Interview With Samuel

        Loneliness. It is definately an understatement of what world actually thinks it is. It was my only way of having peace of mind. Sometimes, it's the only reason I think I'm still here. After 83 years of being alone what else was there to do? I never had a wife, never had kids, nothing. Nothing at all but cigarettes and black coffee. I sat looking out my window in the kitchen across from an empty chair whom I call Theresa. A bright hand crafted chair I bought in my younger years when I was possibly in my twenties. If I listen close enough, it sometimes creaks, and whispers to me. I have always felt that was a better noise than the laughter of the children that frolicked and played in the school outside my window for so many years. 

        Every now and then, I'd see a little boy or girl pass my window and watch me, maybe wave, and then I would only gave a blank stare and not communicate in any sort of way. My doctor says I should really try to talk to others. It's good for me, but here I am with not even a pet that's close to me. Maybe life would change for me. Maybe someday. 

        I drunk first sip of coffee for the morning and gave a relieved hum. Just then as I got ready to plop down on the seat, a knock rumbled at my door. "Oh my god!" I said annoyingly. The knocks were impatient and came in rows of ten no more than a millesecond apart. The knocking continued. "I'm coming I'm coming!" I grabbed my cane and peered through the side window next to the door. A man standing in a suit and hat at my door. "What do you want?" I told him through the window not even trying to reach for the doorknob. 

        "Sir, may I please have a word?" He told me. 

        "Yes why you think I'm talking to you right here son?" I told him. The man sighed. 

       "Sir, I wanted to possibly talk to you and document the happenings and occurrences you have had in the civil war." I took a good look at this boy, who wasnt very tall in appearance. It almost seemed as if his suit was eating him or was it just the case that he had just gotten suit tailored to big. I rolled my eyes. 

        "How many times do you have to hear it?" I told him. 

      "Sir, it would be an honor if I do say so myself." I snarled a bit and stepped away from the door and looked over at my confedarate flag on the wall as I had began to walk away. I only sighed because of my committment to that flag. I realized it was my duty to tell my story to this man. I then opened the door to the disappointed young man before me, who was just about to walk away, but as soon as he caught my eye, his face lit up with joy. 

        "C'mon be quick, I'm in the mist of my coffee." I said walking away. He stepped in. "Shut the door son" I told him sitting down. The boy stood holding tight to his clipboard a little intimidated to even sit down. 

        "Have a seat son." I told him. He began to sit on Theresa. But instead of telling him not to, I found more joy in picking on the man. I waited as he slowly eased down into the seat , but as soon as his butt got a centimeter close to the seat at the chair I exlaimed: "No not on that seat, don't you have manners boy!" He then popped up instantly. "Take that seat over yonder." I said pointing over to a raggedy chair on the wall to my left. He sat down. The room made not a stir for a moment as we filed through the thoughts in our minds, waiting for one another to speak. All that could be heard was ticking clock in the wall. 

        "Well?" I told him. 

        The boy gulped. "Well, I have come here as I said before to talk to you about the civil war."

        "What do you have a school paper to work on?" I asked him. 

        "No, I'm actually with the armed forces as well as the government , and you are the only known survivor left to talk to it about it. We are just brushing up in some old cases."

        "What old cases son, what happened happened ok, and that's plain it." I told him.

        The young man adjusted his tie and then went into his briefcase at his sides and pulled out files. 

        "I just want you to tell me what you remember about everything. When you joined, all of that and see if it matches up." 

        "Do you even know how long ago this was son?". I said to him giving him a questionable look as he looked down into his paperwork for a moment. I only looked at him this was because he was very much a young man. How could he possibly recall even the history of the civil war. I knew when it happened he had to be no more than a toddler.

        "I know sir, but try your best."

        I was born to John and Kate. I was their only child. You would think after all those years of being an only child that I would've had a family by now but that isn't the case." I gave an uneasy laughing cupping both of my hands around my coffee. 

        "I came from a family where our slaves did everything. I not lift a finger for a thing. And really I guess, that's where it all started. I was taught to keep those niggers in their place. Don't let them get ahead of you. And that's exactly what we did while we were in the force. Made sure we killed as many as we could. Even if that meant straying away from the mission." The young man before me shook his head and took down notes. He was pretty odd to me. And when I say odd, he had the oddest way about him, like he was a bit uncomfortable, but then again I did give him an uncomfortable seat. He looked at me and scratched his back though his suit. 

        "And you as a person can actually live with yourself killing all those innocent men and women?" The young man said to me. 

