Chapter 2
So now I find myself walking down the streets of Seattle alongside a Goddess of Heaven.
THE Heaven.
All the questions that come to mind. All the things you want to know.
What to ask first?
The meaning of the universe?
Why do we exsist?
What lays in the beyond?
Nope.
Hey! This is me we're talking about!
What do you think I asked?
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"Why did you choose me?"
"I told you." Sayoko replied as she and George walked down the street. "You're the closest to my age."
George frowned. "But you're a Goddess."
"Yeah, so?"
"Goddesses are like thousands of years old."
"I'm only forty." Sayoko said with a chuckle, "I was born a year or so after second impact. My Mom is a Goddess, Dad was a mortal."
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OK! Quick history review.
In the year 2000, about half the worlds population croaks when a metorite hit Antartica. Or at least that is what we were told. That continenet was obliterated, and the seas rose, flooding out most low-lying areas. That was Second Impact.
Then Tokyo got nuked and a few wars broke out.
The UN did eventually restore order.
Now I said that the story was a meterorite hit Antartica. Well, was eventually revealed to be a complete lie.
In actuallity, scientists discovered this huge white being in the ice. After a few tests, they called it an Angel, and then named it Adam. Apparently some ancient scrolls fortold this or something……..it's all acedemic and annoying.
Short story, the being got tired of the scientists poking it and poked back, wiping out Antartica and all the scientists.
There was only one survivor.
Well two if you count Adam.
This leads to the creation of the Evangelions, four hundred foot tall bio-robots to defend the Earth from these Angels. The Evas are piloted by fourteen year olds.
Why?
Who the fuck knows?
And in true Godzilla style, the Angels all attack Tokyo-3.
Go figure.
But that's a different story.
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George blinked. "Wow."
"Gets better," Sayoko added, "I was the fifth child, the pilot of Eva 4."
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The girl has it all doesn't she?
Goddesshood……..beauty……..eternal youth……..
And a four hundred foot tall Mecha.
Damn I'm jealous.
I want a four hundred foot tall Mecha.
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George's eyes went wide.
"An Eva pilot? Holy shit! I..…uhh…..I mean….."
Sayoko waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. I've heard worse."
"But you're a goddess," George said, "It just doesn't seem right to be swearing around you."
"Like I said, I've heard worse. Think of me as a new age Goddess."
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Told you she was new age.
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"Ok."
George and Sayoko walked in silence. Then the Reaper looked up.
"What's it like?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"Heaven." George said, "What's it like?"
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Ahh. One of the big questions is finally spoken.
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"Green," Sayoko said after a moment, "Lots and lots of green. Fields, forests, it's very lush with plant life. In the middle is the main city. It was divided up between the religions, but everyone mixes with everyone else now. In the center of the city is the main complex where most of the major offices and such are located. Also there is the building that houses the world computer."
George blinked. "A computer? The world is run by a computer?"
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Right now, some geek is reading this and wondering how fast the Processor is, how much memory it has, and how big of a hard drive do you need to run the universe..
And just to spite the geek, I won't tell you.
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"Yes."
"Damn." George muttered, "Go Bill Gates."
Sayoko narrowed her eyes.
"We do NOT use windows."
"Oh." George frowned, "Because that would explain why I got killed by that toilet seat."
Sayoko shook her head. "I didn't think you'd want to talk about it."
"Hey it was a lousy day." George replied, "I got a job that sucked filing, and then I got killed by the MIR toilet seat. Course then I got stuck with this job."
"We all have to do things we hate sometimes." Sayoko replied, "I was supposed to drive a married couple apart once."
"Supposed to?" George asked, "Why?"
"The guy married an alien."
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When she told me this, a few images came to mind.
The first was a guy, waving from his wedding photo next to THE Alien.
This ended with the thought of the first night together when she laid her eggs in his chest, and a few hours later, the offspring burst from his chest in a fountain of gore………..
Sadly, Sigourney Weaver didn't make a cameo in this vison.
The other image that came to mind was a female E.T.
Then I remembered that he never wore clothes……and well……..ick.
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"O.K." George muttered, "We have Goddesses AND aliens."
"You haven't heard the half of it."
"Tell me. We've got plenty of time till the Reap."
"Alright then. We have Demons too."
George stopped dead in her tracks.
"Demons?" she repeated, "You mean like Devils and imps with pitch forks, horns and red pointy tails?"
"Ah…." Sayoko replied, "No. No horns, no pitch forks, and no pointy tails."
"You mean they look like you and me?"
"Well…….yes. But they have red markings instead of blue."
George frowned.
"That sounds so……boring."
"Boring?" Sayoko gave George a curious look.
"I mean you don't have halos or the white robes like the Angels. And the Devils don't look like devils." George sighed, "Everything doesn't sound like it should! I mean, a computer runs the world?"
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Yeah, I was probabaly getting kinda whiny and all.
