Alan and the afterlife

I am not dead, but many people I once knew are dead or might be dying. Death is a touchy subject with most people; whether it be dealing with a stabbing, strangulation or just a good old poisoning.

Welcome, I am no one important and I will be your narrator for the duration of this short story. In this story I will speak of the age-old tale of a boy who is seemingly lost in the mysteries of life, the story of a greater concept and a couple brief mentions of a trendy interior designer. Our story starts in a land that is not known to you or I, filled with strange people and strange concepts. Our story begins in a village called Knowville, the place where people just know.

The people of Knowville know things in much the same fashion that everyone else knows things. They know that the sun will rise then set everyday, and they know that if you stand under a falling tree you might break your head. But the secret of Knowville is that there is one thing that they know that no body else knows. The Knowvillians know the secret of what happens in the time between life and death. The Knowvillians know that there is a space in between life and death of about 3 and a half minutes and in that time they have that ability to choose what they are going to do for the rest of eternity. You think to yourself that 3 and a half minutes is really not enough time to decide.

Well, you may be right.

Most Knowvillians choose to spend eternity doing and experiencing the things they love, such as laying on the beach with loved ones, where others (usually the unstable ones) choose to do absolutely bizarre things that don't really amount to anything. One solid example is of a poor Knowvillian who after being hit by a bus chose to spend his eternity surrounded by scantily clad women in a red room with walls covered in pictures of Martha Stewart.

The people of Knowville don't exactly understand why they have this incredible opportunity to spend eternity doing the things they love. All they know is that it happens and that it happens to them.

As soon as the Knowvillians are of age they start to think about their time between life and death, and how they will spend their eternity. Some easily figure it out and others don't. Most just take the thing that they like to do most, and choose that. But some people have problems choosing, and therein lies the problem. In this short story we will explore the problem of a boy named Alan, the Alan who didn't know how to spend the time in between life and death and felt very ashamed about it.

Alan simply did not know what to do. All of his friends had already decided what they would do in their eternity and he hadn't. Alan tried so hard to think of what is favorite thing was that it have him a headache.

One of the darker sides of death is suicide, the act of taking ones own life. Alan had thought about this and decided that it wouldn't help him much because he would still die and he still wouldn't know what to do.