Purgo Inc.

"Thank you for contacting Purgo, where we keep memories alive! Your call is very important to us and your loved one. We are currently experiencing longer than average wait times. Please hold, or if you know your parties extension you may dial it at anytime."

Smooth jazz erupted after the automated message.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think I'm the one that is in hell," Logan removed his glasses and massaged his forehead with his fingers. When his father passed, he called every week after Mass. It was a fresh wound that was difficult to navigate for him then. They had done everything together, and after every Mass they had always gone back to his house to split a case of beer and watch sports. The weekly conversation made it seem like nothing had changed, at least for awhile. After six months, Logan felt like it had become a chore.

"Yes! Go!"

"What? What's happening son?"

"Bentworth passed deep down the sideline to Williams for a fifty four yard gain!"

"Didn't I tell you that Bentworth kid would be special?"

"No dad, you said he was a bum and would be flipping burgers after his rookie season." Logan rolled his eyes.

"I said that? Well, at any rate, I'm glad the boys are in good hands. So what formation are they running?"

"They've been switching between singleback, trips left, and two tight-"

"We're sorry, your call has been disconnected due to insufficient balance. If you would like to continue the call press one."

Logan swore and grit his teeth. He dialed one on the keypad and brought the phone back to his ear.

"To continue your conversation you must increase your balance. Would you like to do that now? You can say yes or no."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Would you like to increase your balance? You can say yes or no."

"Yes!"

"You have selected the option to increase your balance. Is this correct?"

"Oh for the love of, Pete, yes!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't catch that. You selected the option to increase your balance. Is this correct?"

The automated system was everything you would expect from a purgatory based business. Long lead times and excessive automated hurdles to jump through. It was a time consuming money pit. But Logan paid the bill and suffered in silence.

"What happened, Champ? What did I miss?" his dad answered.

"I don't even know, they scored another touchdown, but I didn't see it because I was trying to get through the automated system to reinstate the call with more funds." Logan's hands mimicked the loudness of his voice.

"Didn't I tell you, you should pay that before the call?"

"I did pay, dad, but they raised the rates again!"

Silence as thick as a forest in the tundra weighed between them. The television ambience of cheering fans and pompous game announcers was drowned out by the chasm the quiet had carved.

"How is your mother?"

"She's still going through chemo. The doctors say she has a good chance of beating it. They said they think they caught it early enough to prevent the spread and perform a surgery."

"That's good news at least. Postpone the long waiting room of Purgatory as long as you can."

"I'm sorry, dad."

"It's alright. I better get going. I gotta get back to waiting. Make sure you go to Confession, you hear?"

"Wait, dad, you don't have to-"

"I love you, kiddo."

"Dad-"

"Your call has been terminated. Thank you for being part of keeping memories alive! Please stay on the line to complete a brief-" Logan hung up with a frown. He dropped his phone on the table and sunk down into the couch. The pillows were softer and fluffier than they had any right to be. So he picked one up and looked at it. A scripted font that read, "Family," taunted him. The word pierced him with regret and woe. He screamed into the pillow, threw it across the room, and sat soaking the cushions with his tears.

Weekly calls turned to bi-weekly calls. Bi-weekly calls dwindled to holiday calls. Years had passed, and the calls that were once hours on end, were relegated to brief rebuffs like passing shadows.

"Thank you for contacting Purgo, where we keep memories alive! Your call is very important to us and your loved one. We are currently experiencing longer than average wait times. Please hold, or if you know your parties extension you may dial it at anytime." Familiar music danced about as the clock ticked first five, then ten minutes. Ten turned to twenty. Twenty bled to thirty. Logan clenched his teeth and tapped his foot with the intensity of a drummer.

"Good afternoon, we truly apologize for the wait. We're experiencing technical difficulties and not able to patch your call through to your loved one. We apologize for the inconvenience," a customer service agent answered.

"Technical difficulties? What on earth are you talking about."

"Well, it has little to do with earth at all, sir. It has more to do with the spiritual world."

"I'm still not following."

"It's our Arch Angel servers. We lost communication with them and have been unable to recover the stream of data that goes between the servers we have here and the ones we have there."

Logan rolled his eyes and sighed, "Okay, when will the servers be back up?"

"They've been down for a week and they were supposed to be back online yesterday."

"So you haven't any idea."

"No sir. I apologize for the inconvenience. I can assure you that we have our best software engineers on it in this life and the next."

"Alright, thank you." Logan resigned.

"You're welcome, is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Not unless you know how to get a message to my dad."

"I am truly sorry, but-"

"The servers are down, yes,” Logan waved a hand as if batting away the representatives politeness. “I heard that part. Will you notify people when the issue is resolved?"

"There is a plan in place to send out emails to our customers once the issue has been resolved."

"Great, thank you. That's all for now then."

"You're welcome. Thank you for calling-"

Logan hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket. He shook his head. The exorbitant cost of the Purgo membership and it's rapid inflation were points of contention for him. He ground his teeth at the simple failure of technology. For what he was paying, he felt that the servers should never go down. He went to his basement and collected the fall ornaments and occupied himself with decorating for the season.

Everyday hence, he checked his email for an update on the Purgo situation. There was nothing forthcoming in the days after he had discovered there was no communication between the servers. After a week, he called back but was met with a never-ending hold. He held on the line for hours, but had grown far too tired of hearing the automated message, "Your call is important to us, thank you for your patience. A representative will be with you as soon as one is made available."

Logan smashed the end call button on his phone, "Who's really in purgatory here?" he shouted. But there was no answer imminent from the empty rooms and barren halls of his abode.

Time extended for Logan because he fixated on what was vexing him. Every time he checked his email he ground his teeth and his chest burned. The fire of rage and impatience bloomed into an inferno that consumed him to the point that his email was refreshed every hour. He sat and seethed with dark thoughts that billowed about his head. Twisting shadows of judgement swirled in the dark recesses of his mind as he contemplated his next call. "I'm going to call them back and really give them a piece of my mind. If I can't get through, I'll ask for the supervisor. I'll go all the way to the damn CEO if I have to!" Logan schemed.

When he had concluded his business for the day, Logan dialed the number to Purgo.

"We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and dial again. If you think you have reached this message in error you may call the operator. Good bye." Logan dialed again and received the same message. He slowed down and dialed each number meticulously to ensure that he was getting the number correct. He again received the same message. He looked up the number online to see if it had changed. The number was the same but the hours of operation had been changed to "Permanently Closed."

"That can't be right." Logan typed furiously into the search engine. "What happened to Purgo?" he wrote. The results came back bleak.

"Purgo files bankruptcy," one headline read.

"Purgatory Blackout Causes Fortune 500 Company to Crash."

"Arch Angels Fall, Purgo Dies."

"Michael and Gabriel Plummet Purgo."

Logan swallowed and his eyes felt wet and heavy. He closed the computer and turned on the television. He flipped to a business news station.

"Wall Street is scrambling to recover after top company, Purgo folds overnight. The Dow Jones fell by one hundred points today as a result, sending shockwaves through seemingly unrelated industries."

Logan turned the television off. The water in his eyes was like a tempest burgeoning upon the creation of a flood "What was the last thing I said? What was the last thing he said? I may never talk to him again. I didn't get to say 'I love you.' I never got to say goodbye." The dam broke and the floodwaters spilled over.