        "What are you, a nigger lover?" I told him. I let out a whisp of air and then lit a cigarette. "Do you think I give a care about some nigger? " I laughed. "You've got no idea who your talking to boy. " I leaned back in my seat relaxed. The young man shook his head. 

        In a deep, dark  voice that wasn't originally his boosted out "Do you believe in God Samuel? Do you?"

        As much as this voice made me uncomfortable a small bit, i answered him rudely "Not really. What's that man ever did for me huh?" I told him releasing the smoke from my cigarette out into the air. The young man then stood up and began to read from the files. 

        "One hundred and fifty one deaths, and you're not even an honorable man. These were only the deaths NOT committed in the line of duty. And all black men, women, and children. Not to mention some of which you raped ans stole from, ridiculed, the list goes on Samuel."

        I looked astonished at this man as he read all of this information and for the first time in a long time, I was frightened. "Son what the hell has this got to do with the forces, as well as how the hell do you know what I've done outside of the force?" I told him leaning towards him. 

        The young man then stood up still scratching his back and then removed his suit jacket and dropped it to the floor. He had on a long sleeve white shirt and then from his back sprouted two wings like that of a crow, dark and black, maybe even like that of an angel. His height grew taller and his eyes turned gold.The suit for a moment fit him well and then he only continued to grow begger until he reached about 7 feet tall.The clothes ripped from his back, and he now wore a dirty worn out black robe.  He was now the figure of almost that of a demon. 

        "I have come to evaluate you Samuel Thomas Jones." He said to me and then a staff appeared upon his left hand. "I tried to talk the elders and God into five more years of your worthless life, but you are a disgrace, just as they said you are. You are ignorant, conniving, evil. Your life has served as no more than a way to take others out of their lives, when these people you killed were hard working, had a family." My body shook I was so scared, and the coffee that I had cupped in my hand clattered to the floor and then shattered. 

        "W-who a-a-are you?" I told him. 

        "Samuel, I am the angel of death, Cain. And I'm not sorry for taking you away. I do this one with pleasure" Just then his staff rose over my head and I felt myself pulled from the inside of my body underneath my skin and I instantly blacked out for only a moment, then saw my body outside of my body fall to the ground and my soul which was now myself beheld black chains upon my wrist and ankles which were all connected. He then pushed me along and then took his staff and made a few circles about the floor until a black portal appeared. He stepped in it and had me step in as we both disappeared. I wept.

        "Cain, who have you brought me today?" The angel behind he desk asked looking me up and down. 

        Cain gave light laugh. "Samuel Thomas Jones." The angel at the office desk stood up instantly. He laughed, his hands on the desk. I only say angel truthfully because I knew I was dead, and I had no others words to describe him. But these angels were a weird bunch. They once had wings, but they seemed to had been cut and the wings burnt black. They stuck out on the outside of their business suits. 

        "Does this man even deserve a viewing?!" They both laughed and then the angel called over two other angels. "Can you believe this is Sam Jones?" 

        "The Sam Jones? You're pulling my leg right?" The angel said to him. 

        "Let me do his viewing. " the other angel said. "This'll be the longest review ever with all of that sin! I'd love to be the one who sends him to hell!"

        "No." a voice chimed in, not as joyous as the angels joking about me as if they knew me. All of the angels quieted instantly when he spoke. He seemed like an old man. Short gray hair, baby blue dress shirt, and black slacks. He seemed very mean like he didn't want to be there, judging by the tone of his voice, which was deep and aggravated."I'll take care of this worthless waist of God's breath."

        "As you wish." The angel at the desk said. Cain pushed me and I fell to the floor. I stood up and then followed behind the angel that was going to review me. Needless to say, I was so afraid. And now that I'm dead it's not like I can say I'm afraid for my life. He took me to a room. An office if you will, complete with a desk and chair and an old projector screen behind his head. The angel put on his glasses as he sat down and told me to have a seat. The room was dark and looked as if the walls were painted a deep dark blue. The blinds were shut tight and almost looked as of they were hardly ever opened to get sunlight. I gulped. My spirit stirred. There was a knock on the door and an angel enters handing the guy at the table files. 

        "Okay." He said straightening the papers, stacking it against the desk. "Hello sir, I am with Watchovaya industries and this is your home coming review."  he said very rehearsed. he must do this many times in a day.

        "W-what?" I said. 

