The Frailty

When death isn’t the end you’d hoped for…

“Where am I?” Charles asked as he stared into the swirling myriad of souls before him.

“You’ve returned from life,” came the answer from among the souls.

“So, I’m dead then?”

“As you understand it, yes.”

Charles was disappointed. This wasn’t what he’d hoped for. “…now what?”

“You’ve led an interesting life.”

“That’s not how I would describe it,” said Charles tersely. “Just get on with it. What happens now?”

“When souls come back from life, they join with us.”

“So, you created me and sent me through that mess just to have me come back here to you?”

“We don’t create souls, but when they come along we’re able to make adjustments to them. Our goal is to experience everything possible in life. So we make our adjustments to point the soul in the desired direction. The life is lived. The experiences are had. And then, after death, the soul comes back and is joined with us. Once joined, the experiences are shared with us all, and our understanding of life increases. We’ve been doing this for a long time and have become quite good at making our adjustments to get the desired results.

“When your soul came to us,” the voice continued, “we stitched a frailty into you. Your soul well was set to run out while you were still a child. You would then die, by your own hand, and be brought back to us to be joined. …But you persisted. Even after your well had gone dry, you continued on.”

“What’s a soul well?” Charles asked.

“It’s the energy that keeps a person going. It’s the will to live.”

“You’re telling me you set me up to kill myself when I was still a child so that you all could know what that was like? And then, when that didn’t happen, you let me run on empty for the rest of my life? And you did it all intentionally?”

“You have to understand,” the voice said, “we’re so rarely surprised. As I said, we’ve become very good at this. The directions we set usually lead to predictable paths in life. But you changed your path. This is something that’s never happened before. We had to see how much farther you’d go. We could not interfere.”

“And you expect me to want to join you? The ones who did this to me?”

“You’ve experienced pain. When you’ve joined with us you’ll know all the pleasures of life as well.”

“And the horrors of concentration camps and trench warfare? And is it safe to assume the experiences of the Bubonic plague are in there as well? Thanks, I’ll pass.”

“Joining with us is not something you can simply dismiss out of hand. But that’s another matter. There’s something you need to know. When we set you on your path, we had no expectation of you going as far as you did. We certainly didn’t expect you to have children.”

Now Charles was concerned. “What did you do to my kids?”

“We did nothing to them. At least, not directly. The frailty we gave you has been passed on to them.”

“What?!” You’ve cursed them as you cursed me?!”

“No. The frailty is diluted in them. The measure you experienced is halved in your children. And, if they have children of their own, it’ll be halved again. Eventually, it will no longer be noticeable. But, for now, your children need your help.”

“My help? In case you weren’t paying attention, I just killed myself. So, besides the fact that I’m no longer alive and with my children, I couldn’t make it through life as it is. And, as you just explained, you bear a considerable amount of the blame for that. So explain to me how, exactly, am I supposed to help them?!”

“Your death is not absolute. We can still stop it.”

“What? How? Can you change the past?”

“No. For us, time doesn’t flow in the way you’re accustomed to. Since you’ve been here, no time has passed for your body. In fact, your body isn’t dead yet. We pulled your soul out early to explain the circumstances to you. If you wish to go back, we’re able to cause the rope to break to prevent your death.”

“Alright… But, how do I help my kids?”

“You would know better than we would. We’ve never had this experience.”

Charles paused for a moment. “Okay, but after this is all over, and I’m back here, I won’t be joining with you.”

“You don’t understand. When you return, you,” the voice started.

“No!” Charles cut the voice off. “When I’m done, it’s over! I have no desire to join you. I just want it to be over. Do you understand?”

Here, the voice paused. “Okay. When you return, you won’t be joined with us. Are you ready to go back?”

“Yes.” And with that, Charles’ soul was returned to his body.

“He must be joined,” came a second voice from the mass of souls. “It’s automatic upon death. He won’t have a choice.”

“Yes,” replied the first. “He would not listen.”

“We’ve never lied to one before.”

“It’s okay. Once joined, he’ll understand.”

Thank you for reading. For a different take on the afterlife: