Fiction
The Unbelievable Tales of the Afterlife
Nothing in the afterlife is as you’d expect it to be
Everything Was Huge
When I arrived at Silver City, I was handed over to Jesus’ right-hand man — Angel Michael — who guarded the pearly gate. The Angel of death who carried me had a few moments with Michael and told me he’d be on his way. I was expecting to see a serious-looking old angel at the gate who would play the tapes of my life and if I was deemed unworthy to enter would send me to hell, but he looked like a man, quite young and very cheery. He was busy flipping through some pages of a huge book titled “The Akashic Records” and I was too mesmerized by the giant pearly gate that was in front of me. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen.
He took a good look at me as if looking into my soul — I was all soul — and led me inside what looked like a giant castle. He told me to go around the back to where the very old folks were gathered.
“Uhm excuse me sir, but where’s the video where you show my life, my sins, and my shame and then cast me into the flames of hell?”
“Flames? Hell?’’ he burst out laughing and told me to go on, pointing to the group of people over there. I didn’t understand why he was laughing so hard. He couldn’t even breathe. I didn’t get the joke, but I walked.
There was a group of old souls who wore flowery gowns. I wondered why I was being sent to them.
Everything in Silver City was huge. There were many giants gathered at the far right and it seemed like they were “talking big things” but they were too far up to hear. One giant who wasn’t paying attention to what was being said saw me walking past, and he bent down, smiled, and said welcome to Silver City. Were those mountains for teeth? I smiled back and hurriedly went to join the older lady who had her hand stretched out for me.
She was older, but not old. They weren’t wrinkly. I’m not sure why they were called old, but they had white hair that moved like water. Their grey hairs made them look like they’d been around for far too long. She knew my name, and the others did too. They seemed pleased to meet me.
“We’ve been expecting you,” she said. “I hope the death Angel and Michael didn’t mess with you at the gate.”
I smiled, and I was going to ask her about the tapes, but I felt something weird — it was the strangest feeling.
Souls Don’t Need Legs
I thought I was walking the whole time, but I looked down when what seemed like a white baby tiger run through my lower body. “Whoa, wtf!” I said looking down at my body, but I quickly caught myself, looked up at the divine old lady with the grey hair, and said, “Oops,” with my hand over my mouth. Did I just cuss in heaven?
“You wouldn’t have been sent to the back if you didn’t cuss,” she said as the others laughed and looked on. “You won’t believe the number of times I said what the fuck as I watched you do some dumb shit!”
I laughed nervously and said, “Where are my legs?” The baby tiger kept running into me — well, through me — so I bent down and picked him up. He licked my face, and it was so wet, but the slob vanished quickly and he stared into my eyes. It looked familiar and I couldn’t take my eyes off. It was like I was being compelled by its gaze. His eyes were a movie and something was playing. It was me during my time on earth. It was the night I had the dream and saw the white tigers in the sky. I thought I was making that stuff up the morning I woke up, but there really was a white tiger cub in the sky. The lady with the grey hair grabbed the baby tiger, rubbed his belly, and he ran off. I turned to look, but he had disappeared.
“What was that?” I asked. “And what happened to my legs?” Souls don’t need legs. And the tiger watched out for you many times. It was your spirit animal. He was just showing you his memories of you, but it’s not the time for that yet. It’ll come back later when you have to go.
“Go? Go where?”
She didn’t answer me. She led the group, and we went in through a door. We went past a room and there were some angels in there chatting and playing around with each other. If this was earth, they would be the bad boys. They were older angels, kind of ruthless, and their wings were brushing against each other, talking really loud. One of them said, “I’m ready to retire from my angelic duties. Do we have any new souls who are ready to take over yet?”
I had stopped to listen. One of them saw me and winked at me. He very good-looking and his wings were white and massive and his face shined like gold. I smiled and ran off to join the old folks. One old soul turned and said, “You didn’t change. I see you’re still very inquisitive.”
Where You’d Never Expect Him to Be
I knew I was in Silver City and I was eager to see God and meet Jesus. After all, nobody played the tapes to me. If it wasn’t played at the gate, then Jesus would take me to a room, it’d be just us and he’d play the tape. Whew. I was really worried they would play the tapes for everybody there to see. I did some things on earth I'm not very proud of.
