    “Oh, no,” Bev replied with a laugh. “T-e-n-n-e-r, like the number ten, not t-e-n-o-r. I should have been more clear. It refers to those who are in the top ten percent of moral stature when they pass into immortality.”
    “Really? I rate that highly?” Adams replied in surprise.
    Bev simply nodded.
    “Now, I think you were going to tell me about your atheism and maybe why you now think that may have been a bad life choice. You have the floor,” Bev concluded with an impish grin and another bite of cake.
    “Strange as it may seem,” Karen began, “what motivated me to embrace atheism was religion. I was born into an authoritarian faith where roles were determined by gender with the promise of a ‘mansion in heaven’ as part of eternity, and, for women who stayed the course within their place in the faith, the possibility of becoming a co-deity with their mortal husband after both had passed on.”
    “Sounds pretty convoluted,” Bev remarked. “I’m guessing you didn’t stay the course or keep your place,” Bev added with a tone that encouraged Adams to continue her thoughts.
    “At first, yes. But after several years, there were increasing incidents of verbal and emotional domestic abuse as well as threats of violence. My husband began a habit of what can only be described as ‘serial adultery’ and the response of my local clergy was to blame me with an attitude of ‘what did you do to make him cheat’?
    “After more than twenty years of this treatment and the high school graduation of our youngest child, one morning after everyone else had left the house, I thought ‘enough’ and packed what I could fit into the car, withdrew half the money in our joint accounts, and just drove west. All I left was a note saying I was through and headed for parts unknown.
    “Two weeks later, I was pulled over by a cop while driving through California’s wine country. Seems my husband had reported me as missing and possibly kidnapped. No surprise he lied about the note I left. I was taken into custody but a sympathetic woman judge listened to my story and refused to have me held. However, she did recommend that I start legal proceedings to terminate the marriage and make sure I got what was rightfully mine.
    “A few months later, I was a single woman living something of a vagabond life between Morro Bay south of here and Cannon Beach to the north, enjoying all that life had to offer, most of which my old faith and culture condemned.
    “My last time in a church was the Sunday before I packed up and left my past behind. I don’t regret any moment of my life from that day until I got here.
    “A major perk of my new life was time to indulge unrestrained thinking and arriving at the conclusion that there aren’t enough reliable and verifiable facts to logically and rationally buy into any organized religion. I can be a solid, decent person without having some theology shoved down my throat.”
    “And so you were,” Bev commented.

#

    Karen mulled over the significance of Bev’s last comment along with her earlier “tenner” remark but just couldn’t get her brain wrapped around where her mentor might be going.
    “I’m not fully understanding what you’re getting at,” Adams remarked, her voice tinged with a bit of frustration. “Are there some dots I’m not connecting?” she asked, setting down her now fourth latte.
    Bev gave a short laugh at this last question and almost choked on a piece of the cake that was now nearly gone.
    “You’re here because you always did the right thing simply because you knew it was the right thing to do — even when no one was looking. Not many people have that level of integrity, especially the highly religious.”
    “What’s the issue with the religious?” Karen asked as she blushed with self-consciousness at Bev’s compliment. “It seems they’re getting penalized around here.”
    “What good they might do — and there’s too little of that compared with their self-promotion — is motivated by fear of punishment. This never rates a tenner level of evaluation.”
    “There’s an evaluation process?” Karen asked in amazement.
    “Oh, sure, we can’t let everyone be at the top of the heap,” the mentor replied with a chuckle. “We use a lot of measuring devices, but to put things in terms you’re familiar with, we rate everyone from zero to a hundred. You got a ninety-nine plus. Congrats.”
    “Thanks,” Adams replied, “but I can think of a lot of imperfections that would keep me from giving myself that high a rating.”
    “Like what?” Bev challenged.
    “In high school and college, I wasn’t always the nicest person to my peers and at times could be very much one of the ‘mean girls’. It was something that bothered me more as I got older.”
    “Yes, but remember you were functioning with the incompletely developed brain of an adolescent. That said, would it help if you could apologize and make amends?” Bev asked.
    “Seriously? Here? Now?” Adams asked in disbelief.
    “Well, not right this minute,” Bev replied, “but over the coming days and weeks, we can make a list of people with whom you feel the need to make things right. However, don’t be surprised if most of those people barely remember what’s put a bee in your bonnet.”
    “I’m in,” Karen said.