But dammit!
I wanted my Devil's with pitchforks!
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Sayoko stared at George a moment.
"The Demons have fangs." She stated bluntly.
George's face lit up.
"They do?"
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Ok, scratch what I said about the pitchforks.
Fangs will do.
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"So here's how it works." George began. She and Sayoko were now standing at a street corner. People were hurrying past them, either on their way to work, shopping, or doing who knew what.
"The Post-It gives as a last name and a first intial. We get a time and location for the appointment." George looked around. "Our job is to find the person, hopefully before their death."
"Why before?" Sayoko asked.
"Because then they feel no pain and look as they did before they died." George then cringed. "One of my first reaps I didn't make the appointment. In fact, I hid. Rube and Roxy found me and hualed me down to the city morgue. There they laid out all the facts, and then I reaped the guy. He got up with the autopsy cuts in place."
Sayoko's eyes widened.
"He saw the entire thing? His own autopsy? While inside?"
"Yeah."
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Not one of my better days.
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Sayoko shivered. "That's like something out of the Twilight Zone."
"I don't know if he recovered mentally." George whispered, "But I didn't miss any appointments after."
"Ok." The Goddess looked around. People continued to walk past her, mildly annoyed she'd stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "We're at the spot. Where is he?"
"We still have time." George replied, looking at the Post-It. "C. Moran at 11:21am. We have eight minutes."
Sayoko turned about looking around. George watched her for a moment, then grabbed her arm.
"Will you quit spinning." She growled, "You look very odd doing that."
"Well how are we supposed to find the person if we don't look!" Sayoko growled back.
"We'll know." Geroge replied, looking at her watch. "six minutes."
Sayoko looked around again. A sewer cleaning tank truck went by, slowing down as it aproached the red light. Other cars began to line up behind it.
"How do you think they'll go?" she asked.
"Dunno." George said, still staring at her watch. "Pianos, garbage trucks, train crashes, a milk dud, there are lots of ways to go."
"How about a cement truck?"
George looked up to see a cement truck speeding down the street towards a red light.
"That would do it." George looked down at her watch. "But we have four minutes still."
CRASH!!!!
George and Sayoko jumped as the cement truck plowed into the stopped vehilces. People screamed as cars were actually tossed into the air, some landing on other vehicles.
"Three minutes." George said.
Sayoko stared at George.
"It's not the crash?"
"It isn't always that obvious." George replied. "Two minutes."
"SON OF A BITCH!!"
Sayoko turned to see a guy climbing out of his car which had ended up on the overturned sewer cleaning tank truck.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM MAN?!?!" the man shouted at the cement truck driver.
Sayoko stared at the man a moment, then saw an odd grey creature opening the hatch to the tank truck.
"What is that?" Sayoko hissed.
"Graveling." George said softly. "One minute."
"Why I outgha….AHH!!" The man started across the tank truck's side, only to slip and fall into open hatch. There was a loud splash, followed by the hatch slamming closed. The graveling flipped the lock, then vanished.
The hatch shook violently as the man tried to get out.
"Ten……nine" George began to count, her eyes flicking between her watch and the toliet. "…….eight…..seven……six…….five…….four…..three…..two…….one."
The hatch stopped shaking and all was quiet.
Sayoko stared wide eyed at the tank.
"Is he….?"
She asked.
"Yep." George said with a sigh as she pulled out a latex glove. "He is."
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That's always the first question everyone asks.
'Is he dead?'
Even if the head is severed completely, heart laying on the ground, giant pool of blood around the body……… they always ask.
'Is he dead?'
And as a Goddess, Sayoko probably should have known better then to ask that.
But then again, she is part human as well.
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Sayoko turned her head as she heard the snap of the glove on George's wrist.
"What's with the glove?"
George pointed at the tank. "I still have to reap his soul."
"You're going to touch him?!?!" Sayoko said, "After he's been in ….that?!?!"
"What's it going to do to me?" George asked, "I'm already dead!"
"Well why do you have the glove then?!?!"
"Because blue toliet chemicals on your hand is hard to explain at work." George snapped back as she walked over to the tank truck. Other people were already prying the hatch open. George climbed up and joined them.
"Is he dead?" a woman called up.
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Is there an echo in here?"
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George stuck her gloved hand against the dead man's neck.
"No pulse." She called out. She then removed her hand, dragging her fingers along the neck slightly.
When she rejoined Sayoko, she was followed by the completely blue soul of the man.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You died." George replied as she pulled the latex glove off and tossed it into a trash can.
The man turned and looked back as his body was pulled from the tank truck.
"I'm dead?"
"Yep." George replied, "Come on Smurf boy."
The man nodded his head slightly as he followed George. Sayoko remained a moment, staring at the retreating form of the Reaper and the soul, then back at the crash scene. She then turned and ran after George.