But Jesus was nowhere to be found. I asked where he was and one of the folks said he's never where you’d expect him to be. So I concluded, like most kings, he's in a castle somewhere with servants at his feet.
I walked over to the lady with the grey hair and asked about God. “Where is God?”
“What do you mean? He’s in your heart!” and she kept moving. She didn’t stop and explain this further.
“He’s in my heart?”
“Always.”
“There’s No Religion Here”
Okay, then. I heard music. The most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. I wasn’t sure who or what was singing. It sounded otherworldly, but of course, it’d sound otherworldly. This wasn’t earth. “Come on!” a younger-looking lady in the old group called out. Let’s go hear the choir sing. She opened the doors to a huge temple. The most beautiful temple I’ve ever seen. The lights were way too bright. The music was way too loud. I thought wow, this would be way too bright and way too loud if I was still human, but it felt like nourishment for my soul and I soaked it all in. I knew this is where Jesus would be, along with all the righteous religious people.
“There is no religion here,” one lady quickly turned to me and said.
“Can you read my thoughts?’’ I said, looking at her strangely. She didn’t answer me. She said come on! I followed her to the front. I saw some angels leading the choir. These were a different group of angels than the ones I saw earlier talking so loud about retirement. These were much younger angels and their voice… their voice was magic. There were lots of birds singing too. There were friendly snakes listening to the music and dancing along, and there were many other animals. For the time, I didn’t scream at the sight of a snake. Snakes!
Everything there felt like home, but Jesus wasn’t there.
This Place Belongs to Everybody
There was no sign of Jesus in the temple and still, nobody was telling me why I was following the old folks but I felt like they were my people so I followed along. So far, this place is nothing like I thought it’d be. We went out to the front, and I heard people talking loudly coming from a building.
I peaked inside. “Who are those people?” I asked the lady with the grey hair. She said it was the sinners. The guys and gals who failed their mission on earth.’’
“They are here too?” I asked surprisingly.
“Where else would they be?” She said. “This place belongs to everybody.”
We went inside and we saw men and women having what looked like a party. Some were drinking and dancing, others were eating, but most were gathered around someone and they were listening to him speak.
The lady with the grey hair showed me around. Among the sinners, there were those who judged. Those who lied. Those who stole. Those who killed. There were those who used and abused others. They were those who made people cry. No sin was bigger than the other. In Silver City, every sin was a sin.
I walked past the lady with the grey hair and stood by the group trying to get through to the front. And there He was. It was Jesus talking with the sinners. Not the type of scene you’d expect to see in Heaven.
“Why is Jesus hanging out and partying with sinners?” I thought to myself. He must have heard my thoughts because he looked up at me quickly with eyes as bright as gold that went as deep as the ocean and smiled in a way that answered all the thoughts in my head.
“He didn’t come for the righteous. He came to call the sinners to repentance. And in the Silver City, they weren’t sinners; they were souls just like everybody else. They were souls that were getting ready to go back to earth to get it right.”
I remembered the three parables demonstrating how God seeks the lost and how pleased He is when sinners repent. The sinners were drawn to Him, and He gladly spent time with those who were open to his teaching. He forgave repentant sinners, and He embraced sinners who believed in him.
“Jesus was a friend of sinners not because he loved sin. He was a friend who came to save sinners and was very pleased to welcome sinners who were open to the gospel, sorry for their sins, and on their way to finally getting it right,” the lady with the grey hair came to stand behind me and said.
“Can everybody read thoughts here?”
“Of course.”
The Palace of Souls
There were so many thoughts going on in my head, and Jesus knew it. He laughed and got up. He walked to me, put his hand around me, and walked me outside.
“You haven’t changed much, Spirit,” he said. “You still ask so many questions.”
“Spirit?”
“Yes,” he said. “You and the older ladies are the guides.”
“Guides? Like spirit guides?”
“Yup. You got it.”
I looked at the time and it was 11:11 am. I was still wearing my favorite watch, but time wasn’t functional in Silver City. “Can we chat?”
“Let’s walk,” Jesus answered. He already knew everything I wanted to ask, so he took me to the Palace of souls. I had many questions on the topic of souls.
