Chapter 2-2
653 Words
"What was that all about, Lillian?" I asked as she hustled me off down a gold-cobblestoned path. "What's this war or revolution he was talking about?"
Lillian sighed and kept marching briskly away from the courtyard. "Nothing, Dad. Just a fantasy. Heaven's big on fantasy fulfillment, you know?"
"So that guy who got shot back there? He wasn't actually hurt? It just looked like he was?"
Again with the heavy sigh. "I already told you, Dad. Don't take things so literally here. What you see isn't always what you get."
Frustrated, I pushed ahead and faced her, walking backward. "I'm not a literalist, Lil. I make movies, for God's sake. I'm all about illusion." It's all I am, I could have added. "But I know when someone gets shot for real."
She raised a finger. "You think you know. You think." She jabbed me in the chest. "But isn't it remotely possible that you don't completely understand every nuance of Heaven after spending less than a day here?"
She had a point, not that I was about to admit it. "Do you mean to tell me Heaven's okay with violent fantasies? Staging a fatal shooting's just fine with the higher power?"
Suddenly, Lillian stopped in her tracks. "Mom was right, you know that?"
I stopped, too, and met her gaze. "Mom who? Right about what?"
"You're a giant pain in the ass," said Lillian. "That's what."
"I'm just trying to make sense of all this." I scratched the back of my head. "What's wrong with that?"
She planted her hands on her hips and shook her head slowly, looking deeply disappointed. "Just because you're here, Dad, doesn't mean you're the star of the movie."
I stared at her. I had a feeling we were getting off on the wrong foot, but I wasn't sure what I needed to do to fix that. "Listen." I looked down and scuffed a foot on the gold cobblestones. "I'm sorry. It's been kind of a crazy day."
When I looked up again, her expression had softened. "Tell me about it." She managed a little smile.
"Who knew going to Heaven could be so stressful?" I shrugged and laughed.
She laughed, too, but it didn't last. "I hate to tell you this." Now it was her turn to look down and scuff her foot. "But the stress isn't over."
"You're kidding." I frowned. "How could it get any more stressful?"
"There's a meeting, Dad. You need to be there."
I thought I wasn't the star of this movie, I wanted to say. "What kind of meeting, exactly?"
"An important one, Dad," said Lillian. "The most important meeting you'll ever have."
* * * *
So it turns out they have elevators in Heaven. Lillian and I rode a glass one into the highest levels of the dome.
At least, I'm happy to say, there wasn't any Muzak playing in the car.
The view as we climbed into the heights was spectacular. The domed area was even more vast than I'd thought from below, as in acres and acres. Sections of it were open to the outside--wedges that started as points a few stories up and widened out at ground level--which I realized was how the sea air had gotten inside. Until then, I guess I'd figured it was some kind of miracle.
The ocean itself was visible through the layers of stained glass windows. Though I supposed it was probably more like a metaphor for the ocean in this goofy place.
"How much further?" I asked Lillian as we kept rising past the billowy clouds near the apex.
Just then, two angels--one male, one female, both blond--glided over and waved at us. Smiling, they followed the car upward for a moment, saying things we couldn't hear to each other. Then, laughing, they flapped away from us, swooping off into a fluffy bank of cloud.
"All the way, Dad," said Lillian. "Straight to the top."
I frowned and watched the angels flap their wings. Lillian sounded tense, which made me nervous. What was there to be tense about in Heaven?
And what had she meant about the most important meeting I'd ever have?
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