A Parable of Life and Death

 

- "What is life? Most religions attribute fundamental significance to it and influence our future. Perhaps..." Patryk pondered for a moment, then began, as if from a different perspective.

"A person is born. After a while, they go to kindergarten, and depending on their success there, they go to primary school or a special school. And then it begins again; the worse ones go to worse, less demanding universities, and the better ones to better ones. And after graduation, everything repeats itself. Perhaps our earthly life is also just a "kindergarten" for some longer process.

" "Then why put so much effort into our lives when so little depends on it?" the second, younger man interjected.

"How little? How little. How you do in kindergarten affects your entire future life. If you go to a special school after kindergarten, you'll most likely never get into university."

"I apologize for interrupting," Death said, entering the room through the closed door. "The gentlemen's conversation was somewhat about me, and it contained many misconceptions, so as a more knowledgeable being, I felt compelled to correct some facts. I very much like the kindergarten comparison, although I cannot dispute its validity. I am suspended between worlds, and in that reality, I have only entered a vestibule and do not know what lies beyond. This example is apt, however, because, like every university, life has a certain program. The rules are as follows: Every being must experience equal amounts of pleasure and suffering in life and have the opportunity to acquire knowledge and do good. If any of these conditions are not met in one life, a new life is granted, which completes the program. Of course, it is possible that the program will be completed on the first attempt. It may also turn out that a third life will be necessary."

Both men, initially terrified by the appearance of the unexpected guest, slowly began to calm down with the announcement of death. And when Death finished, the elder of the two said,

"I understand that since you have appeared to us and are telling us such things, our time has come.

" "In fact, I was just passing through, but since I have entered, and worse still, betrayed the secret of life, I must take certain steps. However, I will leave you gentlemen a choice. Either you express a desire to forget everything you have just heard, or..." Death smiled, "you will come with me."

Both men made their decisions immediately, but they were different.

"I want to go with you," the elder replied. In life, he had encountered only disappointments, betrayals, and humiliations. He was already tired. So if there was a better life in sight that could change his fate..."

"Good," said Death. "And you?" she turned to the younger man.

"I'm staying," he replied.

"Good, then," said Death, raising the hand holding the scythe.

At that moment, the older man felt a painful stab in his chest, followed by darkness before his eyes. After a moment, however, the pain subsided, and he again saw the interior of the room where he himself lay on the floor. And his younger companion first tried to revive him, then resuscitate him. Death stood unwaveringly in the same place.

"What now?" asked the old man.

"I am opening the gate to the next world for you," replied Death.

At that same moment, Patrick saw something like a tunnel opening before him. It looked as if someone had burned a hole with something hot in the celluloid slide with a photo of the room. But the hole gaped with impenetrable blackness, drawing him in with some invisible force. After a moment's hesitation, Patrick yielded to this force and, slowly, then with increasing speed, moved toward the black hole.

*

"Man, you have already fulfilled your life's program. You have experienced all the pleasures and all the sorrows. You have been given the chance to learn, and you have seized it. During your two lives, whether in happiness or suffering, you have not stained yourself with crime. Despite adversity, you have been faithful to your ideals. And you could have begun a new existence, if not for one thing. Do you remember how, at the end of your first life, you voluntarily consented to its termination? Such a separation from existence is a grave offense. Although the court did not consider it suicide, you will have to pay the penalty. You will be given a task in the world you left. If you wish, you can be death, and you will be given the right to terminate human life. You can also become life, and you will be given the right to give it. Remember, however, that whether you are life or death, you cannot be guided in your actions by feelings, justice, or reason. Both life and death are merely coincidences.

" "I want to be life," said the one who once called himself Patrick.

"Very well," the faceless figure speaking to him nodded. "Then go to Earth and take this," the being handed him what looked like a bag filled with glass beads.

"These are human souls," she explained. "But only those that have not yet experienced any physical body. They are unconscious and defenseless, but still alive and immortal. To be their sower is a truly beautiful penance."