#

    There was a lull in the conversation as the two gazed over the ocean but Bev had a pretty good idea as to what was on Adams’ mind.
    “So,” Bev asked, “how long before you’re going to ask me what your ex’s current eternal ‘score’ is?”
    “You’re good,” the new arrival responded.
    “Lots of practice,” Bev remarked. “Anyway, he’s sitting at sixty-eight and declining. His buying into patriarchal misogyny isn’t going to go well for him when his mortal time is over. It’s something we see too much of on this side of the eternal experience. Feel free to indulge a smirk of satisfaction.”
    “Yeah, a bit,” Karen said, “but I find that I’m not actually wishing him ill will or failure. Can’t understand why he’s in decline; how much trouble can someone get into when they’re over seventy?”
    “He’s beating his third wife on a regular basis,” Bev commented. “As far as your lack of ill will, that’s your basic goodness at work in eternity. You’re definitely going to be a quick study around here.”
    “So, any idea of how long he’ll live and where he’ll end up in eternity?” Adams asked.
    “On this side of mortality, we have no idea of what the future holds for anyone — how the remainder of a life will turn out or when someone will die. Even our insights into personal motivation is pretty limited. Regarding your ex, I wouldn’t have high expectations of a major turnaround. Past performance is an almost guaranteed indicator of future performance. Sheesh, I sound like a statistician. Boring.
    “I can say with high confidence that, at the rate he’s going, your ex would have to cure cancer by himself to even rate a seventy-five by the time he dies.”
    “Yeah, I can see that happening,” Karen remarked with a deadpan tone.
    A moment of silence passed before the duo burst into uncontrollable howls, each grateful for a chance to lighten the mood.
    It took a few minutes for Karen to regain her composure and Bev noticed a puzzled look come across her new friend’s face.
    “Something wrong?” Bev asked.
    “I’m not sure,” Adams replied, looking as confused as when she first realized she had crossed into eternity. “For the past few years, after laughing like I just did with three pregnancies and seventy-plus years behind me, I’m usually wetting myself like crazy. This time, not a drop. Any thoughts?”
    “Ah, yes,” Bev, “it’s one of the perks of your altered state in eternity.”
    “I’m guessing you have more to tell me about this altered state,” Karen remarked with impishly raised eyebrows that indicated she was becoming more comfortable with both her mortal passing and her mentor.
    “Nothing in eternity is of physical substance,” Bev began. “When someone dies, that individual becomes what we call a ‘cosmic essence’ that I mentioned earlier. Anything experienced in the mortal state as well as what will be experienced here become mental and emotional perceptions without actual physical makeup.
    “This means that no matter what you do here, you will never suffer physical injury. If you want to take up what was an ‘extreme sport’ when you were mortal, no matter how often you fail here, you’ll never be harmed.
    “However, emotions become more intense and, as you find and lose love, make and break friendships, and expand your intellect, you will feel things more keenly than you did in your mortal state.”
    “Sounds like so much lies ahead,” Adams remarked.
    “And an eternity of time to do whatever you want,” Bev said. “On the lighter side of no conventional bodily functions, men really like it because they’re no longer getting an earful of complaint over not putting the toilet seat down.”
    Both women again burst out laughing.
    “I’ll let you take some time to digest that basic building block of eternity,” Bev concluded. “Pardon me while I continue to nosh.”
    “Thanks,” Adams replied. “I feel like an elementary school kid who just had the theory of relativity dropped on them.”
    There were a few minutes of silence as Karen found herself generating an encyclopedia’s worth of questions without any idea of what the possible answers could be.
    “Okay,” Adams asked, “how much space are we actually taking up here as two people and acres of open space?”
    “An excellent first query,” Bev replied. “Not that I’m surprised.
    “But to your question. At any time in eternity, we and our surrounding environment are no larger than a point of light — smaller than the tip of a needle. Also, what we’re experiencing is generated by your essence — I’m merely a bit player. Without me, you could still be enjoying the scenery, lattes, and that magnificent cake.
    “By the way, I’ve committed the memory of that ambrosia to my personal essence. It’s too good to savor only once.”
    “Happy to share,” Karen replied. “So, since we’re not physical beings, how do we have bodies? Specifically, how did I die a senior citizen and end up here looking like I did when I was twenty and on my college swim team? Not complaining or asking for any changes, but very curious.”
    “Remember, what was your essence in your mortal state comes with you into eternity,” Bev remarked, “including how you looked at any given time before your arrived here. For each person’s ease of adjustment, your consciousness finds the time in your life when you looked and felt your best.”
