Everything You Want

“Hello, and welcome to Heaven!” she said, with enthusiasm.

I looked around. A nondescript room, with a desk and chair. Oh, and a dog-eared book on the desk. And nothing else! To make matters worse, the book was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which is possibly the last book I'd ever consider reading—conceivably a reason to suppose that this was, in fact, Hell. Except that the woman who greeted me seemed quite happy.

I noticed that the room, although it was moderately sized, had no doors or windows. “A bit small, isn't it?”, I joked.

“I've always found it big enough”, she replied, “How big do you need? I've always had everything I wanted”.

That brought me up short. This was it? This one room? I think perhaps my living room was bigger. This was not my idea of heaven.

“Is there somewhere else you'd like to be?”, she asked.

“Well, I think a bigger room would be good”, I hedged, unable to think of much else that would really make things better. “Certainly not a smaller room than this, that's for sure.”

“Right, so this is about the right size for you, then?”

“Yes”, I agreed, “this'll be fine, I think”. I tried to think back through our conversation, because something didn't seem right, but this was really quite a nice room; clean and simple.

“Is there anything else you want?”, she asked.

“All the ice cream I can eat!” I joked. Possibly not my most imaginative play, but it seemed like a good way to kick the tires on this heaven gig.

“Are you hungry then?”, she asked. Now that she mentioned it, I realized I wasn't. I didn't want to think about food at all, really. Maybe people in heaven don't need to eat?

“Maybe a second chair would be good?”, I said, still trying to think of something I might want.

“I think we'll be fine, actually”, she said, and then chuckled to herself as if an idea had occurred to her. “If we need two, I'll be sure to get one,” she added with a gentle smile.

I picked up the copy of Atlas Shrugged and thumbed through the pages, and then set it back down on the table. “At least I've got this if I'm bored.”

“Oh, I don't think you'll ever be bored here,” she replied, and I realized she was right; being bored seemed, well, unimaginable. I wasn't sure I knew how to be bored anymore.

She looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes and said, “If you'd like some fun, would you like to be me for a while? I've got this place figured out.”

It was rather an odd thing to say, but, rather strangely, I began to realize that I did want to be her. Maybe I'd wanted that the whole time I'd been there. Yes, perhaps I had.

I turned around and sat down on the chair, looking around. I loved this place; it had everything I could wish for.

I didn't have very long enjoying the solitude because I glanced up and noticed a newcomer with me in the room. Of course! This is always what comes next.

I stood up.

“Hello, and welcome to Heaven!” I said, with enthusiasm. I loved this part the best.