Hourglass

I will start the story simply and I will end it simply. There will be a beginning, a middle and an end. It will all be simple.

"I thought you were dead." I said to the person in front of me. He was across the street, barely visible but I knew him all too well. He was my rival in high school, who died after a car crash. I knew he was dead.

"I am, and so are you." He said, matter-of-factly. There was no point in making words sweet, no point in mincing the truth.

"Is this the afterlife?" I said looking around. There was nothing much. I mean, there was a road, and across that road was a store. A store that sold hourglasses. The sky had broken out into a clear blue after the sunrise, with cotton-like clouds, wafting through the air. (I wasn't there to watch the sunrise, I was still alive then.) There was a cool wind blowing through my hair, making my nightgown sway around. I remember dying in a sweatshirt and some pants. How odd.

"No, this isn't the afterlife yet. I like to think of it as a preparation though. A very good preparation for what you seek." He said, smiling. Come to think of it, why was he wearing a uniform? Why did he look all dressed up, while I had turned up here in a nightgown?

"Why're you all dressed up? What's the occasion? Is my death special?" I said, in a teasing tone. I knew it wasn't special. I knew that I wasn't special. What was the harm in asking in a little teasing manner though?

He looked at me and laughed.

"First of all, I work here. I work in the hourglass store you see right here, and that's why I'm wearing a uniform. Second, All deaths are special, and each one should be properly conditioned for the afterlife. They should always say their proper goodbyes to their life, before indulging in a new one. That's what HE believes. That's what I believe."

"Who's HE?" I asked, my fingers nervously entwining with one another. I wasn't used to this.

"God."

"Okay then."

Silence ensued for a while before he invited me to cross the road and make my way to the store. I nodded and lay my bare feet on the road. How strange it was not wearing shoes, but I didn't question it. Honestly, it was less weird than everything else I was experiencing at the moment.

"How did I die?" I asked him, as I checked both sides before crossing the road.

"You went into a dangerous area on your way home. Then, boom, splat. You were shot. Someone mistook you for someone else."

"What do I do about my family? My friends? How will my cat live without me?"

"Ah, caring for others before yourself. That's some good stuff right there." He let out with a hearty chuckle. I frowned at his laughing. It wasn't funny. Not in the slightest. Before I could open my mouth though, he said something, much to my relief.

"Your friends know that you have a cat. Once they find out that you're dead, I'm sure Jaden will take her."

I remembered Jaden. A kind girl with the most beautiful blonde hair and grey eyes. She would be a great cat owner.

I lost myself in thought, and before I even realized, I had already finished crossing the surprisingly wide road.

"Come in, come in!" He said, extending his hand. When I refused to take it, I was forcibly pulled into the shop.

To say the shop was simple would be a lie. A very grave one. To me, it would have been so grave that God may have cast me to hell if I said it was a small and simple little shop.

It was huge. It was magnificent. I will not go into detail though, for I'd love to test your imagination.

I asked him a question. A simple one, but one that needed an answer.

"Why an hour glass shop? Why not something more meaningful?"

"Don't you think hourglasses are meaningful?" He asked, concern in his eyes.

"Not as much as other things. you could have a clock store, each with different designs, representing different people! It could stand instead of an hourglass store, selling well... hourglasses!" I said with a motion of my hands. He laughed for the second time that day. I was getting madder by the moment. How dare he think everything I said was for comedic value? After laughing, he continued.

"But clocks can be repaired when they're broken. Hourglasses cannot. Clocks can have parts made to repair them, hourglasses don't. Can't you see what makes it so special? Clocks keep running as long as they have the parts, while hourglasses, hourglasses can't run forever unless you turn them upside-down when they run out. Try it with that one." He said, pointing over to an hourglass with dark sand.

I tried flipping it over. It wouldn't budge. I gave up after one try. I knew that this was a trick. Just a trick to show me that these hourglasses can't be reversed.

"Time can't be reversed." He said as he walked past me and put an arm around me. "You can't turn your hourglass around once the sand has run out. It's just what God willed."

I opened my mouth to speak but was silenced when he spoke.

"You might want to know where yours is. Look for it. It will call out to you. It SHOULD call out to you."

I walked and walked, and he walked with me.

"What a waste of sand." I said, sighing. "Why couldn't you guys just use water or something? Isn't sand harder to acquire? Isn't sand harder to use?"

"I suppose. But! If you're willing to break an hourglass you'll find the answer to your question."

It was then I saw an hourglass that called out to me. It was a fairly simple one. It had a wooden rack to hold it by, and the sand had run out. I knew it was mine. Reaching out my hand to grab it, I held it, eyed it carefully, then put it back on the shelf. It was nothing special.

"What now?" I said asking the man. He was inspecting what seemed to be his own hourglass when he said without looking up from it, "Drop it on the floor."

Alright, simple. All I had to do was... wait.... WHAT?!

"You're telling me to drop the hourglass of my life?!"

"You're dead anyways, it wouldn't matter. Besides, your question about sand was the first I've gotten in a long time. 'Why use sand?' You said, so now, you find out."

I mindlessly dropped the hourglass, and began to sob uncontrollably when the deed was done.

"Why'd you make me do that?! You're terrible!" I said trying to pick up the shards with my fingers. Once I cleared out the visible ones, I tried to scoop up the sand.

The moment I did, oh boy. Oh boy. I saw my life flash before my eyes.

You know how they say that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die? Well, I should say it happened to me AFTER I died. Maybe it was only me, maybe I'd be the only one to do this, but I cried.

I sobbed.

Tears were falling down my cheeks.

He put a comforting arm on my back, and held me closer to himself.

"Every grain of sand holds a memory. Everyday, millions of grains drop. That's what makes your life so special, that's what makes everyone's life special. Different grains of sand, different colors of sand, different shades of it. Imagine! You are even a grain of sand in the hourglasses of other people. You just don't know it."

For a while I was silent.

"I know... nothing." I said with a chuckle.

"Yep." He replied.

"Once the sand in our hourglass runs out we can't flip it over. We can't repeat our lives. Sometimes, we're just a grain of sand to other people. Sometimes we're insignificant, sometimes we mean nothing. Oh, but sometimes we mean something. Sometimes we're one of the bigger grains of sand. Is that what makes life so special? We know nothing after all."

He didn't answer with any words, and was silent for a while. Opening a stopwatch conveniently stored in his pocket, he turned to me and smiled.

"I think you're ready for the afterlife. Admitting you know nothing, admitting that you are sometimes nothing in other's lives shows that you're prepared. Realizing that you are something though, in your life and other people's lives, that's what will get you to Heaven. Goodbye."

And with that I saw a flash of white light.

One hourglass, a whole different meaning.

One grain of sand, a memory.

One hourglass with sand, life.