129 — Inadequate Prep

The colonoscopy was routine, but I died.

A brightly lit, red-carpeted corridor, strewn with doors, lay ahead of me. Curious, I opened one of them to see a tableau--a life moment which wasn't particularly praiseworthy. I shut it quickly.

Summoning intestinal fortitude, I tried another door--again, it wasn't pretty. I became worried, being as I was dead. Someone obviously had rolled out red carpet for me, but what lay behind each door wasn't particularly welcoming.

Apparently, my life prep was inadequate.

Finally, I opened a door to a wonderful scene from my past: I was humble, magnanimous, altruistic, and generous. I was putting myself second or third or fourth. I looked good!

This encouraged me to open more, a passing-in-review of sorts. Relieved, I found doors opening to more exemplary life-scenes than shameful ones. That's fair, isn't it? Everyone's life has good and bad.

Everyone learns along the way.

Learning--mine was validated by more good visions presenting than bad. Yes, I had learned! I still opened a few doors to stinkers, but the scale was tipping my way.

I came to the end, where, I saw in "the light," dead relatives--mother, father, others. They were smiling and welcoming, but behind them a grim man stared at me.

I pushed my way through to confront him.

"Sir?"

"Yes. I'm here reporting to you."

"About?"

"About your soul." I swallowed hard. "You see, not all of yourself will see Paradise. There are parts of you that will go...elsewhere."

"Elsewhere?"

"That doesn't concern your good parts. We don't take the good with the bad here. Hope that's acceptable."

Thinking here was instantaneous:

I won't be separated--dissected! The bad had made me the good person I am. They're a part of me, too.

"All or none," I insisted.

"Fine," he said.

I awoke in the Recovery Room.

"I'm afraid we weren't able to complete your colonoscopy," the gastroenterologist apologized. “Too much debris--feces--on your colon walls. Hid all the good tissue."

Epiphany:

You can't see the good through crap.

"Your purge failed; your bowel prep was inadequate. We'll reschedule you again with another prep." (Another prep, my ass!)

It's not "you are what you eat"; it's "you are what you keep."

For Wed, May 8, Day 129 of the Story-a-Day Challenge.

366 WORDS (without A/N)

All pictures are AI-generated, but the torpedo is not!

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