Who is She Going to Tell?

I don’t remember it happening. I was just walking to put the garbage in the bin. I felt a pain so intense, it stopped me in my tracks. Like lightening and a sledgehammer had both hit me at the same time. And just like that, I was dead.


“We need to talk.” Believe me, when God says that to you, you pucker up a bit. Even if you are already in Heaven. Especially, if, like me, you have only been in Heaven for a week or so. I gulped, put on my best smile, and turned towards Him.

“Yes, God. About what?”
“About your wife. She is not doing well, and is crying and praying to me almost all day and night. It is one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. You must have been on heck of a husband.”

And he smiled at me.

There is really no way to describe that smile to a Mortal. None. However, if you can imagine every good thing you ever tasted: from ice cream to a great steak,then linked that -somehow- to smelling your babies hair the first time, then connected that, to all the love you ever gave in your life, the best song you ever heard, throw in the way you looked at your wife when you first saw her, and the look you gave her when she said: “ Yes!", add a rainbow, a snowy day, some winter ice scenes, the hardest you ever laughed in your life- and you would be close... in Human terms anyway.

“I am so sorry. I don’t know what to say. It isn’t legal to go back and talk to her for a bit…is it?

“Well, that is the thing Kevin. Not often do I get a glimpse of a love this strong and deep, from someone who is as old as she is. Usually, it is only younger people,or folks who lost a child, who pray at this level. Very few wives pray this hard for their husband after fifty years of being with them every single day. In fact, on more than one occasion, it is the opposite prayer I get. “ And He laughed.

Well, if you can’t picture God’s smile, there is no way in Heaven or Hell (which I got to visit, it isn’t far from Heaven, surprisingly - at least in distance) I can describe his laugh. You know that old saying: “Laughter is the best medicine?” Well, it is more than that. When God laughs, we all do. It is lovely.

“ So, I have decided that you can visit her for tonight. “

You could have knocked me over with a feather , by the way, there aren’t any in Heaven, in case you are wondering. None. Nada. Not one. Not even in your cap.

“What am I supposed to say?” I was shaking. I never told anyone in Heaven, but I miss her so much, but in a way that I couldn’t explain, so …I didn’t.

“Just be you. Reassure her. Things will be okay, and someday, she will be here with you. You can tell her as much, or as little as you want about Heaven, or Hell, for that matter.”

That’s all it took. Time doesn’t work in Heaven like it does on Earth. Nor does how you get from one place to another. One moment I was talking with God, the next…surprising Kathy as she turned from making pumpkin cookies for the grand kids.

She just stared, and held the cookies out in front of her. I stared back. She didn’t faint, but the cookie pan slid slowly from her hand, the cookies sliding off and onto the floor, in a soft plop…plop…plop. I stepped right on the cookies to hold her. She let the pan go, and hugged me like, well, like she had seen a ghost.

“Is it you?”
“Yep.”
“But…but …your taller!” And I was.
“Oh, that comes with the whole perfect body and soul thing when you get to Heaven. You’ll see.”
She leaned up against my chest, and I stroked her hair, as I rested my chin (yes, I only had the one now) on top of her head. We didn’t say anything for a long while. So long, that my tears and her tears had met somewhere in the middle of my shirt. (Oh, yeah, I forgot, there is such a thing as clothes, in heaven. Just not out of materials you know of.)

“What…how…why?” She looked up into my face, with more questions pouring out than her mouth could form at one time.

“Whoa, pretty lady. We have all night. I will tell you everything I know, or you think to ask. We have the whole night, God said so. You were right…there is a God. “

It was worth the pain of knowing I would have to go back to Heaven in a few hours, just to see the look on her face when I told her there is a God. It was a look that I thought one could only see in Heaven. I was wrong.

“I was right!” She laughed, cried, and buried her head back in my chest. Hugging me so tight she was shaking and I was vibrating. It was glorious.

We talked and talked, and never once let go of each other. I explained to her what I could. I told her that going to Heaven was kind of like graduating from High School. You always thought about going back, but if you did go back. Well, it wouldn’t be like you would think. The school seems smaller, tinier, the people who just a year ago were the teachers you were scared of or respected, and now, well, now they are just working class people named Joe, Bob, Nancy, or Tyresha…just ordinary people with a job- like you.

Then you realize that the girls you thought were cute as sophomores, or juniors, could now put you in jail if you tried to date them. That your friends one year behind you, are now the Seniors and hate that you came back to brag about being in the Army, or having a job, or starting college. You are treated nicely, but you won’t be back again. You can’t wait to leave because they really don’t want you there. It is their world, and you don’t belong there anymore. That is kind of like what Heaven makes you feel about Earth. Once you get to Heaven, you don’t want to come back , you don’t belong on Earth anymore. Everyone up in Heaven knows it, and is happy when other people finally get to Heaven too.

The morning came all to quickly. As I left Kathy, with the gift of remembering every detail of my visit (God said I could. He also threw in a great night’s sleep the next night for her. The sleep of Angels. What a gift.) We parted as we had met the night before…still holding each other.

When I got back to Heaven, God met me to thank me.

“Thank me? Thank me?! My God, I should be thanking you.” God laughed at that, after a moment, all of Heaven did to. It was a funny moment- or maybe you had to be there.

“No, Kevin. I thank you. It had to be very difficult for you to see her again, knowing you couldn’t stay, and you don’t know when she is coming here. Even I don’t know that. “

That surprised me, but then again, God was always surprising me.

“But God, I told her all about Heaven. I got rid of many of her preconceptions , and laid many a myth about Heaven, and about you. You said I could, so , I did.”

“Yes, I did, Kevin. Just stop and think for a moment. She knows more about Heaven, and God, than any living mortal ever did, but (and he smiled that smile again) who is she going to tell?”

We all laughed.

The End.