After Life: A Short Story

Ella is having a very bad day. One moment she’s hurt, lying on the ground on the side of the road in the rain, and the next she’s in a sunlit valley filled with flowers. That’s not the bad part. Ella finds she’s not alone; there’s a very pleasant, mild-mannered man sitting under a tree nearby, happily keeping her company. That’s not the bad part either. The bad part is this very pleasant, mild-mannered man sitting under a tree tells he she’s dead.

Ella starts to recall details of a car crash, but she can’t possibly be dead...can she? If she is—and that’s a very big if, because to believe it would be way too creepy—does it really matter? After all, Ella’s life so far, all thirty-three and two-thirds years of it, has been extremely uneventful. Downright lackluster, if she’s going to be honest with herself. There’s been nothing worth living for, not really. Except...except for Gabe. The guy who adored her, called her angel, made her life brighter. The guy she let get away.

But Ella can’t think about Gabe now. She has this unexpected life/death thing to contend with, and the very pleasant man seems to be there to help her through it. What happens after life? Ella is about to find out.