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ALIVE
They say that choice is everything, don’t they?
but you can’t choose your own parents, can you?
You have no say about the way, the why,
the when, the day you die. Unless you take
things into your own hands. Play dangerous
games, Russian roulette or god with your life.

Then, there’s 'them' that do know the secret of
where they came from, where they’re going to go,
and they know why they chose to come to time.
To experience the restrictions of
time and place, hardship and humanity.
In fact all of us are in that same boat –
some of us perhaps, don’t remember the
choices that we made in the time garden
back in the void side of eternity.

She sits there on the hard salt surface of
The Void. Waiting, watching other people
doing the same thing they all sit there too,
waiting, watching each other, all day long;
And it is a long day. Night never comes,
they sit there motionless in the half-light
which is the only illumination,
for there is no sun, no moon, and no stars.

Nobody speaks, century’s turn into
millenniums and pass by on the earth.
She doesn’t notice and they don’t notice.
Then, what would have been one day, had there been
any time at all, in this barren place.
Something started to change; a line of trees
began to grow, they were a great distance
away from the billion or so people.
But someone near the front of the silent,
seated masses saw something they had not
witnessed before. They saw a different life
form emerging in front of their own eyes.

After what would have been another one
or two century’s on earth the tree line
had matured, there was now a great wall of
trees that everyone seated there could see.
Slowly at first, a few of the people
began to rise up and start the long walk
towards this line of trees. And she watched them,
waiting, wanting to see what would happen.
On reaching the trees they disappear for
just a second or two then reappear
and begin to trudge back towards their seats.
Every so often someone would go to
The tree line and enter and not come back.

After a decade of watching all this
she decided to make the journey herself.
When it was her turn to enter the trees
she felt something, she shivered, it was cold
and it was dark beyond the line of trees.
She was not frightened or scared of the woods
she enjoyed every moment, each new smell,
each new sound. There were animals and plants
and birds and days and nights and a sun and
a moon and stars in the night sky and rain
and snow and wind and there was a garden.

In the garden stood a man with a beard
he was wearing clothes and shoes and a watch.
She asked him about the watch. What was it?
These were the first words that she ever spoke.
He told her that he was the Timekeeper
and that with the watch he could tell the time.
Then he showed her around the time garden
it was a microcosm of the earth.
The animals are born and they live for
a certain time and then they reproduce
and instruct their offspring to do the same.
After an allotted period of time
They grow old and die, like everyone else.
The timekeeper explained these things to her.

Can anybody go to earth? She asked.
Yes, said the timekeeper, but only once!
How do I get there, when can I go there?
Soon, he replied. First there are things you need
to know about time. He then took her to
a secret place where he showed her something.
It’s time for you to choose the century
you wish to be born in and your parents.
When you go to earth you must remember
why you wanted to go there. Remember,
to remember this conversation here.

She said, Can I ask another question?
Of course you may, replied the Timekeeper.
Why did most people only stay in the
time garden for a few seconds then go
back to their seats and what happened to the
others who did not come back? She enquired?
Aha! The majority of people
Go to earth, live their lives like hell, forget
to remember why they chose to be there
in the first place. So when they finally
die, they go straight back to their nothingness
for all of eternity in the Void.
It happens in the blink of an eyelid.

The others who do not return they are
the chosen few, that is, that they chose to
remember this little conversation
and for them, earth and time were a simple
stepping stone to an eternal future
a paradisiacal reality!
270108
Doktir Nairobi is The Timekeeper; He is not a medical doctor. You can find him at: http://www.gobsplot.blogspot.com/ Please note: Gobsplot is an anagram of blogspot!