    “So here I am with a hot body and no one to share it with,” Karen remarked, with more than a touch of seriousness.
    “Oh, you’ll be able share what you have and build relationships in the not too distant future,” Bev replied with assurance. “We’ll go into more details as you transition further, but keep Ken Bradley in mind. Need I say more?”
    Karen Adams was stunned and speechless. Ken Bradley was a name she hadn’t heard in over forty years, when the college sweethearts were separated by the war in Vietnam. Ken never returned nor was his body recovered. The ultimate love lost.
    “So, exactly how much do you know about anyone’s past and, for those who are still mortal, what they’re doing know?” Adams asked, not how sure she wanted to hear the answer.
    “Mentors are granted just enough basic knowledge about new arrivals to get the transition process started as smoothly as possible but not so much that there’s bias of the long term. For example, I knew you were divorced but didn’t know the details of how that came about. As time passes, I’ll be learning as much about you as you’ll be learning about eternity.”
    “So, how long is the learning process?” Karen asked, more intrigued than ever.
    “At least a thousand years of mentoring and acquiring eternal skills,” Bev replied.
    “Wow, that’s an awfully long time,” Adams replied, stunned to find out basic transition would take longer than her mortal life.
    “Ah, but remember,” Bev counseled, “that all of us here have nothing but time. That millennium ensures a variety of things, including the passing of anyone you might have known in mortality. Also, it gives plenty of time to discover your true self — the person you could have become in mortality if you hadn’t had to deal with all the baggage that others dropped into your mortal life. You’ll have the time to re-invent yourself a dozen times over and fine-tune priorities for your future. Social science would consider it to be the ultimate in self-actualization.
    “The basic structure of eternity is pretty straightforward as long as you don’t try to overthink things too far ahead in the transition process,” Bev continued. “We’ll start out by showing you how to set up and furnish your various eternal residences as well as establish a daily routine to avoid becoming overwhelmed by all that’s possible as well as what will be expected of you.”
    “Hmm,” replied, “I’ve now generated another batch of questions.”
    “That’s what I’m here for,” her mentor counseled. “We’ll be spending about what you call a ‘year’ providing you with a foundation from which you can — again — fly solo.”
    “Interesting you mentioning ‘eternal residences’,” Adams remarked. “Any connection to my former faith’s concept of ‘mansions in heaven’?
    “No, that was just a bit of a blind squirrel finding an acorn,” Bev answered. “What you’ll be able to create for yourself will make what your old faith envisioned look like a shack.”
    “Glad to hear it,” Karen said. “The more validation I have that walking away from forty-plus years of misogyny was the right thing to do, the better.”
    “Excellent,” Bev remarked. “Now, how ‘bout we get started on your first residence?”
    Adams gave an enthusiastic nod.
    “So, where would you like to build your first homestead?” Bev asked.
    “Right here,” Karen said.
    “Okay,” Bev replied. “Just start envisioning what you’d like to put where.”
    Over the next several hours Karen worked and often struggled to get her first home put together. Bringing numerous room types and sizes into a single unit involved a lot of mental effort but, as the day drew to an end, a functional and basically furnished final effort had come together.
    Distractions caused by Bev’s mentioning Ken Bradley did not add to Adam’s efficiency and productivity.
    “I’m beat,” Karen said as she admired what, in her mortal life, would be a large, single story residence with a clear dome over the master bedroom as well as a full glass front that faced the ocean and gave an unobstructed view of the ever-changing sea.
    “I’ll bet,” Bev remarked. “I remember how tired I was after putting my first place together.”
    “I didn’t realize you were once mortal,” Karen replied with a bit of surprise.
    “Oh, yes,” Bev replied. “To steal a line from one or more tombstones, ‘as you are, I once was; as I am, you will be’.”
    “Wow,” was her protégé’s response. “So where did you come from and how long have you been here?”
    “I lived and died in what is now southwest France about fifteen thousand years ago. To apply a modern technological perspective, fire was still in ‘beta testing’.”
    Karen grinned and gave a short snort.
    “Oh,” she said, “it’s so nice to be able to enjoy the lighter side of a conversation without wetting myself.”
    “Well, on these humorous notes, let’s close out the day,” Bev commented. “In fact, I’ll give you a couple of days to enjoy your first space and make any adjustments you want. Of course, you know how to conjure up your favorite foods and drinks. See you three mornings from now.”
    Before Karen could thank her mentor, the older woman was gone, leaving Adams with a new beginning and fond thoughts of someone very special.

