Photo by Alberto Barbarisi on Unsplash

‘Hi, Henry! Are you feeling better this morning?’ a voice said.

Henry looked up from his book, peering over his glasses, looked around and saw nobody.

‘Hey, I’m right here!’ the voice spoke again.

Confused, Henry thought he was delirious, because of his high temperature the previous night. ‘Ah, I’m going bananas’, he said to himself and went back to his reading.

‘No, Henry, you are not going bananas. I’m right here. By the way, this is God speaking. How are you feeling?’

Henry couldn’t believe his ears and, once again looked around.

‘Well, not too bad’, he answered, ‘I just wasn’t expecting this conversation. Is it too serious, I mean, what I have?’

God replied, ‘Humm, not if you look through the positive side. I’m giving you some time to say goodbye to your loved ones, to make amends, to finish up things.’

Henry was petrified. ‘What? Now, wait a minute, God. What are you telling me? Am I going to die?’

God, in His infinite patience told him gently: ‘As I said, it is not too bad if you see it through the positive side of it. You won’t die; you will just join me for eternal life. Come on, now, Henry, you know how this works. Haven’t you been professing it for the last 69 years, every Sunday in Church?’

He was embarrassed, ‘Yes, I have, but I never thought I would join you so soon.’

God giggled. ‘Soon? Henry, you are a funny man. Always making people laugh.’

‘Well, so I want to keep on making people laugh. I don’t want to go!’ he pouted.

‘You don’t want to go? Henry, don’t be such a baby. You have no choice. This is it. You’ve done all you had to do. Now it’s time. I’ll give you 2 months.’

Henry didn’t know what to say. He was to mad at God.

‘Ah, and son, don’t forget to pray as you always do. I will always be around.’

And then, silence.

He’s there, in the waiting room of a hospital he never thought one day he would be. He was alone; his wife would come meet him later, which gave him some time to think about a few things in his life. ‘Dying, me? You must be joking!’ he thought.

Henry had had a brilliant career as a family lawyer, hired by millionaire men – and women -, so he could his best for ‘their children’s inheritance’.

He had brought up three successful children: Jen was a paediatrician, Luke was an architect and Alyson was the one who took care of his office now.

He had lived with the same woman for wonderful fifty-nine years; Helen, his best friend, his lover, his constant partner in life. She’d been his first girlfriend and he couldn’t be more proud of it.

‘It’s funny.’ he thought. ‘One day you are on the top of the world; the next day you feel so fragile, sitting here and waiting, at a cancer hospital. ‘Two months, God said. Two months. I mustn’t waste time.’

He looked for a piece of paper and a pen in his pockets. He started to make a list, as an organized man he had always been. ‘Ok, what should I do first? Two months…’

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