the bird on fire

by Charles Schnell

Charles wrote this story for a fiction contest. He shares his wisdom with us.

She found herself in an endless sea of fog. There was no horizon in sight. In front of her was a faint hint of a shadow of an empty, humongous bird cage with the gate wide open. There seemed to be a lot more shadows, but she could only make out that one. Then she heard a deep, powerful, commanding voice coming from the empty, inanimate cage.

“Hello, my child. I am God. Welcome to the afterlife. You have passed away,” the voice said.

“W-What?” she asked terrified, “What’s going on? Why me? There’s so much I wanted to do in life.”

“Your time was up. You only get so much time in life, afterall. Now, let me ask you this: How did you like your time alive? Do you feel like you spent it wisely?”

“Well, sure. I mean…” she was struggling to find the right words.

“I don’t believe you,” God said, “Do you really think that you spent your time wisely, or do you just want to think that?”

“Well… but I…” she tried to answer.

“You know the truth,” God said, “You wasted your time in life doing nothing but planning your future, which you’ll never get to see now.”

These words pierced her heart. She knew they were true. She remembered going through all of lower and middle school doing nothing but studying. She spent her whole life never going out with friends or family, never playing with friends or family, and never having a normal childhood. She was so excited to get out of school and go into the adult world. She spent all her time studying and fretting over grades that she never got any enjoyment out of life. She never got to live life to the fullest. Once she realized all of this, she broke down into tears.

“Well, I guess I really never got to have friends, or have fun, or relax with my family. I just studied my whole life to have a good future,” she said sobbing, “But now that I am dead, I guess that doesn’t even matter now!”

“Then, tell me this,” He started, “What has this experience taught you about life? Have you acknowledged your mistakes?”

“Yes, I think I understand now,” she started, “While grades are important, they mean nothing if you don’t take the time to enjoy life. If… if I had been able to balance grades with the rest of life, then maybe I’d die happy right now.”

“So, you’re not going to die happily? That’s unfortunate.”

“As long as I know that I didn’t live life the way I should have, that I worried too much about the future and not the present, then I’ll never rest in peace!” she exclaimed as silence sank in for a few seconds.

“Let me ask you another question, my child,” God finally said, “Do you want to know what this bird cage in front of you is?”

“Sure,” she said, some tears still coming down her cheeks.

“Alright then,” He said. As God spoke, she was risen and pulled into the empty cage. Once she was in the cage, the gate slammed shut, and all of the fog had lifted.

What she saw was extraordinary. It was now a sea of a bunch of empty bird cages with their gates wide open. There was no horizon in sight, only cages. The ground was grass. There was a clear sky with a big, bright sun, but something was different about this grass, sky, sun, and these cages. They weren’t any common colors, but instead colors no soul has ever seen before. They were entirely different colors than any other color that has been seen by souls like her’s before. These new colors were so beautiful and unimaginable. No human would ever be able to think of these colors without seeing them first.

“This place is one of the many treasures of life, the greatest gift I have given to all of you,” God said, “It is connected to everyone’s souls. Outside of these cages represents the full experience of life. These cages represent the entrapment of souls who deep down actually want to go enjoy life, but aren’t. In order to enjoy life, they must leave the cage. You were the only one left who had not left the cage, as you can see. Make sense?”

“So,” she started, “you’re saying that I had get out of this cage–my cage, in order to have enjoyed life?”

“Correct,” God started, “but now what are you going to do? You are dead. You wasted all the precious time I gave you on stressful labor. You never truly experienced the thrills of life.”

“I know,” she started with a tear pouring slowly down her cheek, “but now that I am dead, what’s going to happen now?”

“You shall join me,” God said, “Come, my child, with me to Heaven.”

Once He spoke those fabled words, her vision was being slowly enveloped by light. Pretty soon, she could not feel her body anymore. She lost all her senses, except for one.

“Tell me child,” she heard God say, “when you hear ‘Heaven,’ what is the first image that comes to you?”

“What do I see?” she asked herself. As she pondered and wondered, she finally thought of it: what Heaven meant to her. Then, she was suddenly there; she was at the place which Heaven meant to her.

She found herself in an endless sea of green grass. In the horizons were the beautiful mountains that surrounded the small desert valley she lived in. She always loathed that small desert valley. It filled her with nothing but despair. Yet, whenever she looked at the horizon, with those thick clouds mixing in with the mountains, she would be filled with hope. That spectacular view, that piece of artwork, would inspire her to keep living. Those beautiful mountains, coming together with the gorgeous clouds, made her sense God inside of her. God would give her hope.

“Heaven,” God started, “was created to be one thing: genuine peace.”

“Genuine peace?”

“Genuine peace is beautiful. Genuine peace is a truly unfathomable state of mind that all souls yearn for. To be free from all negativity, to be in your own personal sanctuary, where all of the evil and demons of the world cannot touch you, to be able to look into anyone or thing, and see only the beauty of them, to have someone you love love you back, to have everything you want: that’s what it means to have genuine peace within you. This beautiful scenery fills you with that genuine peace, right, my child?”

She had nothing left to say. Looking at those beautiful mountains and clouds, that living artwork she loved so much, with God’s teachings in her soul, made her drop to her knees. She mentally broke. She bawled like nothing of her life was left. She was done. She remembered her childhood; she loved staying up every night to look at the sunset in the mountains. It would be even more beautiful with the clouds merging right into the mountain. It was such a beautiful sight.

“Why? Why did I waste so much of the so little precious time I had doing nothing but laboring with no enjoyment? What was my reward? Tell me! Why couldn’t I have fun like I wanted to? Why couldn’t I run away to those mountains, and find new adventures and stories for my life, like I wanted to?”

“Maybe you should not have taken your time on Earth for granted. You should have lived life bravely. You should have taken chances in your life. You should have gone and lived a wonderful life. Death is an inevitable fate. Live life to its fullest always. Memento mori.”

And so, there she would stand for all eternity. Staring at those beautiful mountains, and wondering why she lived life with limitations. Why did she bind herself? She yearned for emancipation, for liberation. She should have enjoyed life.

Go live a wonderful life.