The White Room

A short fiction — Into the realm of the hereafter.

I walked into an infinitely large room. White marble floor, 50-foot white ceiling, and white walls. A quiet and uncommon serene atmosphere was reigning over the room.

Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people all dressed in the same wide and white clothes populated the room. But, it was not at all crowded. They evenly occupied the space and were distributed all over the room’s area. There was room for everyone. They were moving in synchrony in random directions almost in slow motion. They would take a break for a few seconds to look around themselves and then resume walking.

It was only a few seconds until a man wearing a special badge and holding a tablet device approached me:

“Welcome to the 1990s Waiting Room. Here are your coupon and beeper. I am also transferring to your device a copy of your registration form already filled up for you. When your beeper goes off, please join the closest help desk and someone will guide you through the next steps.”

“Excuse me, did you say the 1990s Waiting Room?”

“Yes Sir. In this room are gathered all the humans born in the 1990s era, as you would refer to it. In this first phase, it is better that you regroup with people from your own generation. It can be a little too overwhelming if you’d mix with those from different eras since the beginning of the process. There is a quite large number of other rooms like this one. We have to regroup all the people that lived in our old mother earth from the very beginning. You do the math!” Said the man in a white blouse on an amused tone.

“What is going to happen in the next phases?”

“That I am unable to tell you, for now, it depends on how you will do on the first phase.” He kept typing and swiping on his tablet while giving me a corporate automatic speech. “Here is your device, you can set the age you want to appear with, you cannot select a number higher than your age when you died, obviously. We do not do magic here.” He laughs and then continues.

“Feel free to talk to anyone, you can also request a meeting with someone through your controller by searching their name here. Do not miss our special exhibition “Your life’s movie.” As its name suggests, you can watch the movie of your life by simply picking the option, this room’s scenery will automatically change and turn into a first-person real-life movie. You can select a particular date and time from your life that you want to see. You can pause, play, rewind, fast forward, all of those.

You can also choose to see it from anyone else’s perspective. You will finally have the opportunity to know the true meaning of being in someone else’s shoes. And speaking of that, you can also select anyone else’s life, from any era, any place, and live it exactly the way they had lived it.”

“Can people see my life too?”

“Yes, they can, as long as you keep your privacy settings on “public”. You can switch that off by contacting a colleague at one of the help desks. Waiting time can be very long. Fortunately, there is a lot of exhibitions to keep you busy, feel free to take a tour around and find out about them. Enjoy your time.” He gave me an official smile before walking away.

I was intrigued by a sort of a glass gallery with a hemispherical screen inside labeled “The Truth”. I walked closer to read the description:

“History like you never knew it. Experience the full history of humanity in a compressed 30-minute tour through every single event from the creation of the universe until its epilogue. A unique chance to discover the truth behind the origins.”

Another booth that looked like an arcade machine was placed next to the gallery’s entrance. It is a “Fake or Real” filter where you can check the veracity of any information or event related to the universe’s history. I was tempted to walk in and ask about the prophecies, the religions, dinosaurs, the Big Bang, and the death of Lady Diana.

Instead, I looked into my device and thought about all the possibilities: Live a day as a prehistoric human, spend some time as Nelson Mandela and feel the pain of isolation and the breeze of liberation, play a world cup final or live JFK’s last day.

A young woman in her mid-twenties interrupted my thoughts.

“I was expecting less distraction, this is clearly not the case.”

Her profile immediately popped up on my device’s screen. Her name was Jane, she was 27. Annoyed, I looked away from my screen because I didn’t want to know more that way.

“I was expecting a little more intimacy, this is like the 2020s all over again. I quit social media for a reason back there.”

“I think they are trying to ease us out of our little world by keeping its specificities, even the creepy ones.”

“Well, they failed if that is what it is.”

“Clearly. So, how did it happen?”

“Well, I had a disease that should have ended me quickly. But, it stuck with me for three years instead and made my life miserable. It was long and painful and it did not make any sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my people did everything possible to keep me around and heal me. But keeping me alive came with a price. The medication and intensive care were only stretching the pain and extending the nightmare. They wanted me to fight a battle I was not ready to fight. I was just ready to surrender and be gone from the beginning. But, I did not get to decide.”

“I understand, isn’t there a saying that goes “We are adding years to life, not adding life to years.”? I am not quite sure who said that.”

“Well, I am pretty sure that there is a way to find it out here.”

“There probably is. But, what is the point of knowing now?”

“What was the point of knowing before? What makes it different? Now and then?”

“That’s a good one. I guess, for me, everything I did before was related to the person I was becoming and it would ultimately have an impact on what will be decided for me here.”

“I am honestly walking in here not having a clue about what to expect. I never even tried to force myself to think about this or to imagine how it would be like. Besides the few curious and innocent questionings I had as a kid and a teenager, I never focused my interest on this.”

“That’s good for you, that way, you can’t be disappointed.”

“Right… So, 27 Club, huh?”

“And yet, I can’t carry a tune nor play any instrument.”

“Hey, maybe you can look for Jimmy here and learn some guitar. Wait, we discussed this, there is no point in doing it. So what happened?”

“Car accident.”

“Tragic. I’m sorry.”

“Honestly, deep down, I always felt that I would die in a car accident. Not that I am a bad driver, but I was always scared of hitting the road. I always felt that danger was around and at the next intersection, that a drunk fool was going to collide with me. Constantly trying to avoid eventual hazards instead of focusing on my own path led me to subconsciously bump into one of them.”

“Damn, killed in your first accident. I am sorry that you didn’t even have a warning before the fatal mistake. It is not fair. You should complain, there should be an after-sales service here.”

She holds her laugh and tries to shush me.

“Well, maybe it is for the best. I just hope that I did not cause a lot of pain for my family and my people. I hope my dog made it through.”

“You can always check on th… Never mind. I wonder where do our pets go. Do you think they have a room for them too?”

“I don’t know, they might. They seem very weird about their organization here. I just hope I will get to see my dog again.”

We were just contemplating the people’s movements in the room when her beeper went off.

“I guess this is it for me.”

“Yes, it’s your turn. Good luck, then.”

“Good luck to you too!”

She reaches to the closest desk. A man with a badge escorted her through an opening through the concrete wall before it closed again.

I took a look at my device. There were thousands of people waiting for their turn before me. I hesitated a few seconds to do the History Tour but my nostalgic side went for a replay of some of my favorite childhood memories.

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