Chapter Three

Samantha woke up, and started to wonder where she was. She looked around and did not recognize anything surrounding her. She was standing in the middle of an empty street, in what appeared to be an empty town. Curios to where she was she started walking, as her hand reached to her hip to grip her gun, she realized that it was absent from her wait. That is when she started to take in her surroundings. "This looks a lot like where I grew up," she thought. And sure enough it was.

A small town, where everyone knew everyone, and everyone knew everyone else business. A place where kids grew up and eventually married their high school sweethearts, and a town where people were trapped. Trapped in a place and time that they could not seem to get out of no matter how hard they tried.

As she started to take in her surroundings she began to travel the old route that she would take to get home everyday from school when she was younger. Her feet walked the familiar path, until she came upon the house that she grew up in, the house that she ran away from, the house that she had always felt that she was trapped in.

Samantha decided to climb the steps and enter the house. She could not have guessed what was waiting for her inside.

As Sam opened the door to the house and memories that had caused her so much pain over the years, she felt all of it come rushing back to her. She felt the torment, heartache, pain, and even some happiness. This may have been the place where she grew up, but it was also the place that she dreaded that she would someday return to, someday live like she did everyday until she was able to get away.

Walking through her house, she stopped every now and then to stop and look at things, her mother's tea set, her old dolls still sitting where she left them the day she left. Everything was exactly the same way she remembered it. Walking out the back door to her mother's garden something, or someone caught her eye, and as she turned around she never expected to see who she did.

"How you doing Sammy?" Came a voice from behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked, when she saw who it was.

"Can't a father want to see his daughter?" he asked. Coming to stand in front of her.

"Father? FATHER! That would mean that you were actually around, that would mean that you know something about me, it would mean that you stayed and you didn't leave me and mom! Your not a father. I don't even know you, and you don't know me!" she yelled. Stepping away from him.

"Sammy, come on. I am here aren't I? I came to see you, I came to help you."

"Here? Where is here? What is this place?" She asked.

"Heaven darling," he answered.

"Heaven? What do you mean heaven? If this was heaven, I would not be here. I would be at home with my husband, and my *real* family. This isn't heaven, this is hell." She spit back in his face.

"Well your right. In reality this isn't heaven, this is your first step and I am your first person," he replied.

"What do you mean my first person?"

"Well you have to meet 5 people in order to get up to heaven. Think of it as 5 steps."

"Well I don't want to talk to you, so you can just send me to my next step or my next person," she said. Looking around for someone else or a way to get out.

"I sorry hunny, but you have to stay and talk to me. You don't really have a choice in this. Come on lets sit down and talk. How about that?" He said pointing to two chairs sitting on the back deck of the house. "Come one lets catch up on all I missed."

"Sure you want to talk, fine we can do that. Why did you leave?" She asked sitting down. This is the question that she had asked herself so many times over the last few years. How many nights had she laid in bed, asking herself what she did wrong, and why her father didn't love her enough to stick around.

"Woah, and I thought you were going to ask me something simple."

"Fine, you don't want to answer it, I'll leave then," she said getting ready to leave.

"Hold on, hold on," he said grabbing her arm, not allowing her to leave. "I never said that I won't answer your question. I just said that it was a hard one," he stopped a minute thinking of how to respond. "Why did I leave? Well I wasn't ready. I was just a kid Sam, I wasn't ready for a family, I wasn't ready to settle down. It wasn't that I didn't love you and your mom, but I wasn't ready for a family and I was still trying to figure out who I was and where I was going to go in the world. I was just a kid," he repeated. "You have to remember that Sammy. But never doubt that I didn't love you and your mother. I always have, and I always will."

"If you loved us then you wouldn't have left," she said looking down playing with her wedding ring, like she always did when she was thinking.

"No, that's the thing. I loved you so much that I left. With me in your life, Sam I would have ruined it. You would have grown up all messed up like me, and I couldn't have that. I couldn't have you turning out to be like me. I have made to many mistakes in my life, and I didn't want you to ever regret anything that you ever did. I would have hated myself if you turned out to be like me," she said looking at her and trying to catch her eye. "Don't you understand. I did it for you."

"For me? I grew up without a father. I grew up wondering everyday what I did wrong for you to leave me. I wanted to have you around. I wouldn't have cared if you sucked at being a parent. I just wanted a dad, and a real family," she said looking up to meet his eyes.

"I am so sorry," he said trying to show her how serious he was. "You don't know how many times I wanted to come back to see you, how many times I cursed myself for leaving you and your mother. I never wanted it to be this way Sam."

"Well I am not going to forgive you just yet, but I'll try," she said. "Why am I here? What is the point of this?"

"Well everyone who dies has to meet their 5 people. No two people have the same trip, because no two people are affected the same way by the same person. Once an event happens it can't un-happen, and it can't happen the exact same way again. It just isn't possible. On your journey you are going to meet the people that influenced your life, whether you knew it or not. That is the point. They can answer your questions, or they can show you things that you might have missed before," he was now preparing to get up. "When I came here I met 5 different people. Some I knew and some I didn't. When your done meeting your 5 people you will go to heaven, and while your up there, you are going to have to help the people that you've meet in your life. Your going to be doing what I am doing now, helping people reach where they are meant to be, in their final resting place."

"But do you know who I am going to meet? How long am I going to be here? How long until I am done?" she asked.

"Well Sammy, all that depends on you. Each person has a different story to tell you. Each person has a different reason why they were chosen to talk to you. You'll see don't you worry. But I can tell you this, your on your way to your second person," he said, while pointing to the door of the house. "Go through there and you'll be one step closer to heave. I love you Sammy. Don't you ever doubt that," he said, standing and giving her a kiss on the head.

"I love you to dad," she said, starting to cry. She had waited so long to hear him say those words to her, and now he finally had.

As Sam walked to the door, she started to wonder who the other four people she was going to meet were going to be. Who was she going to see on her journey? What did they do to influence her life? What were they going to tell her?

As Samantha walked through the door, she saw a really bright white light, and then all was dark.