        "Sam you are dead, I know it's hard to believe, but this is what's happening. Now we are going to review your life recordings, the bad and the good." He said. I was still in de Nile from believing that my body lie lifeless on the floor at my two bedroom home, where no one stayed with me, where no one checked on me. And I wonder now if my blinds had been closed, that if a child would even see me to be able to call someone before I decay. I sighed and held my head. The angel then stood up and headed over to the projector on the wall behind me. He cut it on and the movie began to roll across the screen. The images very clear, and life like. I viewed now my life as I lived it as the angel fiddled with the paperwork about me. I saw my birth, my childhood of bossing around the slaves that my family own and then an endless amount of killings I had done to blacks. The hangings, the shootings, the rude remarks, the rapes. I cried as the movie rolled on he had to stop the film just because I had done that much bad, and really the only good I ever did was help my brothers in war. Saving some lives of only whites. 

        The angel cleared his throat. He leaned back into his seat. "Now we couldn't go through the whole film as you can see." he said raising his eyesbrows and lowering them back. It was just that much bad. So needless to say your future according to the point chart, is to be in hell." I stared at him. 

        "What?" I said. 

       "Hell, Sam, you are going to hell." He repeated. Just when he reached over to a lever on the desk beside him to pull and drop me to hell when  there was another knock at the door. 

        "What?!" He told the person at the door rather aggravated that he had been inturrupted in his joy of sending me to hell.

        "Sir, God has asked for this man and the presence of Cain." The person at the door said. 

 "Christ almighty, ok take him." He said slamming the paperwork onto the floor. The person at the door opened it, and there beside him stood Cain. 

        "C'mon now Sam." Cain told me. I stood up slowly, my shackles jingling when I did and followed behind him. He took me out the door to the left, down a long hall and finally after what seemed to be forever, we reached a door. He opened it and all that was there was clouds and the sun. Much brighter than what it was in the building. I had to shield my eyes until my pupils adjusted to the sunlight. I shielded my eyes with my arm on my forehead. 

        "Come now," Cain said stepping onto the sky. "I'm pretty sure that if this is concerning you, the Lord is quite impatient. Let's hurry." He extended his arm out to me and I grabbed his hand afraid that I may fall from the sky, but when I took the first step, it was as if I were on regular concrete ground, except a lot more comfortable under my feet. I followed him as he pulled me along to what seemed to be a gate. As I got closer, I realized it was the pearly gates. Right next to the door was a high alter we had to look up to see. An angel sat there, and he too had no wings. His wings seemed to have been cut off. I cringed at the thought imagining what that felt like. The angel was very into the work on his desk. He was drawing. Abel cleared his throat. The angel finally looked up at us.

        "Well if it ain't Cain. " he said. I looked a little above his altar, where there were pictures hung about the gate, and signatures I guess of people he had held their autographs. "You know I'm not supposed to let you in here." He said. I looked over at Cain a little puzzled because I thought he was an angel. 

        "God has asked for us. Do you even check real paperwork, instead of just sitting here and drawing all day?" Cain said to him. 

        The angel then rustled through his paperwork, drawings falling to the clouds under our feet. "Ah here we go." Okay I can let you in. The gates instantly began to open slowly and he got back into his drawings.

        We entered and our feet now was on a gold pathway. I saw many spirits walking about, chattering and then some of the angels who whispered to one another of why Cain was there. The pathway winded down the road getting a bit steeper which lead to a huge throne ahead that we could see from the distance we were walking. I had never experienced this much peace in any place. Not even in my own home. I was so at peace with all. I was so happy i could almost cry, despite the case that i could possibly be going to hell within the next few minutes. 

        We finally made it up to the throne. The throne was empty. Cain waited patiently by my side. Suddenly a strong wind came and it swirled upon the throne and god appeared. His face was so bright that we couldn't see his face. We were almost like ants in his presence. Abel held his head down and so did I, about bit afraid that if i didn't I would be slain, wel, in this sense, I guess sent to hell. 

        "Cain, I have asked for you to bring me this man. I wanted to review this man. " God said in his loud booming voice. Wind blew a bit when he spake across our faces. 

        "Yes my God, I have come with him. This is he." He told him. Cain pushed me forward a bit and I stood before him, afraid to look up. 

        "Samuel. Samuel, Samuel, Samuel." He tisked. "What am I to say of a man like you." The Lord sighed. I dare not answer so afraid. I couldn't believe after all these yeasr of speaking against this man that he was very very very real.

        "It's crazy because down there on earth you had so much to say to others. Smart remarks, rude remarks. You were such a pain for my people. So here's your review and don't think you're special because your review is coming from me. This is very much a bad thing Samuel if I have to give a soul their review." I felt myself shaking I was so afraid. "Here's what I'm gonna do." He then spoke out to other spirits. "All of the people that was killed, ridiculed by his man please appear before me."