Minutes later, they turned down an alley, where the soul of the dead man saw his path towards paradise. George watched in silence untill the light had vanished. Then she turned to Sayoko.
"And that is how we do a reap."
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She took it pretty well.
Kinda……
Ah hell…she was still in shock.
So we went to a bar.
Oddly enough, it was the same bar where Betty……..
……
The last and only bar I went to Betty with.
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George watched in amazment as Sayoko downed her third jagerbomb. The goddess set the glass back down on the bar and stared at it a moment. She then looked at the Reaper.
"How can you do it?" she asked, sounding still very sober.
"How can you take three jagerbombs?" George replied, "I'm tipsy after one."
"New Age Goddess." Sayoko replied, "Plus the Norse are notorious for consuming large amounts of alcohol."
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Remind me to tell you about the time Thor threw a kegger.
That man can throw one Hell of a party!
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"And you didn't answer my question." Sayoko pointed out.
George thought a moment.
"When I first became a Reaper, I didn't want to do it." She said softly. "That's probably where I got in the most trouble. I missed an appointment. Then got someone to miss their death. But that cuased a whole lot more problems." George swirled her drink a moment. "My first reap was a kid. Not even out of grade school." George turned towards Sayoko. "Maybe I should be asking you: Why? Why did she have to die so young? What's the whole point of this?"
Sayoko stared at her empty glass.
"My mother was asked the same question once." She began. "My mortal grandparents had just died in Second Impact, and my Aunt wanted to know why." Sayoko turned and looked at George. "She said that we are all part of the great tapestry that is the universe. That we are the threads being weaved into it. And that those threads eventually do end, but new ones take their place."
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And somewhere in this is me being hit by the seat of a zero-g toilet.
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Sayoko looked up and looked towards the top of the bar. "Of all the gifts that Kami-sama has given, the gift of life is the greatest and the most fragile."
George nodded slightly. Then looked over at the bartender.
"Gimmie another! Make it a double!"
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What can I say?
I wanted the answers to the universe and I got the 'for dummies' version.
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"But even though your Grandparent's died," George spoke up after she got her drink. "You still got to see them in Heaven. Not many other people get that."
"True." Sayoko answered, "Heaven is just a mirror away for me. But everyone does get reunited in the end." The Goddess' face clouded slightly. "Most do at least."
George frowned. "What do you mean most? I suppose if someone is sent to Hell….."
"Well there is that." Sayoko admitted, "But eventually once they're repentant and paid their due, they are forgiven and gain entrance into the Heavens."
"So who are…."
Sayoko held up her hand. "There are about a dozen or so people I know of that have never been seen since their death." She grabbed her newly refilled drink. "Two I know of personally." She took a sip and continued to speak, staring blankly over the bar.
"One was the mother of a friend of mine." The Goddess said, "Her father, a Demon, destroyed her mother's soul completely."
George blinked in surprise.
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Note to self: DO NOT LOSE ANYONE'S SOUL!!!!!
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"And the other?" George asked.
The Goddess' face was unreadable.
"He…..he was…….he was…." Sayoko seemed to be fighting off tears. "He was a close friend."
"How close?" George asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sayoko turned her head slightly towards the reaper.
"Very close." The Goddess stated.
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Well that ruined the whole purity image I had of Goddesses.
Then again, she did say she was New Age…….
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"Oh." George replied.
Sayoko waved her hand. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to put a downer on our evening."
"Don't be." The Reaper said, "Someone told me once that talking about it helps."
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Guess those counseling sessions Mom suckered me into did sink in.
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George then frowned a moment.
"How do you get by?" she asked.
Sayoko looked at George curiously.
"What do you mean?"
George waved her hand around her.
"Watching the world change while you remain the same." She answered. "I mean, Rube and Daisy have been around over one hundred years now. If they had kids, they've long since out lived them!"
"I'm only 39." Sayoko muttered.
"But still!" George said, "You're immortal! How can you make friends, knowing that you'll watch them age and then…..you know……"
Sayoko stared at her glass as she swirled it around.
"A friend of my Mothers put it best." She finally said, "'The people we Goddess' love live forever in our hearts.'" She looked to George, "Thus we are never truly without them. They still exist." She tapped her chest. "Here."
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I always thought that was just indigestion.
We stayed at the bar a bit longer then she left via mirror.
Yeah, she travels through mirrors……
Bet that makes you stop a moment when you're in the bathroom huh?
We carried on as normal the next couple of days. Then on the third day since the audit, Rube showed up with a several envelopes, one for each of us.
Turns out that even though Sayoko only went around with me, the others were being watched as well. Mason freaked out and started looking around for 'Big Brother'.
Roxy shot him again to shut him up.
What?
Oh? My audit?
I received a favorable audit. Even had a phone number with a note that said if I ever needed anything, to call.
Isn't it great to have friends in high places?
I wouldn't even have to worry about long distance charges!
Still… I ran into her again sooner then I thought.