We went to a place where souls who were ready to go back to earth went. There was a massive veil on one end of the room where I assumed was the veil of forgetfulness. It was pretty cool. On one side you remembered everything, on the other side you knew nothing.
All souls returning to earth must go under the veil to be erased of any memories of the past. There were some souls there getting ready to go under the veil. They seemed pretty excited to be going back.
The Journey to Earth
“Yes. It’s true that souls choose their mothers,” Jesus answered a thought in my head. He showed me the groups of souls there were.
One group was the sinner souls. After they feasted, partied, and listened to Jesus speak, it was time for them to go back to earth and try again. They reincarnated onto earth to accumulate enough good deeds. Only then could they live in Silver City.
There were the volunteer souls. These were souls who agreed to go back to earth to complete a mission. 100 years was only a year for these souls, so going back wasn’t a big deal to them.
And then there were souls who had returned to Silver City without completing their mission. These were the souls of children who died from miscarriages, stillbirths, abortions, sicknesses, and premature deaths. It was also the souls of adults who died before their time. Some of them returned to earth quickly, and they got to choose where they went. Some went into the same families born as the next newborn, and others chose different families.
I was especially curious about the baby souls that returned and Jesus said souls of children of miscarriages, stillbirths, sicknesses, and premature deaths went back to their mothers at a later time. They were always reunited.
“But what about the souls that got aborted?”
“Souls don’t get aborted. Cells get aborted. A soul sees that the mother they chose isn’t ready for them, so they leave the bodies to be aborted and they return to Silver City. These souls felt no pain, and some of them — if the mother bonded with them and communicated their intentions before aborting the pregnancy — stayed to protect and comfort the mother during the process. Some returned to Silver City and waited to choose those same mothers when they were ready for children, and others chose different mothers if they couldn't wait.”
“What happened to those mothers when they die?” I asked.
“They come here after their mission on earth is complete and if they had good hearts and accumulated many good deeds, they stayed in Silver City and if they had more bad deeds than good, they returned to earth as sinner souls.”
“How do you see people who have abortions?”
“I hold them close to my heart,” He said. “Come with me.”
The Green Garden
I followed Him through what seemed like a vast jungle that spread far across the land. There was every animal there and they could all communicate with Jesus. There was also every tree, every plant, every crop, and every herb. We walked through the forest and what I saw next shocked me. It was the coolest thing. There was a vast weed plantation and there were some souls tending to the plants.
Jesus went to talk to one of the souls, and I stood there in awe. There is cannabis in Silver City? How dope is this!
I saw one soul handed Jesus a blunt. He returned to where I stood and said, “Of course there is cannabis in Silver City. God made every plant, and it's all good, especially this one!’’
He pointed it to me as if to say cheers, and he took a hit. He passed it to me and I took a hit. It was nothing like I’d ever smoked.
We levitated.
The Computer Room
The next thing I knew we were in the computer room and I was watching my life unfold before my eyes. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Jesus was standing next to me with a serious look on his face. “Uh oh,” I thought.
When the tape finished playing, He asked me if I wanted to go back to earth as a volunteer soul.
“Do I have a choice in the matter?” I said.
“Of course you do.” He said. “Only sinner souls have no choice but to go back to earth.”
“Then no!”
“No, what?”
“No, I don’t want to go there again,” I said.
“But you did a great job.”
“Thanks but no thanks.”
We both laughed and walked out of the room.
But Where is God?
We went outside to where the old folks were gathered waiting for us. Jesus went over and said something to the lady with the grey hair. He turned around and said he must go.
“Wait!” I called to him.
I still had more questions, but he seemed to be in a hurry. There were two things I really needed to know. “If everybody comes to the Silver City when they die then where is hell and who goes there?”
“Hell isn't real,” He said. “It’s just earth.”
“Earth?”
“Yes. There’s only heaven and earth.”
“Earth is hell?”
“Didn’t it feel like it?” Jesus said.
We both burst out laughing and he began to walk away.
“God!” I cried out loud. “Where is God!”
“In your heart!” He answered. “Like the lady with the grey hair already told you.”
I was confused but before I could ask any more questions, the baby tiger out of nowhere jumped up on me flying right through me and I woke up with my heart pounding out of my chest.