#

    Karen had a mostly sleepless first night in her new home with hours spent staring at the stars and marveling at blazing meteors through the structure’s bedroom dome as her mind continued to cope with the change from mortal to eternal.
    So many questions but then, so much time to get them answered.
    Adams noticed that the sky above her was subtly changing to the darkest of greys and realized that the sun would soon start another day. She made her way to the east side of the residence to watch her first sunrise as a member of eternity. Shortly after enjoying this hallmark event, she looked around and decided that one of her first upgrades to the place needed to be the addition of an eastward facing deck.
    But first, breakfast. In a matter of moments, Karen was seated at a table on the western deck she had fabricated the day before, enjoying a plate of thick French toast with Canadian maple syrup and butter with a side of sausage. The entrée was accompanied by fresh orange juice and dark roast coffee.
    Cherry-picking the best from her mortal memory definitely had its perks.
    After breakfast, Adams set about fabricating her east deck. With lessons learned yesterday, the task was completed in under an hour.
    Not bad for a rookie she thought as she surveyed her first solo construction effort.
    Karen then spent the rest of the morning tinkering with exterior details as well as interior proportions and colors. Lastly came completion of the furnishings. Before she knew it, she realized the sun was at its zenith and her appetite had returned.
    You don’t have to eat here she reflected, but it sure makes things more pleasant. Now, what to dream up for a first lunch?
    Hot dogs, chips, and a chocolate shake popped into her mind and, an instant later, the table was set and lunch was served. Karen pleasantly realized her inner child had followed her into eternity.
    I could get used to this, Karen thought, then wondered about overindulgence. Definitely something she’d have to bring up the next time she saw Bev.
    After an unhurried meal, Adams decided to enjoy a hike around the domain she’d created. Her initial direction was south along the soaring cliffs that offered a seemingly endless panorama of roaring ocean crashing against ageless dark granite. The leisurely journey took her into the late afternoon and offered up soaring birds, otters, sea lions, and magnificent whales. Karen was quickly finding eternity to be a very comfortable place.
    Returning to her new home, it dawned on Adams that she was still in the same clothes with which she had been provided on her arrival.
    If food and drink are unlimited, she wondered, what about a bit of variety in the old wardrobe?
    Over the next couple of hours, Karen filled the closet in her bedroom with a variety of attire that she could never have afforded in her mortal state. A little something stylish for all occasions in a palette of colors, not to mention an array of undergarments for her emotional comfort. Still can’t get past this ‘commando’ thing, she thought.
    Tomorrow’s outing to the north would have her more properly attired.
    Her dinner consisted of lasagna, garlic bread, tossed salad and, of course, red wine. Was there no end to this cornucopia she wondered. However, unlike her previous meals, Karen didn’t feel the need to eat her fill or drink to excess. Part way through her dining, she felt a bit bored and, without any conscious thought, was presented with a copy of the book she was reading before her death. “Cosmic,” she muttered, picking up where she had left off before fate had changed everything. Interestingly, she noticed no buzz from her drinking of what turned out to be half a bottle of wine. Another question for Bev, she mused.
    A delayed dessert of chocolate cake and coffee in front of a late setting sun topped off her day.
    The morning of Karen’s second day on her own began with breakfast and a shower. While getting dirty in eternity wasn’t a concern, the feel of steaming hot water and body wash was absolutely exhilarating. Ask Bev about tactile feelings, she thought.
    So many questions.
    Outfitted in hiking gear with water and snacks, Adams headed north past what would have been Horseshoe Cove, stopping at Salmon Creek a couple of miles further on. Along the way, the cliffs gave way to stretches of grass-covered dunes and waves crashing just yards away. She shed her shoes, socks, and pants to let the breaking surf come up to her knees as she waded in the cool salt water.
    Inland from the creek’s entry to the ocean was a large lagoon where Karen spent time watching herons, egrets, and a variety of small shore birds. Her memory was definitely tapping into the best of times and adjusting to eternity was becoming more pleasant with each passing moment.
    Adams returned home two hours later and, book in hand, sat down to her lunch while experiencing a small epiphany as to what to do with her afternoon. With inspiration and gusto, she hurriedly consumed her repast.
    Karen’s afternoon was spent furnishing her residence with all the books she could remember wanting to read but never finding the time. Whoever coined the phrase “so many books, so little time” must have found eternity to be the perfect experience.
    As Karen considered good books without good music to be a creative experience half done, after stocking a respectable library, eternity’s rookie proceeded to complement her books with an eclectic sampling of the world’s music.
    Near the end of the day’s endeavors, Karen heard the words “I’ll be by tomorrow, two hours after sunrise.”
    It was Bev.
    “Oookay,” Karen said aloud, not knowing how else to reply to a voice without a person present. Add telepathy to the eternal experience.
    To her surprise, Adams had no feelings of anxiety about seeing Bev the next morning. Quite the contrary — Karen was excited to start the next part of her transition.
    Her evening was spent quietly, with pizza and beer serving as dinner accompanied by reading and music. Interestingly, this evening’s sunset was hidden by a thick fog that had rolled in during the last hour of daylight. So, she mused, the weather here can vary. Wonder when the rain starts?

