THE LAST DAY
and sat down at the computer to check his email.
There was the usual spam and forwarded jokes,
which he deleted without reading.
The sixth message subject line read "Final Notice",
and the sender was an acronym, "T.P.T.B."
He started to dump it as spam, but for some reason he clicked it open.
The message was this: "NOTICE OF EXPIRATION.
"Dear
Mr. Lescart,
"This
is an automatic reminder that your life expires at
midnight tonight.
Please
do not try to reply to this email.
Have
a nice day.
Very
truly yours,
The
Powers That Be."
Simon
tried to reply anyway,
but
his email bounced back from the "unknown recipient".
He
knew it must be a stupid joke,
but
he couldn't stop thinking about it
as
he fought the city traffic on his way to work.
What
if this really was his last day?
He'd
often heard the old saying,
"You
should live every day as if it were your last."
What
should a person do on his last day, anyway?
Get
drunk? Smell some flowers? Confess his sins? What?
He
didn't have much of a family to visit,
just
a brother up in Akron and an ex-wife in Atlanta.
They
hadn't spoken in years.
He
couldn't think of any old sins offhand.
Maybe
he should commit some?
He
knew that the weird email was a fraud,
but
he decided not to go to work today, just in case.
He
pulled off at an exit and got back on the
expressway,
going
the other way, toward the ocean.
This
is nuts, he thought.
He
couldn't think of anything really important to do,
befitting
a persons last day on the planet,
so
he just sat on the beach for most of the day and
drank a few beers.
He
felt a little nervous, like a high school truant,
but
he also felt something else he couldn't define. Was
it freedom?
He
had some guilt too, for wasting the day looking at
the ocean.
Someone
sat down beside him.
The
man was obviously homeless,
in
his ragged black suit and dirty torn sneakers.
The
man said, "Are you okay, friend? You look kinda
lost."
Simon
said, "That's an odd word... 'Friend'.
Now
that you mention it, I guess I don't have any of
those.
Just
a bunch of acquaintances."
"Maybe
you never really tried", said the man.
"I've
been pretty busy", said Simon.
"You
must have accomplished great things, being so busy",
the man said.
"No
great things. Just keeping even. Paying the bills",
said Simon.
"Do
you think you have any great things in you", asked
the man?
Simon
said, "Maybe. I've been doing a lot of thinking.
If
I had the time I'd do things differently."
That's
when the chest pain struck and the world faded to
black.
He
heard voices. "What Happened?" "Get back!"
He
was being carried.
Then
a blinding light above. People working over him.
"We're
losing him! CLEAR!"
Then
a huge shock and the world was gone again.
The
smiling nurse said, "Welcome back. You've had quite
a day."
"What
time is it", he asked?
"Almost
midnight", she said.
"I
have to call my brother", he insisted.
"We'll
contact him for you. You can talk to him in a few
days."
"I
wish I HAD a few days", he said!
A
cell phone rang.
"That
sounds like mine", he said. "Where is it?"
"It's
beside your bed, but you need to rest."
He
reached for it, but she stopped him.
"I'll
answer it for you", she said. "Lie back down!"
She
said, "It's just a text message."
"What
does it say?", he
groaned.
The
letters on the cell phone screen said this:
"EXTENSION
GRANTED."
Jack
Blanchard
2009 - 2018
Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan...
Home Page: http://www.jackandmisty.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackandmisty
Billboard Duet of the Year, Grammy and CMA Finalists.
Jack Blanchard, 2019
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