#SwiftFicFriday Week 42

I know I’ve disappeared again on y’all for a while. It’s been a challenge to balance all that’s been going on. Between COVID, the George Floyd protests/riots happening all around the hospital where I work, and just life in general, it’s been hard to be creative. But I do have a quick flash piece for y’all courtesy of Kat over at Fiction Trials and the SwiftFicFriday prompt. We had up 150-300 words and the quote “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” from Voltaire. I give you

Time to Answer

Tires screeched as gravel flew. He had enough time to realize the car careening off the unpaved curve headed right for him. Then the world disappeared.

***

An odd ambient light filled his vision, though he couldn’t tell where it came from. He seemed to be floating, too, despite feeling like he stood on solid ground. Stranger still, the last thing he remembered was working on his flower gardens near the end of his driveway.

“James Christian Rice, it is time to answer for your life.” The deep voice echoed even though James saw no walls, or anything, to bounce the sound around.

He frowned. “What do you mean, answer for my life?”

“All that you have done, all that you left undone, will now be weighed.”

“What?” James no more than got that single word out when he felt himself be paralyze him. A creepy sensation of something rifling around in his head came next.

Memories unbidden came flooding out. High school pranks, his first job, his first girlfriend, the times he went out drinking before he’d turned twenty-one. All of it played out like movies in super-fast forward.

“You have done many wonderful things, James Christian Rice. And left many opportunities for good out there. Why did you not take them?”

James blinked several times, trying to formulate an answer. “I did what I could. I tried to help.”

“But you did not always help when you had a chance. Why?” This time, instead of curiosity, a hint of condemnation colored the words.

James shook his head, unsure what to say.

“You have just one chance. Return to your life to do better or face the final weighing. Choose.”

James’s heart thudded hard. Had he done enough? This being thought otherwise.

“I will return to try again.”