The End (I)

  
It was 9:05 AM, I was hanging my coat when the phone on my desk started to ring, I never knew why they made it with that monstrous bell, I guess they wanted to disturb recipients so much as to coerce them to answer with no delay.

Before I could take the phone, Ayelen, my pretty aide put her head into my office and said:

Heaven's calling, M!

I picked the handset and heard a voice saying:


You are needed at the 21st.

And then the communication was cut off. I kept looking the handset trying to understand the meaning of the solid tone coming from it.

I was taken out of my trance by the voice of Ayelen, who had her head into my room and her body in the reception room, she said:

Wake up, M, you must go to Heaven! It is a strange call, of course, but you must comply now!

I looked at her and understood her goading me, you do not make Heaven wait for you!

So I took my coat and run towards the Angels, these being the three lifts, or elevators that went into Heaven (the 21st floor), hence their name.

I got an empty car. It was not surprising since nobody goes to Heaven unless called.

When I reached my destiny, the car's doors opened slowly to reveal the figure of St. Peter. Well, he was Mr. B, but as he was named as Heaven doorkeeper, we knew him by that nickname.

When he saw me he smiled with half his mouth, and his opposite eye, I never knew how he could do that, It was real weird!

Welcome to the 21st, Mr M, he said, please follow me!

I did, of course, what else?

When we were two steps from a huge oak door, it slide noiselessly, and I followed St. Peter inside an immense room all the walls littered with masterpieces from the best painters of the world, old and new. Besides that it was  almost empty except for several comfortable looking armchairs, a real big polished teak desk in an L shape, big enough to sleep on it, and the lounge chair (could not see it completely, but I knew from the office grapevine it was a lounge chair brought from France at special request).


St. Peter stopped inside the door and told me: Nice to have met you, M! Please, go right in.  (And he smiled again but changing sides of his mouth and eye! Remarkable!).

I walked into the Sancta Sanctorum and with each step toward the big teak desk in an L shape I felt I was decreasing in size reaching the 2 inches tall when I was near the desk.

In that moment, the lounge chair gyrated on its axe and Mr. A was disclosed in all his royalty!

I recovered my normal height, and looked at the smiling face of our revered Mr. A.

He was a normal man, with an avuncular smile designed to gain my trust, I guess.

Signaling behind me, he said:

Sit down on the small chair.

Only then I discovered a small wooden chair between two armchairs, a very uncomfortable place to sit down, but I obeyed without a word.

My dear Mr. M; this is a very especial assignment I have for you, Mr A said intimately.

Some month ago we received a very strange order of work, not because what it asked, even if it was a complete Syn-Vac, the computer star we make in our laboratories, as you know, but because the request came from a very unusual, and peculiar place.

The order was signed, no more, no less than by the Dalai Lama Himself. He stated they were assigned a job from far away in time and it was very slow and difficult, so they thought it would be good, for a change, to be helped by our exceptional technology. 

I couldn't see where all this led to, so I just nodded.

He seemed satisfied I understood the situation and went on:

Now, we have prepared one of our best machine, and it is waiting in a container in Albery Airport for the installation team, and its leader, that is YOU! to fly to Nepal in the next hours.

When he finished speaking I realized I had been letting my mouth open all by itself in amazement. I shut it suddenly, almost biting my tongue.

Gathering all my last resources, not to stutter, I replied.

But sir, I am only a M class employee, and cannot have personnel in charge!

He looked at me with a kind face, and said:

Oh, that! that is easily fixed, as from now you're raised to B class employee, and forget all that nonsense of earning the place.

He was referring to the normal motto of the Corporation about earning our own progress into the living forces of the community.

I was left without words; or breath.

The man took a small golden pen and started to write on a paper for a while, then he raised his head and asked as if surprised:

Are you still here? Hurry up; you must get a Class B attire, and rush to the Airport!

I was scared and annoyed, when speaking with these bigwigs, I never know when the interview is considered finished. So I rose from the wooden chair with a small pain at the back, and run toward the door.

Two steps before I reached it, the door opened and there appeared the weird smile of Saint Peter, he looked at me and said:

Congratulations Mr. B, please follow me.

Mr. B? How could he possibly know, maybe he was eavesdropping, but no, not a B Class man, or did he? well, it did not matter, even Mr A could have told St. Peter before my visit, but Mr A was genuinely surprised by my mention of it, as if it was a minor glitch not worth to think about.

I just let it go with a:

 Thank you, sir

Do not call me sir, he answered, you are a peer of mine now, and can just call me B.

Yes, thank you B, 

I said it uncomfortably, it was too early to speak to these people as my peers.

We walked the corridor to a small oak door which slid out of the way when we were... yes, two steps from it, B motioned me to enter, and he stayed outside.

A few second after the door closed, a small man with a measurement tape around his neck came running and told me:

Please let me take your size, and then strip off all your clothes!

All of them?, I asked confused.

Yes, he said, definitively, all of them. They are not worthy of your new state!

Ah, well he also knew of my rising on the scale. This was a bit strange.

Anyway I did as I was told, and waited naked for some seconds when he returned with his hands full of clothes of an especial kind. After donning all these things I looked like a Prince without a Reign, but I must say I felt very comfortable in them.

The man, a tailor perhaps?, controlled that everything was in the right place and saying 'Good luck' ran away into the next room. In that moment the first door opened and St. Peter was standing there looking a bit in a hurry.

Come on, B! he said, lets get the next transmigrator!

Transmigrator? What in heaven could that be? I didn't dare to ask, just follow him almost running toward a green steel door which... yes, yes, you know.

It was like a lift car. St. Peter pointed toward it and told me:

Hurry, get in. It is coming now.

I went in, the door closed, and in a few seconds I felt as I was diluted into a fine mist and blown by a big fan toward a channeled exit. I almost lost my senses in my fright but soon 'my' mist was into another green car and in a few more seconds the mist condensed in my own person, leaving me scared and not knowing what had happened to me.

The green steel door opened, an orderly asked me to get out before the transmigrator started the next trip. I obeyed not understanding anything.

As soon as I was out, the man brought a small scanner and surveyed all my person. After that he murmured as if talking to himself: 'All seems to be in the right place'. Then looking at me said:

Follow this corridor, Mr B, and you will find your team waiting for you.

My team!? So I was at the Albery Airport. But how on Earth? Oh, well, better leave it alone.

I did as prompted and soon found a room with six men and a girl. As soon as I entered they stopped talking and stood up, the older, it seemed, said:

Nepal Map

Welcome, Mr B, the container is already aboard the plane, we are ready to leave at your word.

I was not used to leadership so I had to make an effort to look grave and important and said, trying to make my voice two points down-pitched than my own:

OK, let's go! It sounded so poor that I run ahead of my team before they could see my embarrassment!

We boarded the plane, got places in the cabin and the pilot started our trip to Nepal.


(To be continued)

 The music is 'Na birse timilai'  (I could not forget you) by Anju Pant. A Nepali popular song

© 2013 Od Liam.