“Who are you?”

“Death”

“Where am I?”

“It’s not really where you are. It’s where you’re not”

“Where am I not?”

“On earth”

“What happened?”

“You tell me”

“I had a name. It was, I mean, it is, uh, Abe, no, Abel. I had a family, a mother, a father, a brother… We were out in a field…. My brother was going to show me something. Cain, Cain was his name. Then I was here.”

“He is there – You are here – He killed you”

“No, he wouldn’t do that.”

“He did”

“Was it an accident?”

“No”

“Wait”

“I am good at waiting – Do you want to sit down? I have a bench It’s right here”

“This makes it better, somehow. The white bones and the black robe…”

“I wanted something that said ‘Death'”

“And the hollow echo-like tone…”

“That is a choice”

“Is there anyone else here?”

“No, just you and me”

“What do you do?”

“I am in charge of death orientation – I answer questions – as I can”

“Is it boring?”

“We don’t think like that”

“Who are ‘we’?”

“Eternal beings – Did you ever go see the Garden?”

“We couldn’t. There was a guard. And a flaming sword. I wanted to go see but they wouldn’t let me. Cain said he went but I don’t think he really did.”

“I am going to appoint you as Deputy of Orientation”

“Really? What do I do?”

“You sit on this bench until someone dies”

“Wow. When do you think that will be? Wait, there is no time here…”

“That’s it… You’re getting it – Deputy”