Most people are confused when they first arrive at the Theater of Life. Ana Price was no exception. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to be in a movie theater. Last that she remembered she was in her plane. She was patrolling the skies of northern Scotland, an average night for her. The plane slowed down and she could feel the engine sputtering. She looked into the small mirror in the cockpit to try and see what was wrong with the engine. And what a problem there was. Half of the engine was engulfed in flame. Every red light that was on her control panel started flashing and beeping ridiculously loud. “As if I can’t tell that everything’s going wrong” She thought over and over again. She was falling through the sky nose first.  The last thing she remembered was holding her arms up in defense and flying into the ground. All of a sudden, she appeared in front of the board that held the times of the shows. Ana looked down, she was still wearing her flight suit that she was wore when she was in her plane. “Where is my plane?” She thought. She took a look around, there were no exits in sight.

     The whole place reminded her of a movie theater back at her home in Scotland.

     Ana took a look at the board, they weren’t showing movies. There were names. She didn’t recognize any of them except for one.

Ana Price-26 years Theater 4

     Her stomach immediately dropped. She walked towards the long hallway to her right and looked around for someone, anyone, to tell her what was going on. Instead of finding people, she found the theaters. And there it was, theater 4.

     Ana walked hesitantly towards it. She looked through the small window, but all she saw was darkness. She pressed her ear against the door to see if she could hear anything. All she heard was a lot of talking. Curiosity took over as she slowly opened the door to see that the lights were on in the theater. Ana took careful steps forward going inside. She was hiding behind a wall that kept her from the sight of the audience.

     When Ana came into view, she was met with cheers and applause. She took a few steps back in surprise.
“What’s going on? Who are you?” She asked, panic clear in her voice. There were a few laughs from the audience.

“You my friend,” said a man who stood up from the audience after the cheers had died down. “Have entered the Theater of Life.” When Ana looked closer, she saw that he wore the armor of a Roman soldier.

“Theater of Life? What does that mean? What is this place?” Ana asked quickly.

“It is a place where the souls of the dead go to see how their future lives turn out.” said an older woman wearing a crown. “We just finished watching your life a few minutes ago.”

“Future lives?” Ana asked.

“Yes. That would make us your past lives. Although the physical body dies, the soul moves on.” Said a woman wearing a hijab. Ana held her hands up in attempt for them to let her gain a grip of herself.

“Hold on,” she said, pointing at the audience. “So all of you are my past lives.” There were nods of agreement.
     Ana didn’t know what to say. She just stood there in shock until the woman with the crown had stood up and lead Ana over to a seat next to her.

“You lead a very fascinating life, my dear. It’s such a shame that you had died so young. I was hoping that you and that David boy would end up with each other.”

“Forget David, you were a pilot! How cool is that! And you always did say that you wanted to die in blaze of glory. I will say, I wasn’t quite expecting that to follow through,” exclaimed a young boy sitting in the row in front of her. He turned around in his seat to get a better view of her.

“Yeah,” Ana said. “me neither.”

“You fought valiantly nonetheless,” said the man sitting next to her. He was wearing a full suit of  knight’s armor.

“So, you saw my entire life play out.”

“In movie form! Actually, I think that you just might be my favorite reincarnation,” said the boy from before.  After listening a bit more closely, Ana realized that the boy had a British accent.

“What part of England were you from?” She asked.

“London in the 1850’s. I’m also the youngest one here.”

      Ana looked around, he was right.

“Why are you the youngest?” Ana asked.

“I got all torn up by a machine in the factory that I worked at.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Eh, it’s all right. Oh, by the way, you should probably know that there’s going to be an epilogue for your life. It’s a way to make sure that the souls are at peace.”

      Almost as if on cue, the theater lights dimmed.

     A picture appeared on the screen of her mother being met by two soldiers in dress uniform at her front door. Ana wasn’t sure if she wanted to see them break the news. She knew the two soldiers that met with her mother. It was Faith, her wingman and David, her mechanic. Ana couldn’t hear what was going on but she could tell. Her mother took a few steps back, shaking her head in disbelief. Faith and David gave each other a solemn look, this wasn’t easy for them to do. After a few moments, her mother almost collapsed, but she caught herself on the railing of the staircase to the second floor. Her entire body was shaking with sobs.
     Ana’s little brother Oscar appeared from his room on the second floor, curious as to what the commotion was. He came down the stairs, still not sure what the sounds were coming from the entrance, but the second he saw Faith and David, everything clicked. His eyes filled with tears as he ran back into his room. Faith went forward and gave her mother a much needed hug. Ana’s mother was sobbing into Faith’s shoulder, who she herself was having trouble holding it together. If her mother couldn’t be strong, Faith would be for her. And of course her father wasn’t home. Ana and her father were both sent off to fight a few days apart from each other. Her father was always the one to calm everyone down when something bad happened at home.  David walked into the house and placed one of her dress uniforms on the coffee table. 

    The scene cut to a graveyard on a warm sunny day. Everyone there was dressed in black or the blue-gray of the Royal Air Force uniform. Her coffin was covered with the Union Jack, as per the custom. The scene then cut again to Faith, David, Oscar and her mother and father sitting next to the pile of multicolored roses that covered her grave. Ana was glad that her father was allowed to go to her funeral. Everyone else had already left.  Ana had never seen them all so distraught. She could hear them this time. Faith and David started telling stories about Ana and all the antics that the three of them would get up to back at base. To Ana’s disapproval, they told her parents about all the stupidly dangerous things that she had done. At least it was clearly making them all feel better. The scene faded to black with the sounds of their laughter.

     There was sadness behind it, but at least it was laughter. That was all that Ana could ask for.

The scene faded out and the woman with the crown had to push Ana back by her shoulder. She didn’t realize that she was sitting on the edge of the seat. The tears streaming down her cheeks escaped her notice as well. She leaned back with a sigh as a man wearing medieval armor handed her a small cloth to wipe her eyes with. Ana had never wanted to make anybody upset.   

           
     She knew that her friends and family would miss her, but she never thought that she would see it for herself. Although Ana was upset about causing so much pain to the people closest to her, they knew that Ana had loved them.

And although they weren’t doing good, they would be okay.

“Well, I can’t quite say I was expecting that.” Ana said as she tried to pull herself together.

“For what it’s worth, you took it much better than most people do.” Said the knight sitting next to her. “Some scream, try to escape, and just cause a big unnecessary scene.”

“Next life should be starting soon.” The boy said. The lights didn’t even turn back on and a name in white appeared on the screen.

Rose Elena Yuri

And with that, the circle of life pushes forward.