Young Writers Society

The last thing you remembered in life was a bright white light.

And then you woke up in bed, in a house perfectly suited to your wants and needs, now a citizen of an idyllic small town.

Everyone is so happy that you're here. They've been waiting for you.

It doesn't take long for you to realize that you died.

As wonderful as it is to be here, you're still attached to the life you had before.

At first, there was pain unlike any that Esther had ever known. The slope of the cliff wasn't steep enough to kill her instantly. Her car finally stopped when it collided with a tree, crumpling it like a piece of aluminum.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, clinging to whatever last bit of life she had. The cliff she'd chosen was remote enough that no one would find her for hours. She should have just gotten out of her car and jumped. She was tired of the pain, tired of life and ready for the peace of nonexistence.

There was a burst of cold November air from the window she'd left cracked open, and then nothing.

The white light was blinding, and it seemed to last for ages.

And then there was the chirping of birds. She woke in the comfortable bed she'd ever slept in.

That was how Esther came to be in the town. She still wasn't sure she'd gotten quite used to it when her neighbor moved in. It felt like it had been a few weeks,
but the others had told her that you forgot about time after a while.

Apparently, her neighbor was her age. Of course, this would make all the old people sad, but she was looking forward to meeting someone who wasn't seventy year old.

She was in her garden that morning when she saw the girl, looking as lost and confused as she'd been on her first morning.

"Hi," she said, getting the girl's attention. "I'm Esther."

Jessica didn't even get the chance to scream. It all happened so fast. One minute, they were driving peacefully and then she was being flung into the seat in front of her as the car screeched to a halt, drifting as the tyres fought for traction with the slippery road. The car flew to the side like a toy being tossed around by a toddler. An orange blob. A sharp searing pain in her side. And then, nothing.

It gave way to a blinding white light. And then she woke up in a bed. At first, she thought she was lying in a hospital bed and didn't try to get up.

It was only when she started to realize that there was nothing around here to indicate that she was in anything that was remotely like a hospital and on top of that, the whole place had a calming feel to it. It was almost like the kind of atmosphere you expect in a small sleepy town, not the emergency ward.

She'd wandered around that day mostly in a daze as she took in her new surroundings and it didn't take her all that long to come to a conclusion about where she currently was. She was...dead.

The next day, she felt brave enough to venture out of the little house that she'd woken up in and found herself in a garden.

She'd been wondering around for a few minutes, trying to make sense of everything she was seeing when someone spoke up from nearby. It sounded like it was from the neighboring garden.

She turned to see someone that looked to be around her age introduce herself as Esther. Perhaps she could help her figure out what exactly was going on.

"Hii," said Jessica, smiling at the girl,"I'm Jessica. Nice to meet you. "

The girl, Jessica, had a lost, confused look on her face, the same one Esther herself had when she first woke up in this town. She hadn't thought there was anything after death, but had quickly realized that she was wrong. Still, she wasn't sure how Jessica had ended up here, and that sort of realization was best achieved on one's own.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Esther asked, setting aside the lilac seeds she'd come out to plant. That was the nice thing about the afterlife. You could plant whatever you wanted, when you wanted, and it would always grow quickly and perfectly.

"Mostly just having having no idea where I am," said Jessica,"I think I wandered around for quite a bit yesterday not really processing what was happening until I noticed one too many odd details about that house. I'm...I'm. Oh this feels so weird to say out loud but..I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are, and so is everyone else here," said Esther. "As for where, I'm still figuring that out. This town seems too small to accommodate everyone who's ever died."

Esther took a deep breath, resolving that she'd have to garden later. "I can show you around, if you like. It's actually... pretty nice."

"I am," said Jessica, mostly to herself. It was one thing for her to come to that conclusion but to have it confirmed made it a sit a little differently in her heart. She was never going to see Daph again, or Susie, or...anyone. It felt like a flood of memories was just waiting around the corner, waiting to overwhelm her.

She heard the other girl offer to give her a tour of the place. Perhaps that would be good for her. If she went inside now and let the memories flow, she knew she wasn't going to handle it very well. A distraction like that would be a good idea.

"I'd like that...thank you," she said.

Esther gestured to her garden.

"I was going to come out here to plant some lilacs, but I can do that when we get back," she told Jessica. "I want to start growing some fruits and vegetables. That's one thing..."

She trailed off for a moment, remembering the confusion of her first few days here, when no one was around to explain things to her.

They started the short walk down a dirt path. It was a perfect sunny day without a cloud in the sky. Of course, every day was like that here. But she thought to not tell Jessica, not yet, not in case she liked the rain or temperatures other than 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

"You'd think, because we're dead, that we wouldn't need food," Esther explained. "But it's the opposite. You can have whatever you want, whenever, and never feel bad."

