title: Heaven -- Chapter 2 - The Second Lesson
notes: I suck at summaries. Just read it. Onegai shimasu?...
Sendoh looked around, still as confused as when he first came to "heaven". He glared at the broken teacups, at the carousel horses scattered in bits and pieces across the grounds of the carnival, over the tranquil surface of the sea that stretched out endlessly beside the pier.

The sun was setting, lending the sky a fiery orange hue softly kissed by pink. To Sendoh's left, the moon was starting to peek through the clouds. For a moment, everything was at peace.

Save for his thoughts, crashing turbulently in his mind like ocean waves in a storm. A maelstrom of violent memories played like a movie in his head -- fighting with his sister, his father yelling at and beating his mother, quarrels with his friends... The war, receiving the news that his stepfather would have to leave them, then later learning that he was not coming home... His mother in a state of lethargy after seeing their brave soldier underneath a thick sheet of glass supported by the wooden walls of the coffin...

He did not know why he was remembering these now -- nor, exactly, did he care. All he wanted to do was to run, run far away from the fear and the pain and the heartache of the memories.

And he did. His heels took flight, carrying him away yet strangely making the memories resonate loudly around him.

Where am I running to, anyway? Only now did he become conscious that the carnival had long since faded away from sight. He was now in a white space, with no sense of up or down or left or right or above or below... There was nothing, absolutely nothing.

He dropped to all fours, strangely tired, a scream of something-nothing helplessness ripping from his throat and released into...

The ground? He looked down at a vast expanse of lush, green plains. Now where am I?

Vaguely Sendoh became aware that the grass was coming up to meet him -- or rather, he was falling softly onto the grass.

He pulled himself into a sitting position, gazing at the rolling fields that stretched out farther than he could see. In the distance, small hills of green greeted his sight, and he could hear the steady flow of a nearby stream.

"This is nice..." he murmured. He closed his eyes and lay back, the blades of grass tickling his back as his weight fell against them.

"Get up."

Wha...? He opened one eye, wanting to glare at whoever had disturbed his rest.

"I said get up. You're in the way of my croquet ball."

Make me. But Sendoh did so, anyway. He pushed himself back into his sitting position.

"That's better. You know, you should show a little respect for your elders. Especially to those to whom you gave a lot of trouble ."

"I don't even know you."

"Of course you don't. Never saw me, did you?"

"So then, what are you doing here?"

"I died. Duh."

Sendoh nearly hit the man in frustration. "That's not what I meant, you dolt."

The man threw him a sideward glance. "Ah, ah, ah. What did we say about respecting your elders?"

"Hmph." He wanted to retort some more, but then the stranger reached out his hand. "Why's this your heaven, anyway?"

"Name's Seymour. This is my heaven 'coz there ain't nothing for me to crash my car into."

"Sendoh Akira. Pleasure," he replied listlessly, not wanting to give the man the satisfaction of a proper response.

"Not nearly enough. So anyway, I'm here because I'm supposed to teach you something, although right now I can't still figure it out. Some teacher I am, huh?" He let loose a hearty chortle.

Sendoh rolled his eyes. He wanted to leave this guy already, they hadn't been together for ten minutes and he was already annoyed.

"Hold your horses. Oh wait, you ain't got any, do you? And besides, if you knew any amount of restraint, then I wouldn't be sitting here irritating the hell out of you, would I?"

"What does my restraint have to do with you?"

Seymour "harrumph"-ed and locked his hands behind his head, purposely hitting Sendoh with his elbow. "Well, stupid boy, your restraint -- or lack of it -- is why I'm here."

"And that is because?"

He sighed, and turned to look at the youth sitting impatiently beside him. "Don't you know, boy? You killed me."

:

:

"Akira, do be careful with that ball. It might roll out into the street."

Little Sendoh smiled at his mom, blue eyes twinkling. "Yes, okaasan." He ran off across the path, dribbling the ball his dad had just bought him for his ninth birthday.

He could hear the children playing nearby, and he entertained himself with imagining that they were in awe of his dribbling skills.

"Oi!"

Sendoh stopped to smile at whoever had called his name -- a pretty girl with brown hair up in pigtails.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Akira, and I'm gonna be the best basketball player in the entire world!"

The girl laughed and clapped her hands. "Yoroshiku, Akira. Atashi wa Haruko desu." (1)

He shook the girl's outstretched hand, and as he did so the ball fell out of his slackened grip and rolled toward the park gates.

"Ah, matte!" he called, chasing after the ball. It bounded out into the city streets, and little Sendoh ran after it, thoughts of cars and safe street-crossing all flying out of his mind.

:

I can't take another day of this. Tomorrow, I'm gonna go tell my boss that I quit. There came the familiar pang of pain again. After I go to the doctor.

The man turned up the radio, humming the tune that had just started to play, occasionally singing the words, steadily making his way home to his wife and kids.

Out of nowhere, a brightly multicolored ball bounced out into the street, a slightly pudgy boy chasing after it. He slammed on the brakes and the car squealed to a stop, a mere foot away from the boy, who picked up the ball, smiled gleefully, and ran back to the park.