For many years, like a manic voyeur, he hurried whenever he sensed vibrations suggesting physical love, and whenever he stood over a loving couple, he would release one of his balls. Sometimes the transparent bubble would disappear into the woman's body and never reappear. Much more often, it would return to the bag like a boomerang. Initially, he refrained from throwing the balls when he had reason to suspect that with some parents the child would not be happy. But he quickly gave up on this. He knew, after all, that the soul must experience both joy and sadness. He also knew that the sooner it completed its penance, the sooner it would move on to a new reality, one that he was increasingly curious about. So the balls began to dwindle, until finally only one remained. Patryk threw it many times into bodies heated by the embrace of love, and each time it returned. Dozens of times, hundreds of times, thousands. He threw it constantly with the same hope and received it with increasing disappointment and anger. Why was one stubborn soul blocking his path to a new life? He felt a growing urge to leave the stubborn ball behind. But he held back; abandoning his soul would mean wandering aimlessly, and that was always the only hope. Meanwhile, the world was changing more and more. Patryk increasingly threw his remaining ball not at loving bodies but at incubators where artificial insemination took place. At first, he hoped that this altered mode of reproduction would encourage the stubborn ball to live, but it returned just the same. And the world was changing even more. Space expeditions, one after another, were leaving Earth, carrying colonists to new worlds. The planet, in turn, was increasingly filled with machines, ever more complex and refined. Until finally, as another type of robot rolled off the assembly line, Patryk sensed from it the same signal that had once beckoned him from the loving couple. So he began to throw the last soul at the machines being built in the factories, but it refused to settle even in its shell. Meanwhile, the number of humans dwindled, until they finally vanished completely. And then Patryk gave up. He decided that since he couldn't fulfill his mission, he had to find another purpose. He would gladly do something for the people. But they were gone now. He remembered that ships had once left Earth. So he decided to follow in their footsteps. He was a spirit, and gliding through space was no problem for him. However, he quickly realized that his abilities were limited. He couldn't fly at will. Apparently, the soul was also subject to some physical laws, or perhaps it contained some elements of matter? In any case, Patryk realized he couldn't travel faster than the speed of light. Years passed before he reached the next star. He visited star after star. Sometimes, on some planets, he encountered the ruins of Earth's bases, but never living people. Undaunted, he set out for new worlds. However, wandering through space was tedious. Although he was a ghost, he didn't feel tired,However, boredom increasingly set in. Finally, during one of his journeys, he discovered he could influence matter. Since he had nothing else to do during the long flight, he began to develop this ability, and over the next hundreds of years, he became increasingly proficient. He changed the flight path of particles he encountered in space, then comets and asteroids. He learned to trigger and control nuclear reactions. For fun, or perhaps out of revenge for a disappointment, he caused stars to explode in systems he had already explored. However, although he made ever larger circles, he found no people. Until finally, as he traversed the distant reaches of the galaxy, he encountered a faint, long-unheard signal. The signal that bodies had once used to summon him in the ecstasy of love. It was faint, but it allowed him to determine the direction from which it came. So he set off in that direction. Soon, as he approached one of the stars, the signal began to intensify, and by the time Patrick reached the planet, it was quite distinct. But it wasn't coming from the surface. In orbit, he came across an old Earth freighter. The kind that had once flown colonists from Earth, eager to settle new worlds. The ship was almost intact, except for the control room, which must have been struck by a small meteor. He checked the craft thoroughly but found no one alive. Both the crew and the colonists had been dead for centuries. However, the signal wasn't coming from the crew compartments. It was coming from the cargo bay, where frozen human embryos sat in containers, and next to them were the equipment in which children had once developed and been born. Apparently, these were the colonists' offspring. Despite the long wait, most of the embryos were alive. However, only one of them was sending out a signal indicating it was awaiting a soul. The remaining "balls" must have received theirs long ago and now hovered halfway between life and death. Without a second thought, he drew the last hated ball and threw it at the container containing the embryo. It absorbed it and never let it go. At the same time, a black hole opened before Patrick, as inviting as the one he'd seen after his death. Yet something held him back. On the one hand, he couldn't blame himself. After all, this soul had imprisoned him in this world for thousands of years. Why couldn't he repay it and do the same to it? All he had to do was allow himself to be sucked into that enticing hole. Instead, Patrick descended above the planet and flew over its surface. It was very similar to Earth. There were oceans and seas, and the north and south poles were covered by ice caps. On the largest continent, he saw tall mountains with snow whitening their peaks. Two moons orbited the planet. One the size of Earth's, the other much smaller. However, life here must have taken a different path, or perhaps it had had less time. Some of the plants growing on the land resembled those he had once seen in illustrations of the vegetation of ancient eras.There were almost no animals on land, except for small flying insects. Instead, the oceans were teeming with life.

Patrick stared from the ship to the gaping, unfathomably black hole. He was like Sisyphus, who after many attempts had managed to lift a boulder to the top of a mountain. But now the hero wondered whether to push the boulder down and begin again. Suddenly, he made a decision. He surrounded the ship with a field and carefully lowered it to the planet's surface. The place he had chosen fully deserved the name paradise. At least, that was how he had imagined paradise as a child. With the power at his disposal, he activated the incubators. He feared the thawed embryo would return its soul. This did not happen, and the hole hanging above it continued to invite him in. Yet for months he watched over the growing embryos. Then, for years, he watched as the children grew. An invisible, protective spirit taught them, healed them when they were sick, established leaders and laws, punished and rewarded them. And the children grew ever larger, until one day, two figures emerged from the waiting hole. One held the bag of transparent balls that Patrick knew so well, the other carried a scythe. He stepped out to meet them, but they paid him no attention, or perhaps didn't notice him at all. Only then did Patrick fall into thought. If he had left his soul in a frozen embryo, he might have had real doubts, but now... The children he had raised were already adults. He knew they would remember their invisible guardian and the rights he had bestowed upon them. Besides, whether in life or after death, he was always modest and religious, and what he did was beginning to resemble playing God more and more. Perhaps, then, it was time for...

*

"Do you remember the words you spoke before death first came for you?" the faceless figure standing beside him asked Patrick. "You were right then—life truly is like school, and you've just moved on to the next grade. Besides, you'd already completed part of that grade's curriculum in the previous one. Now a new existence awaits you. The life of the creator and destroyer of worlds."

"What if I left my last soul in a frozen embryo?" Patrick suddenly asked.

"Nothing, you'd still pass the next grade," the mysterious being replied. "However, I believe that what you've done will count as credit for your next life.

" "This one as the creator of worlds?

" "No. For the life that comes after it," the figure replied.

"And what will that be like?" Patrick asked again.

"I don't know. I'm only allowed to enter that world through the waiting room..."