Fantastical Ramblings Read Online Free PDF Page B

tripped him
with it. Death dropped to his knees. His cloak fell away revealing a red woolen
suit, the same cut as woman’s. Same blouse. Same scarf around the neck. His
skeleton took on flesh but remained pasty white.
    “Who are you?” The woman rolled to her left, away from the
collapsing body of Death. She stood up in one fluid motion with the staff in
hand, as if her leg hadn’t been broken a moment ago. Her shoulders hunched and
she aged a thousand years in a moment.
    “There is something I have to do before midnight.” Death’s
voice remained deep and solemn, echoing and reverberating around the alley. Which
one would die? His right leg twisted unnaturally beneath him.
    The muggers came back to life.
    A mighty roar rose from Times Square. “ 10 .”
    Three shots rang out in rapid succession.
    “9.”
    The muggers turned and bolted from the alley.
    “What do you have to do? There isn’t much time.” Shock made
the standing woman’s words weak and squeaky. She bent low to catch Death’s
words, feeling for a pulse, trying to stop the flow of blood from his chest. She
didn’t have enough hands, or medical knowledge to save him/her.
    “ 8 .”
    Death grabbed her lapel and pulled her closer yet. His
claw-like hands seemed incredibly strong for someone who’d just been shot in
the belly, the heart, and the lung.
    “ 7 .”
    “Tell me what you have to do. I can help,” she cried.
    “There is a way for you to survive this encounter.”
    “6.”
    “I have survived, you’re the one who is dying.”
    “One of us must die at the stroke of midnight. You have
taken the choice away from me. The only way to cheat death is to become Death.”
He repeated the words spoken to him a year ago. A lifetime ago.
    Everyone was fated to die. The choice of when fell to only a
few.
    “5.”
    “Become Death? You mean I’ll die too. Who are you?”
    “4.”
    “I am your destiny, your fate. Life or Death. You must
choose. As I chose a year ago. I loved life too much to give it up. I still do.
But I no longer have the right to make that choice.” Choice and change belonged
to the living. Everyone had to die. Fate determined when and where. No choice.
    Except for the last death of the year.
    “3.”
    “If it means living, I’ll become Death, I’ll become Santa
Claus or whoever it takes. Just so I can live. I decided not to kill myself
over my husband’s infidelity and a mangled career because I realized that life
is too beautiful to waste.”
    “I thought the same thing last year at this time.” A fiery
car crash, pain beyond enduring, and still he had clung to life rather than let
Death take him. “And now I know that all Life is beautiful. If one of us does
not die then time will cease, taking all Life with it. Life must be preserved.”
    “2.”
    “Then why must I become Death? I’d rather be alive.”
    “Death, like change, is a part of life. If Death does not
walk the streets then all Life will cease. The choice is yours.”
    “What is that supposed to mean.”
    “You’ll find out.”
    “One! Yeah! Whoopee. Yahoo!”
    The body of a young man, who had refused to die in a car
crash the year before, took on the last vestiges of the woman wearing a red
suit. He/she collapsed in the alley. The last page of the old appointment book
dissolved.
    A skeletally thin, old hag, dressed in tattered red and
black draperies, with eyes that burned clear through to eternity stood up and
retrieved Death’s cloak, without dropping the staff. All memory of her life,
her decision to live, her wrestling match with Death, faded. She was Death now,
with duties to perform.
    From the folds of black cloth fell an enormous book bound in
black leather. The gold calligraphy on the front was fresh and new, spelling
out one word.
    “Appointments.”
    “Let’s see. Victims of an automobile accident. Mercy
hospital,” the old hag cackled. “Five passengers. Three drivers. Four of the
eight need an escort in two minutes. A musician