The jolt of adrenaline forced his heart to beat furiously, and this heart is not a strong one. He willed himself to calm down. That was dangerous... Where are that kid's parents?

Satisfied that the jaywalking boy was now nowhere to be seen, the man continued on his way. He turned left onto his street, and smiled as his small, white suburban home came into view. A peculiar sense of tiredness washed over him, drew his eyes closed...

The car swerved.

And slammed into a tree on the street, just as the driver's wife came out to greet the homecomer.

:

:

"You see that, boy?"

"Oh, no..." Sendoh murmured. "I didn't know.. Kami-sama, I didn't know..."

Seymour nodded. "You couldn't have known. You were too young then, too carefree."

Blue eyes saddened, a new sense of helplessness and apology washing over Sendoh. He stood up and squared his shoulders.

"Whatcha doing, boy?"

"Getting ready to pay for it. That's what I'm here for, right? Justice?"

The man chuckled. "No, hell no. I've long since forgiven you for that. I'm here to teach you something, and that's what I'm gonna do."

Sendoh relaxed and looked down, but then shifted his gaze to meet the serious, black eyes of his teacher. "It's just not fair though. It was my stupidity, running out there like that. Why should you have to die on account of me? It's not fair."

"Life ain't fair, boy. Thought you'd know that by now. If it were fair, no good people would ever have to die young."

"Is that my lesson?"

"Nope, that's not it."

Seymour waved his hand, and the scenery changed. Now they were standing amidst a crowd of people all shrouded in black. Sendoh immediately realized that they were at a funeral.

"My funeral, kid. Look at them."

He did as he was told, though he could not see the point of it. He did not recognize anybody -- not that he expected he would.

Again, the man laughed. "Half of these people I only met once in work. They don't know me at all."

"So why are they here, then?"

"Yeah, see boy, the thing about the human soul is that it knows that somehow, someway, all lives intersect. For example, see that fat little brat over there? His father was a janitor at the company, gave me a coffee once. This boy went on to become president of that very same company. First desk job he got working for 'em was at my desk.

"We're all connected. You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate the river from the sea. So here's your lesson, boy. Hey, you listening?"

Sendoh was too lost in thought to pay attention. "It's not fair. I should be in that coffin, not you."

"Yeah, so you say. But look at it this way. When I was alive, other people died instead of me. It happens everyday. The plane that you should've been on but missed crashes into Mount Fuji. When your teammates get sick and miss the game but you're out there playing. You think it's random, kid? Stuff like these?

"There ain't no random acts in this 'ere world. There's a balance to everything that happens. One flower withers, another blooms in its stead. Birth and death are part of a whole. Something good will always come out of something bad. It may not be immediate, could take a couple more decades before it actually does happen, but it will."

"So what good came out of your death, then?"

Seymour smiled. "How do you think you lived to be eighteen, kid?"

"I... But we didn't even know each other then. We were strangers."

The man put an arm around Sendoh's shoulders. "Strangers," he said, "are just family you have yet to come to know."

At that, he released his hold on Sendoh and pulled away. "That's it then, boy. I'm leaving. You go on, too. There are others waiting for you."

Sendoh nodded, but then reached out to take hold of Seymour's shoulder. "Wait, I need you to tell me one thing."

"I've told you everything you need to know. Or weren't you listening? I don't feel like giving a repeat lecture."

"No, no, I got that part perfectly."

"What is it, then? I ain't got all day. Well actually, I do, since there ain't no night in this 'ere heaven of mine."

"The other driver, what happened to him? Who was -- er, is he?"

Seymour let out a sigh. " 'Fraid I can't tell you that, son. Ain't my place to let you know."

"Oh, come on! Why not?"

"You'll get it at the end."

"At the end of what?" He became aware that Seymour's outline was steadily becoming fainter, he was disappearing into mist.

"Wait, don't leave yet, you haven't answered my question!"

But he was gone.

Once again, Sendoh was alone.

--tsuzuku--


(1) sorry, couldn't resist. Fuuchouin Kazuki with short hair and a pink kimono popped into my head. Hey, wouldn't it be a cool reason for Kae-chan to have some sort of spite toward Haruko because she met Akira-kun first? Þ

This is dedicated to Hanabi Reeza, for no particular reason. Nyahahaha, jodan... I luv this girl. She kept me company via SMS and gave me Haru Wo Daiteita scanlations...

Gomen ne... Long overdue update... I'd only recently acquired my own copy of "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" (by Mitch Albom) -- last January, actually. But I've been so busy with schoolwork, what with this being my graduating year and all. So now, I have lots more free time since school's already out for summer break. Inspiration takes so long to hit me (probably doesn't have a sense of direction, just like me hehe)...

Yes, this guy's been inspired by the Blue Man from the book. Actually, I'd just gone from playing Final Fantasy X and for some reason Auron popped into my mind, and I imagined him crashing a car into a tree and it looked pretty good, actually.

Whatcha think so far? Tell me everything. I can handle criticism (yeah right), as long as it isn't delivered as flames. If you liked it, do let me know, 'kay? I'm kinda experimenting with this whole lessons-to-learn thing, and heaven whatever, so I'm not entirely sure about how I'm doing. I can't criticize my work objectively, you know... Reviews would be highly appreciated!