#

    After breakfast on her third morning, Karen wandered around her place, straightening here and tidying there. More busy work until Bev’s arrival than anything else, she realized.
    Like clockwork, at two hours after sunrise, the door chime sounded.
    Hmm, Karen thought with a bit of surprise, something else I need to be aware of.
    “Good morning,” Karen said as she opened the door. “I wasn’t sure if you were just going to ‘pop’ into the living room.”
    “No, we don’t ‘pop’,” Bev replied with a cheerful smile. “We’re pretty conventional around the house. No hocus-pocus.”
    Karen let out a short laugh and pointed to Bev’s mouth.
    “What?” Bev asked.
    “You have a bit of fruitcake on the right corner of your mouth,” Karen responded.
    “Oops, busted, but I’m blaming you,” Bev remarked with a grin. “Anyway, how were your days?”
    “Peaceful and serene,” Adams said.
    “An excellent start,” Bev commented, “and I’m sure you have a growing list of questions”
    “Like you wouldn’t believe,” Adams said, “but there are two ‘biggies’ I’d like to have addressed today.”
    “Okay, let’s have a go at number one.”
    “On my first day here, I mentioned wanting to apologize to some people for things I said and did in my mortal state,” Karen said. “I have the names of the people with whom I want to make things right. How do I make this happen?”
    “First,” Bev answered, “just think ‘contact’ and add a name with as many details about the person that you can remember, keeping in mind we have hundreds of essences with the same name. After your thousand years, just think about setting up a time and place to meet a specific person. You should get a response in fairly short order. Maybe let the other person make that choice. Finally, you just think about appearing where you want to be at the desired time.”
    “Sounds like the ultimate internet search program,” Karen replied in amazement.
    “Much more so than what’s on Earth, easier to use, and your server is never down,” Bev commented. “Now, before we start building any contact list or lists, what’s your other big ticket item for the day?”
    “It has to do with relationships,” Karen answered with noticeable strain in her voice, “particularly with my ex and his family.”
    “Ah, yes,” Bev replied with a nod of understanding. “We get that kind a query a lot. Well, just as you can build a list of people you’d like to contact, the opposite applies as well. You simply mentally build a list of do-not contacts and those people will be blocked from bothering you as long a you desire.”
    “Even for eternity?” Adams queried. “I’m certain that I want absolutely nothing to do with my ex or any of his family for all time.”
    “Just think it and it happens,” Bev said.
    A moment later, a look of calm spread across Karen’s face as the deed was done.
    “I feel like transitioning to eternity is as if I’m becoming a computer,” Adams commented. “Is there going to be a loss of humanity as I get more data loaded onto my ‘point of light’?”
    “Quite the contrary,” Bev assured the newbie, “with the passage of time, you’ll build more close and even intimate relationships than you ever imagined. Remember, you are a cosmic entity who will endure forever.”
    “Still a lot to take in,” Karen remarked, feeling a bit of anxiety.
    “Yes, it is,” Bev said, “but remember that you really can’t do anything wrong here and even the most minor learning misstep is easily corrected. You’re in the land of the ultimate ‘do-over’. As my mentor quoted to me from her time as a mortal — ‘no deaths, no injuries, and no property damage means no worries’. Not that any of that trio was of concern here but there were a lot of deaths and injuries in her mortal state. So much for ‘the good old days’.
    “But, I digress. Now, before we move back to your first bit of business today, I have a surprise that I’m certain will please you. Sit on the ground and close your eyes.”
    Karen eyed Bev questioningly.
    “Oh, just do it,” Bev said with a look of happy anticipation.
    Karen did as she was told and a moment later her ears were filled with the sound of high-pitched whining and her face peppered with cold, wet touching.
    Startled, eternity’s novice opened her eyes and screamed with the delight of a child. Karen Adams found herself surrounded by all the dogs she had ever parented during her mortal existence.
    “My dogs!” she squealed. “All of them! How?”
    “We have our ways around here,” Bev replied, basking in Karen’s joy.
    Karen remained seated, reveling in being a pet parent for eternity.
    “So,” she said with gratitude in her voice, “eternity with no ex or his family, a healthy body, and all my dogs. This really is heaven, isn’t it?”
    “Well, for now, let’s just say that not everything has to wait a thousand years,” Bev responded.

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