The Game of Life

The Game of Life

“General, Eli Carter is on his deathbed. He is about to close his eyes.”

“Perfect, go calculate his scores and bring his life on the monitor.”

***

Surrounded by my parents, I look into their eyes. I have the same tearing, green eyes as my mother, and dark hair as my dad. I’m going miss them so. Sunk into my floral chair, I think of my life. I didn’t do much with it, though I’ve had plenty of challenges, and now it is over. I cry, and drift into my last, eternal sleep.

***

“Welcome back, Mr. Carter,” a velvety voice whispers. “It’s time to review. Please, will you come with me?”

Blinking rapidly, I sit up. Am I in heaven? Around me I see many people, thousands, all asleep. Do you sleep in heaven? Bringing myself to my feet, I look around; everything is white, the beds, our clothes, and the walls, as if I were on a cloud. Yet the woman escorting me is in a long, flowing sky blue dress, as if she were Mother Nature.

Entering a room, I am taken to a large, wooden chair placed in the center of the space. I feel like I am going to electrocuted. Where am I? The lights dim, and a movie screen brightens reading, The Life of Eli David Carter. What is this?

The picture changes, here it shows my toddler years. My gorgeous wall art, my tear and snot covered tantrum face. Holding my mother’s leg on the first day of kindergarten.

The video goes on, showing my entire life, very quickly. Graduation, college, my first job as an accountant, everything.

Closing my eyes, I lean back. What the heck is this?

“This, my friend, is the end of the game,” declared a dark, mysterious figure, dressed in black. The man where’s a light colored, bandit like mustache, though it looks like he hasn’t shaved in awhile. He intimidates me, but I look him in his cold, electric blue eyes. “And I am the general. Welcome back to earth, Eli Carter.”

“Game? Earth? I just died, where am I?” I exclaim, more confused than I was before.

“Your life, Mr. Carter, was a game. You were asleep; your life was a monitored dream. It is quite fun,” the General talks so breathy, looking at me like he has just kicked me in the head and was wondering why I’m angry.

“What are you saying?” I stand up from the chair, and stand by him on the feathery, white carpet.

“What does it sound like? Your life was a game; you were never actually living through that. We set up how you would die, and then we watched the path you took to get there. It is quite entertaining. But now, Eli Carter, I ask you the question we are here to answer: Do you think you win or lose?”

I’m taken aback; does it really have to be this type of game? I don’t think I lost, but I also don’t think I won either. “Um… win I guess. I mean I lived – played - a full life right?”

He looks at me disappointed. “You did live a full life, eighty-two years, nice. But you were never married, no children, and an accountant, really? What part of that sounds like winning? No part I can hear.”

What? “Are you telling me that I lost, because I didn’t live my life as entertaining as you thought I should have? That’s horrible.”

“It’s not that you didn’t live it entertainingly, you didn’t, but you didn’t get as many thrill points as you should have. It was boring. We even tried to spice it up a little bit, throw in some diseased loved ones, we even added a girl. Remember Audrey Samson? Yeah, you totally blew that one,” he laughed. Is this really funny to him, looking down upon all my failed girl moments, and the rest of mylife.

I just shake my head, and look up to smile at the General. “Who do you think you are?”

“Well, I guess you could say that I’m a wizard, or warlock, overlord. But most people call me General.”

“No, no. Not that. I mean, what makes you think that you can just tell us how much of a fail our lives were. Look at yourself; you’re just lying around monitoring other’s lives instead of living your own.”

“I’m sorry that you don’t like the fact that you’ve lost, but you can’t change your life now that you’ve already died. Against the rules, sorry.” He doesn’t care. The General just glances at me as if I were some broken chair, useless.

“I don’t want to change my life. It’s perfect, flawless even. I lived it the way I wanted to, safe. You threw at me all of the struggles I’ve ever faced. I took it head on, and it was hard. Some parts were incredibly painful, but I did it.

“I played your game. And I won.”

He chuckles again, and I feel the anger rushing threw my veins. “I like the self faith thing, kid. But sorry, you lost. I think what will be best for you is to face that fact. Now that you’ve lost, we should probably put you in one of the lower ranking jobs. Sleeper’s Care, possibly. What do you think?” he changes the subject and goes back to script. Why do I have to be with such an obnoxious jerk? This is definitely not heaven.

“I don’t care, I just want to leave your presence, your bothering me.”

“Okay. Mary, will you please take him to the Sleeper’s Care for schooling?” I look at the women who brought me in; I wonder how she feels about the game.

I walk down the halls, feeling like a loser. But I know I’m a winner, and I intend on telling all of the other players they’re winners too.