#soultarotchallenge Day 4: What new cycles are beginning in my life? Let me just see, what do we have here? DEATH!?!? Fuck. I don’t think I like this #tarotchallenge anymore. WTF things were going so good, I was on vacation drinking Shirley Temples minding my own business listening to Jimmy Buffet and reading sifi novels and now this grim reaper is scratching at my door. And I’m like “who is it?” And a voice like chalk is like
“I’m here to fix your cable ma’m.” And, opening the door I think to myself,
"That’s weird, I don’t have cable, and I’m not in a porn, and wow this is disconcertingly similar to one of those murder podcasts I be listening to." And then before I can think twice a boney foot slides itself in the door and death walks into my room.
"This is just great." I think as my plants begin to wilt.
“Nice place you got here” death says, it’s breath smells of cold clay and house fire, it’s voice gives me chills. “You know that this is all going away?” I nod.
“This cup is already broken,” I say, taking a sip of luke warm tea.
“It’s ok,” death says eating a piece of chocolate that molds instantly, “don’t fear the reaper”
"Ugh," I think. "So this is the next cycle, trading nerd jokes with Death? That’s just great. What about all the stuff I wanted to do? What about the person I wanted to be?"
“Yeah that’s not happening anymore. You can submit and get with the program because where you are going your silly ego is just gunna get in the way, or we can pry it from your cold dead hand. Up to you really.” His scythe glints in the sun, his dead eyes glistened.
“So what do you want me to do?”
“It’s simple,” Death whispered with a voice like smoke, “I just need you to let go, let go of everything you thought you were, everything you thought you wanted to be. I need you to be in this moment right here because that’s all you really got kid. We got plans for you but you need to shed that old skin and let me take it, you got to go down in the earth so you can be reborn. It’s easy, I just need you to die to who you were so you can return as who you will be.” Death took a drag from an E-Cigarette and let out a thick cloud of vapor.
“Vaping, really? I kinda figured you’d have more class then that.”
“What? I’m hip, it’s the next new thing, I’m just trying to keep up with the kids.”
“Ok look” I says, “you want me to surrender and go down in that cold, cold ground, no problem but you gotta do something for me.”
“Depends” death said through another thick cloud of Juul vape.
“Can you keep my friends from OD-ing it’s only been a month and already you’ve taken a bunch of the homies. Can you lay off? There’s been too much loss these past few years since that fentanyl hit the streets. I’m sick of the sadness in my friends eyes and comparing obituaries when we meet. Maybe there is something we can do, someway to help so there’s not another funeral every week. I don’t want this new cycle to be more of that.” Death peered at me from under his hood his vacant sockets were infinitely black.
“That’s my bread and butter,” he says, “but I’ll see what I can do. Just so you know, that choice isn’t up to me, I only go where I’m called. Speaking of which,” he said looking at his watch, “I’ll be back for you in...” And in a cloud of grape flavored vape smoke he was gone leaving me alone with a chill in my my bones and the slight smell of quick lyme lingering in my room.
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