Speculation

By Jamie Greening

"Speculation" is exactly that--speculation about what might happen to a person after death. In this short story, Philip Johnson discovers more about himself than he knew before he died, and what he would have to go through before he reaches his final state.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bard and Book
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476371870

Jamie Greening

I am the Senior Pastor (actually, there are only two of us on staff) at First Baptist Church in Port Orchard, Washington.I Love my life and have the best job in the whole world!

Book preview

Speculation

by Jamie Greening

Smashwords Edition

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Read more from Jamie Greening at www.bardandbook.com

Copyright Jamie Greening 2012. All Rights Reserved

Published by Bard and Book Publishing

Website: www.bardandbook.com

Cover by Julius Broqueza.

Contents

Speculation

The First Second

The Second Second

The Third Second

Speculation

At 2:48 A.M. Philip Johnson died.

Death came when a valve in his heart exploded. The pain in Philip’s chest was so great that it woke him up from a deep sleep. In his sleep Philip dreamed about the big presentation at work tomorrow. In fact, Philip had only been in bed for about an hour before the heart episode occurred because he’d stayed up late to make sure he got all the facts right. He was very anxious about the presentation. It mattered to him a lot.

Philip Johnson missed that presentation, though, because more pressing issues emerged. The pressing issue of course was his early morning demise.

When the pain struck, Philip clutched at his chest It felt like a car had been parked on top of him. He checked his pulse. He couldn’t find one, even though he could feel the thumping of his heart roiling around the pain inside him. He reached out with his left hand and nudged Laura. Laura and Philip had been married for twenty-two years and were childhood sweethearts. She groggily rolled over but quickly realized something was very wrong. Laura turned on the lamp on the night stand. She was so startled that in doing so she knocked over her glass of water, tumbled her cholesterol medicine onto its side, and clumsily pushed her vampire novel onto the floor.

Philip looked at her with fear and said, Something is wrong, and he looked down at his chest and he looked at his wife and said, I love you, and then Philip Johnson collapsed onto the pillow.

That is where this story begins. With all apologies to Shakespeare, the two universal constants in the human experience are not death and taxes but birth and death. It is not hard to imagine that there are some rare souls who have avoided taxes. Perhaps an exorbitantly wealthy person who has hired enough accountants and lawyers to escape the governmental claim upon currency comes