“What is it?” I ask, grabbing on to hope.
“You can take over Joshua’s life,” God says.
“What? Like a body-snatcher kind of thing?” I ask him, wincing.
“A what?” God says with a frown, but then his face clears up. “Ah, had to look up the reference. Not so much like that, but close. You would live your life out as Joshua. I would put your soul into his body, and his soul would go to wherever it is meant to go. You would have all his memories and live your life out until the age of 72.”
“What about my memories?” I ask him slowly, not sure I like this idea. Joshua has a family, and they aren’t mine. Can I live with his kids and his wife? I mean, his wife is hot, but she is a gold digger, and kids?
“You would keep them, but after a year they would disappear and you would fully become Joshua.”
“Yeah, not sure I like that idea,” I tell him with a grimace. “So I guess I go to whatever the Catholics call purgatory?” I say with a heavy sigh. Great, I wasn’t even religious when I was alive. My parents raised me as an atheist, and here I am, talking to fucking God.
God doesn’t answer me, but instead just stares at me intently. I mean, not like earlier where it made me lose my ability to talk, but hard enough to make me shift on my chair nervously. “What?” I ask him in a timid voice.
“There might be an alternative,” he says, sounding unsure.
“Alternative?” I ask him, now curious. “Like maybe I can go back as a baby?”
“No, that would be taking the body away from a new soul,” he says, shaking his head. “I am thinking more of putting you on another world of mine,” he says with a speculative look on his old face.
“What?” I ask him in shock.
Chapter Three
“What do you mean another world?” I ask God in confusion.
“Well, as I said, I have many worlds. Earth is just one of them. Each one is different and has different rules. Another thing your scientists don’t understand. As God, I can do what I want.”
“Except time travel,” I tell him with a raised eyebrow.
“Except time travel,” God says with a laugh. “I can even sweeten the pot for you in order to make your choice easier. As I read your file, I saw that you are into games and Fantasy books?”
I stare at God, trying to figure out what he is getting at, but his face is indecipherable. “Yes,” I say slowly. “Although honestly, now knowing that I am dead, I hate that I let my life waste away just playing games and reading books,” I finish with a defeated sigh. I mean, how the fuck was I supposed to know God was real and that I would die so young? At least I didn’t die a virgin. Not that I’d been having sex in the last year or so.
“Well, this world I can send you to has magic in it,” God says with a wink.
“What!?” I say, sitting up in my chair. “Actual magic? But wait. How would I go there? As a baby? Would I forget all about this world and be reborn there?” I ask him suspiciously.
“Nope. You would go as yourself, fully remembering your life here. You would just never be able to come back here. Ever. I would even make you powerful on that world, though with a caveat,” he says, his face again unreadable. The smile from before is gone.
Shit, what am I going to have to promise him in order to go to a world where magic is real? My soul? I mean, doesn’t he already have that? Isn’t that what I am right now, just a soul?
“What’s the caveat?” I ask him, feeling like I am about to walk into a den of lions.
“Since you are going with your memories, you can’t go fuck up that world too much,” God says with a scowl.
“What? How the hell would I fuck it up?” I ask him in surprise. How the hell does he think I would change that world? I am a freaking 26-year-old dork who used to play games and read books. I worked in a convenience store. What does he expect me to do? Take over the world and cause an industrial revolution? Go around changing everything overnight?
“You Earthlings, compared to the beings on the world I am sending you to, are all about progress and change. If you are going to change my world at some point, have the decency to not be a dick about it,” God says, as if reading my mind.
“I can promise that. But I mean, I’m a geek. I know fantasy stuff. Ask me hard science questions and forget it. I mean, I can’t even build myself a fire with two sticks if I want to. I know the idea behind it, but that’s about it. I can promise you I am not out to change a world,” I vow to him wholeheartedly, holding my hand up in a Scout’s honor way.
“I guess I will never see you again?” I ask him. “Or this place?” I say, waving my hand around, meaning Earth, really, not so much this cottage on the lake.
Shaking his head, God says, “Unfortunately not. Though you will remember me. And Alex? Enjoy this new life I am giving you. And just so you know, the bible and all that was something I had only in this world. Each world is unique, and I did it that way for a reason. The world you are going to be sent
