Chapter Six

Death is a process, not an event, despite medical and legal imperatives to give it a date and hour. – James W. Green.

Chapter Six

Late on Saturday night, James was once more running tests to confirm that the new drug really did everything he thought it did. He had a sneaking fear in the back of his mind that not only were the findings entirely wrong, but if he didn’t recheck them now, they’d be proven wrong in a most humiliating way.

He watched through a microscope as the drug destroyed the abnormal cells in a blood sample from a leukemia patient. Remarkably, the only blood cells affected were the abnormal white cells. It was very possible that a leukemia patient might just need to take this drug for a week and pee a lot, and they’d be clear of the cancer.

And, if the patient was a man, he wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally knocking up his girlfriend that week. Finally, cancer treatment could be fun!

Now all he had to do was survive the meeting with the investors on Monday morning, and he’d be on the way to easy street.

#

Death stepped back into our world after delivering a soul (a lovely old man who had passed quietly in his sleep). She had exactly enough time to look around and realize there was a taco shop directly across the street when her phone beeped at her. Another death.

She took her phone out of her cloak, trying to ignore the wonderful smell of spicy meat and peppers coming from the restaurant, and looked to see where she was going.

The display showed: James King (ah, clever parents, how cute, she thought), 62987 Industry Road, Suite 212, Los Angeles, Laboratory.

#

James finished his last tests, and was convinced he had a product that would make the world a better place, as well as having the potential to make his company wildly successful and rich.

He gathered up the glassware he had used, as well as some that the techs had left out on Friday, and brought it all to the sink to clean. He put the hardware he had used back in its proper place and set about sweeping the lab.

As he swept, he noticed a jar of sodium sitting on one of the counters. I’m going to have to talk to the techs about putting things away before they leave for the day, he thought, and picked up the jar and moved it the end of the counter, closest to the door leading to the chemical cabinet.

He put the broom away and set about cleaning the glassware. He was brushing out a graduated cylinder full of water when he lost his grip on the glass. The cylinder dropped to the floor, and shattered, spilling nearly four hundred and thirty three cubic centiliters of water.

“Shit!” James said, and hurried to grab a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess.

If he’d been looking with the right kind of eyes, he would have noticed an incredibly thin woman in a black cloak standing in a corner on the far side of the lab, holding a stopwatch and making notes on her clipboard. However, being mortal, he did not see her.

In his haste to stop the spreading water, he knocked the jar of sodium on to the floor. It also broke, and the sodium mixed with the water.

If you’ve never witnessed pure sodium mixing with water, the violence of the reaction would surely impress you.

Suddenly, James had more to worry about than a water mess. The lab was on fire! All of this would have been OK, except as he grabbed the fire extiguisher, he bumped into a rather large bottle of benzene one of the techs had left out. It spilled down his clothes and across the floor, where it met the reaction occuring between the water and sodium.

Suddenly, James himself was on fire, along with the rest of the lab. Within seconds the entire room was engulfed in flames. The halon system kicked on in time to save the rest of the building, but the lab was utterly destroyed.

As was James.

James stood next to his charred body, and looked aroud at the wreckage of his lab.

“Well, damn it,” he said.

A calm, compassionate, female voice said, “Hello James King. Would you come with me, please?”

“Who are you?”

“I am Death.”

“Damn it.”

“Would you come with me, James?”

“No, hang on. Hang on, there’s got to be something we can do about this. I can’t die now. Things were finally starting to turn around!” James said.

“I’m sorry James, it was your time.”

“My time? It wasn’t my time! It’s not supposed to be my time until I’m old and gray and can’t walk faster than two city blocks per hour. Not now.”

“I’m sorry James. Will you come with me?”

“Absolutely not. I’m not giving up that easily. There has to be something we can work out.”

“James, you’re dead. You need to move on from this world now. The next life awaits you.”

“Screw it. I wasn’t done with this one yet.”

Death took a deep breath. Yes, she was compassionate. Yes, she was gentle. She was not, however, especially patient lately. She counted to ten and tried once more.

“James, walk with me, won’t you?”

“Nope. I think I’ll hang out here a while longer. I don’t have anything else to do, apparently. Want to go grab some dinner?”

Death was momentarily stunned, and then realized that he didn’t know how long it had been since she’d eaten and furthermore, he was dead and would not be joining her for dinner. Her left eye twitched a little bit.

“Look, buddy, you will be coming with me. I can drag you kicking and screaming if you prefer, but either way you are not staying here. So, once more, will you walk with me?”

James looked at Death with utter despair.

“Look, I can’t die now. This is my great work, right here. This is the only amazing thing I’ve ever done. This is the best time I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ve finally met a woman who seems as though she might actually like me. My research will save millions of lives. I have to see this through. Haven’t you had a great work you wanted to see complete? Have you ever really wanted to finish doing something, only to be interrupted? Give me a chance to finish, at least.”

Death considered this for a moment. She had, indeed, been interrupted during the course of her work. Many, many times. Usually right before eating.

She looked at James, took a breath, and said, “OK.”

James’s heart, if he’d actually had a physical heart at the moment, leapt into his through. “OK?”

“OK. You get one week to finish your work here. And then, you die.”

“Only a week?”

James could have sworn he saw flames dancing behind Death’s eyes.

“One. Week. And then, you will come with me. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Uh, yes. Yes!” James said. He began to get very excited indeed. So much to do. He was going to make the next week the greatest week he’d ever lived.

“Fine. I’ll see you in seven days exactly.”

“Thank you!” James said. Suddenly, he noticed that he was no longer standing next to his body. He was actually in it. He’d never noticed what having a pulse actually felt like before, but he certainly felt it now. It was hot, and he could feel each rush of blood as his heart pumped.

Then he noticed that the lab was completely back in order. It didn’t even smell like smoke.

“Thank you! Thank you very much!” he shouted to the empty room.

#

Several hundred miles away, at one of the last remaining hippie communes, Death was waiting for a long time radical activist to breathe his last. There had been plenty of things she’d tried doing, only to be interrupted.

Of course, it’s very hard to complete anything when you’ve got another soul to go and collect every five minutes or less. She’d never even successfully solved a Rubik’s Cube.

No matter, she thought. I was put here to serve my purpose, and everything else is tangential to that.

It had been a very, very long time since she’d given anyone as hopelessly dead as James King a second chance. It’s one thing for someone’s heart to stop for a couple minutes during a surgery. It’s quite another to restore a charred corpse to it’s former self.

She hoped he’d make good use of the time she’d given him. The last person, a king, had squandered her gift, living a life just as thoughtless and callow as he’d been the first time around. After that, she’d resolved not to given any more second chances.

This guy, though, seemed like he might actually do something worthwhile with his time. He might actually make the world a better place. It was that possibility that made her decide to give him a week extra, not his questions about great works and interruptions.

At least, she thought that was why she did it.

Soon enough, the old hippie gave up the ghost. He seemed profoundly relieved to see Death waiting for him. He stood up straight and brushed himself off, then walked over to her.

“Hello, old friend,” he said with a smile “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Death smiled back at him and said, “I know. Will you walk with me?”

“It would be my great privilege and honor,” the hippie said. He took her hand, and the two of them walked away.