It wasn't long before they reached the town square, something that could been apart of Main Street USA in Disneyland.

There was a gazebo. Cobblestone pathways. Not too many people were out and about.

"Everyone walks, for the most part, but there's a cable car if you live a little farther away, or want to go down to the lake. There's places to eat, places to get new clothes... of course, none of it costs anything. You just take what you need."

That was when Esther remembered. There would be a celebration in the town square tonight as there was whenever there was a new arrival in town. She remembered hers, and how all the old people tried poorly to hide their pity. She told Jessica this. "There aren't that many people here, so everyone will want to meet you. But... as you can guess, most people here are senior citizens. They don't do well with people our age."
lol
That was she realized she'd talked up a storm, and wanted to give Jessica a chance to say something.

Jessica followed Esther down a dirt path, listening intently to every word that she said. It was fascinating to see the possibilities that this place had. Everything seemed like it was designed to be easy and focused on making its inhabitants live life in peace. It was almost enough to distract her from the thoughts of her family. Almost. Despite her best attempts to pay full attention to Esther and take in the area, those thoughts remained in the back of her mind, slowly creeping to the forefront until something Esther said managed to override that.

She was apparently going to be getting some sort of celebration later that day to welcome.

"Yeah," said Jessica, nodding as Esther went on about how the senior citizens that made up the majority of this town's population would react to her being as young as she was. "I can imagine how that might be."

She didn't particularly feel like imagining how that would turn out so she decided to change the subject a bit as she asked,"So, Esther, how uhh...how long have you lived here?"

“I haven’t kept track of time in a while,” Esther said. “The weeks, months, those don’t really exist here. But if I had to guess maybe a few weeks.”

She led Jessica into the gazebo, and knelt over the railing. Esther didn't have to explain why she'd led her here, because it was immediately evident that you had a panoramic view of the town. There was a bookstore. A clothing store. A few restaurants. A general store and grocery. All of it was homey and styled in the same early 1900s style as the rest of the town.

"This is pretty much it. Like I said there's a lake, there's a sports center down the street if you like stuff like that. Your celebration tonight will be here."

Not many people were out, but she did see Mike heading towards them. Mike was handsome for an older man. He had salt and pepper hair and always well dressed. He'd been about fifty, had a wife and a daughter, and had put a bullet in his mouth when times had gotten hard. He lived on the other side of town, and had been one of Esther's true friends here.

"Good morning, Esther," Mike said. "I was just out for my morning walk. Thought I'd sit for a minute."

"Morning," Esther said.

Then, he noticed Jessica. "Who's your friend?"

"Jessica. She's new here."

"New," Mike repeated. "Welcome." Then, he smiled at the girls and stood up. "Enjoy the tour. I suppose I'll see you tonight." He left in the direction he came.

"So," Esther said to Jessica. "Can I ask... how it happened, for you?"

"Thank you," said Jessica, nodding towards Mike as he stood up and left. He'd seemed nice enough. If everyone else here was as friendly as Esther and Mike had been, things would perhaps go well after all.

And then Esther asked her how she died. The memories she'd been suppressing all this time came back full force and she couldn't stop them. Jessica tried to maintain a smile on her face, tried to not think too far about the fate of everyone else in that car.

Jessica didn't know whether she wanted to answer that question. On one hand she wanted to avoid thinking about it, but then it was much too late for that. Maybe telling someone would help make things feel better.

"Uhh...sure," she managed. "I...uhh...I don't remember too much. Its all a bit fuzzy. It happened so fast. It was a car crash. I remember things being very normal, then all of a sudden I'm being tossed around, there's this orange blob and pain. Then it was just this blinding white light."

Esther could have heard her stomach drop when Jessica said she'd died in a car crash. From the sound of it, it hadn't been intentional. She wondered what exactly had happened.

And yet, nothing could stop her as she said, "I died in a car crash too. Only... I stayed alive for a while after. That was the worst part."

"Ohh..." was all Jessica managed to say. She didn't know how to respond to that. The few seconds before she died had been some of the worst pain she'd ever felt. She couldn't begin to imagine how it might have felt if she'd had to deal with that for a prolonged period. "That must've been horrible."

Esther nodded.

"That's all right," she said nonchalantly. "I'm here now, and everything is better. Life... wasn't easy for me. This place has everything we could ever want."

Still, there was a curtness to her voice, something that she couldn't help. Because she wasn't telling Jessica the full truth. She was starting to miss her life. And she was keeping a secret too, about the Outpost. Just down the road, the Outpost was where you could go to watch your loved ones who were still alive. It was only a matter of time before she found out about it.

"That's good," said Jessica, going for a small smile. "So what do we do next?"