My Lives

Ba-Bump...Ba-Bump...Ba-Bump

I can feel it.

I'm going to die today

I turn onto my side and gaze at Elle's beautiful brown hair flowing over her shoulders and creating a frame around her sea blue eyes. She turns over and looks at me

"Is it today?" She asks
"Yes, I can feel it." I reply

She moves over beside me and runs her fingers through my disheveled hair.

"I wish this would stop." She mumbles mournfully "Why are you like this?"

"I don't know, but it never stops."

The alarm clock goes off and I press the snooze button. "Time for work." I remarked.

I moved the warm sheets off of me and went to take a shower. After a few minutes I stepped out into the cold house air and thought to myself "This is what death feels like...cold...empty...lonely." I wrapped a towel around me and walked out into my bedroom. Elle had set out breakfast for me, it's the same breakfast I always have before I die. There was a waffle, some bacon, a little bit of scrambled eggs, and a glass of cherry kool-aid. I don't know why, but that color always seemed to calm me down.

I ate my breakfast then went to the closet to pick out the last suit I would wear in this life. Maybe it would be white this time, or a nice azul color. But as I reached into the closet, my hand drifted to the red suit, it is the one that I always choose.

I put it on and went and grabbed my briefcase with all of my work files in it. It's black leather had been weathered by all the years it was used. I walk into our kitchen to say goodbye to Elle, but she isn't there. "Elle?" I call. "Eeeeellle?" But she doesn't answer. With a confused look I walk to the door. As I open it Elle is standing right outside looking at the street.
"Why do you have to die?" She asks without turning.
"Because that's what always happens." I reply calmly.
I walk over and gently kiss her cheek. "See you soon." Then I turn and slowly stroll towards "Hoffman Inc."


"Mr. Cretzel! How are you today? I have your paper." Yells the paper boy. His name is Bobby, he lives a few houses down from mine in a house covered in vines with windows that peek out like the little eyes of a squirrel.
"Good morning Bobby. Thank you but could you just deliver that paper to my house today, I don't feel like reading."
"Sure thing John." He says with a little disappointment in his voice.
"Thank you Bobby, you have a good day now."
"Goodbye Mr. Cretzel." He says in a questioning way.


As I walk in through the big glass doors I see the fountain the team and I used to throw pennies into wishing for a big promotion. I the desk lady that I always talked to, but never asked her name. I walk to the old elevator that still smells like smoke. As I press the button to go to the 23 floor I can hear the wires pulling me up. I feel the force of them pulling me up. Then it stops, the doors open, and I step out into my second home. I feel like this is what I want, just to be with these wonderful people for the rest of time. I stroll past Jessie with her big glasses and curly hair, and Kory who always is the life of the party. And then past Mary, she has on too much perfume as usual. Then finally I pass Lex, he was always a quiet worker and until a few months ago we didn't know that he was actually a genius and didnt want to brag. He pulled off some of our hardest jobs like they were nothing. But not once has he ever asked for a reward. Lex is one of the people I am most going to miss.
I walk into my office slot and sit down in the nice leather swivel chair that Jack (our office manager) got me for my 10th year working at HI. I turn to face my computer and there is a note on it.






Good Luck





Today









-Elle

I take the note and put it in my briefcase, right next to the seven other notes that are exactly the same.

I boot up my computer and work on a new design for motherboards for 4 or so hours. Then I go to the break room and buy myself a Coke and a ham sandwich. After I'm done I walk back to my office, sit down and finish the project, it feels good to have completed this. It's only 3:47, I still have and hour of work, but I figure that the boss won't mind if I mess around for the last few hours of my life.
I had gotten past the firewall a couple of months ago and downloaded a game that Kory had told me about. "Minecraft" it said when I pulled it up. I built a little summer house by the ocean, then proceeded to create a giant cannon to blow it up. After it was all done and finished. I looked at the clock, 4:58 it read.
"Time to go!" Kory said happily
"No, not yet, but soon." I thought to myself.


As I walked towards the elevator I started to feel a little shaky. As we rode down I very slowly got worse. By the time I got home I could barely walk. My forehead and palms were sweaty and my vision was blurring.
"This is it." I thought "Now I die."
As I laid down I could faintly hear Elle coming into the room and start crying.
"I love you." I croaked out, barely audible.
"I love you too." She replied.

Then there was nothingness, I am floating in a world not black or white or even colored at all, it was just nothing. Nothing to hear, nothing to touch, nothing to see. This is the part I hate the most, the nothingness consumes you. If I could sense anything I would have gone insane, but then it all ended. Everything faded (if you could say that) into darkness, everything but a tiny speck of light. As I watched it grew, painstakingly slowly, but it grew. By the time it looked the size of a quarter I could hear, I could feel, and though I could see before, now my vision was sharper. As the light grew to the edges of my vision I began to breath.

Then I opened my eyes to the bright new world.

I am alive again.

But something isn't right.

I look down to see what's wrong. As my body slowly comes into view, my heart jumps.



I have paws.