John Vanderfeller Senior was playing cards with his friends. It’s all he wanted to do anymore. There was a time when he wanted to see everything. Wanted to do everything. Nothing was out of reach. But now, he was just happy meeting the same three friends he always met and playing the same games he always played. He was bored, but he was happy to be bored. He’d done enough and wasn’t looking for any more excitement. He was excited about the boring years ahead.

 

“Hey Great Grand Dad,” a voice greeted from behind him. He turned around to see his great grandson, John Vanderfeller the Fourth. He was in a tailor made, Italian suit and was smoking an e-cigarette. He looked like a man in his 50s trying to look like a man in his 30s. “What’s happening?” John The Fourth asked.

It took a minute for John Senior to realize who he was. “John? John The Fourth? Little Johnny? Is it really you?” he said, standing up and grabbing him by his shoulders. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen you since you were a baby.”

 

“I know, right? This is unbelievable. I’ve seen pictures of you holding me. It was just after I was born. You were in pretty rough shape in those pics. That was right before the end. So, bummer.” John The Fourth looked at the card game. “Looks like you’ve got an intense game going on. You’re really living it up here, aren’t you? What are you playing?”

 

“Bridge.”

 

John The Fourth scoffed. “Oh, come on, man. Isn’t that a little cliché? You could go anywhere, you could do anything, and what are you doing? Sitting around, playing bridge.”

 

John Senior laughed. “I know. I know. It’s not the most glamorous thing to do. This place is wonderful. It truly is limitless. It was very exciting, at least at first. Then, well, like everything else, the fire faded after a while.”

 

John The Fourth sneered. “Yeah, I guess. Seems like a waste, doesn’t it? You work your ass off being a good person. You do all the right things. And this is the payoff? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem worth it. I thought heaven would be full of blue skies and clouds and stuff. No wonder you’re bored. All there is here is white light.”

 

“Yeah, it’s not what you would expect. It may not look like much, but it’s better than you could ever imagine. Trust me on that.”

 

“If you insist,” John The Fourth said, shaking his head looking around.

 

“I can’t believe you’re here. Already.” John Senior gasped. “But it’s too soon. You’re too young. What happened?”

 

“Easy there, Pop’s Pop’s Pop, don’t act so melodramatic. It’s not like that. I’m not dead. I’m just here on business.”

 

“Here on business? What does that mean?”

 

Ten men walked from behind John The Fourth. Each of them carrying a large, gray pillar. The pillars were 15 feet tall and look like outside space heaters. “Yeah,” John The Fourth yelled to the men, “So you’ll need to put some space between the pillars. At least 50 yards. But not anymore than 100 yards,” John The Fourth said while browsing on his phone. “Once everyone’s in position, put the pillars down. Signal each other through the walkie talkies. Tell me when you’re all in position. Do not, I repeat, do not contact me until you’re all in position. I’m having a heart to heart with my roots here. I don’t want it interrupted by a million back and forth messages from you guys. K?”

 

“What is happening? What are these men doing?” John Senior asked.

 

“They work for me. I’m kinda the CEO of your company now. We’ve expanded a lot since you were around. I bet you didn’t know you were sitting on a gold mine here. We’re standing on the biggest energy source known to man. At least the biggest one we could find so far. It’s an awesome story. So, check this, we knew that there was a lot of energy somewhere in the Universe. We just didn’t know where. Our R&D guys couldn’t pin down its location. We searched all over the galaxy. Every planet that we could find. Every corner of space. And nothing. Zilch. Then, suddenly BAM, we discovered this place. We were super surprised that we found heaven. I mean actual heaven. Not heaven like a nice, beautiful place or something, but actually, heaven for real. It blew our minds.”

 

“You found us? You mean, you’re alive. These men are alive. But you somehow found us?”

 

“Yeah, try to keep up, Pops 3.” 

 

“But how is that possible?”

...

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