Heaven's Halfway House From the outside you wouldn’t have realised this building was anything other than a building, let alone Heaven’s Halfway House, the place where every living soul goes at least twice in their existence. One when it is very young, and the next a number of decades later when it is time to return. As the car approached the building the little girl squirmed in her seat, she was really excited. Her friend had told her she was going on an exciting adventure, though he failed to mention what that adventure was going to be. When she asked, all he said was ‘Now that’s what we will discover when you see me again’. That was the reason why she was excited, she was going to see him again, and however long that was going to be, it was going to happen. The driver of the car turned towards her.
’Are you okay, little miss?’ the driver asked.
’Uh-huh.’ the girl replied with a glee smile on her face.
’Well we are almost there.’
’Goodie!’
As they got closer to the building the girl noticed two huge doors at either side of the building. Both had huge lettering on them. One had ‘ARRIVALS’ the other had ‘DEPARTURES’, the girl’s car joined the queue of cars that led to the Arrival door. The girl wrapped her arms around the satchel that her friend had given her. In a car that had just joined the queue for the Departure door sat Malcolm Forrester, Math’s Professor, recently deceased. He was sat with his briefcase which his driver had given him by his side and was watching his funeral on a television built into the back of the driver’s seat. He leaned forward and knocked on the window between him and the driver. The driver pulled the window back.
’Yes Sir?’
’Excuse me; I was wondering if you could tell me what time we will get in?’
’Time sir?’
’Yes – You know, 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock. Surely you know what time is?’
’I do, but time doesn’t exist here.’
’Oh.’
’But I can tell you we are next for the door.’
’Okay, thank you.’
’Anyway, would it matter what time we got there?’ Malcolm thought about this, and replied with a perhaps not. They pulled to the door, just as a car with a little girl inside pulled in to the Arrivals door.
The room was crowded, people bustling, some sat around some talking to each other. There were only two seats left in the room, of over a thousand seats. Situated next to each other. The girl sat in the right hand seat and Malcolm in the left. Neither acknowledged each other’s presence. Malcolm immediately opened his briefcase and withdrew a newspaper from within. On the front there was a picture of Malcolm himself, with his name and birth and death dates on as the headline. As he read the girl peered over his shoulder. After a while he looked down at her, sniffed and finally commented:
‘Yes and what do you want?’ The girl looked up at him. ‘That’s my mummy, that is.’ Malcolm looked down at the picture the girl was pointing at. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, that’s my daughter and she was only just pregnant.’ ‘Yes it is. I know because my friend told me so. He showed me pictures. Look.’ At which she delved into her satchel and pulled out a photo album. She flicked through it and finally came to a picture of a woman.
’Look.’ she repeated. Malcolm took the photo album from the girl. As soon as he had soaked up the photograph his hands started to tremble. ‘Are you okay?’ the girl asked. Malcolm nodded and tried to smile.
’You miss her don’t you?’ the girl asked. ‘I do.’ ‘Don’t worry, I’ll look after her.’ at this the girl got off her seat and skipped around. Malcolm watched her for a while, happiness came back into his soul. He knew his daughter was going to be okay, for she was going to have this little girl in her #life. Soon the girl got tired of skipping around and came and joined Malcolm once more. ‘You’re Lucky.’ she stated manner of factly. ‘Why’s that?’ he said ruffling her hair, which made her giggle ‘You’re going to meet my friend.’ at which the girl started talking about her friend, about how he looked after her, and all the people who returned. She went on for hours about her friend and all the wonderful things about him.
 ‘He sounds really nice.’ Malcolm said ‘I’m looking forward to meeting him.’ Malcolm thought for a minute or two, then picked his briefcase up and withdrew a photo album, which is very similar to the girls.
’Would you like to see some photographs of your family?’ The girl nodded so Malcolm peeled the album open. They spent hours looking through the album; the girl slowly got tired and placed her head on Malcolm’s lap. But she stayed attentive all through Malcolm’s stories laughing at the tale of when her mother got her pony tale stuck in a locked toilet door, and cried at the story of the pet dog dying. But to Malcolm the crying didn’t seem natural. it almost seemed as if it were the first time she had ever cried. They soon got to a photograph of Malcolm’s late wife. He quickly turned the page over but the girl forced it back. ‘You don’t want to see that.’ Malcolm said ‘Yes I do.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it is important to you.’ ‘Bu……’ Malcolm started to object, he really didn’t want to go onto this subject. ‘But nothing, tell me about her. She was important to you, who is she?’ ‘She’s your grandmother.’ Malcolm started to tell her about his wife. He spoke for hours on the subject from when he met her in the local market when they haggled over a melon – to her untimely death, at the news of this the girls eyes lit up. ‘I know her.’ ‘What?’ the girl was getting more and more excited. ‘I know her. I know Grandma.’ she said, she got up off her seat and started skipping around. Malcolm whipped up from his seat and grabbed the girl lightly by the shoulders. ‘What do you mean you know her – how?’ ‘Where you’re going – where I’ve been. She was there, she was telling me about you. I thought I knew the stories.’
Malcolm collapsed back into his chair; he hadn’t thought he would be seeing her again. The girl sidled up to him. ‘She misses you, you know. She was always talking about you. I just hadn’t realised.’ tears started streaming from Malcolm’s eyes. The girl moved so she was in front of Malcolm, clasped his head between her small hands and look him straight into his eyes. ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Nothing.’ ‘But you are crying.’ ‘It’s just I- I never thought I would see her again.’
 The door marked ARRIVALS swung open and a driver walked in, he walked up to the girl and Malcolm, bent down and spoke to the girl. ‘Hello there, I’ve come to take you.’ the girl embraced Malcolm with a hug, whipped her photo album back into her satchel, and placed the satchel back on her back. She started to go. Malcolm grabbed her arm. ‘Tell me more about her.’ he asked ‘Hey, why not ask her yourself. you’ve got 30 years of catching up to do.’ ‘So we do.’
The driver turned to Malcolm and smiled. ‘Your car will be here soon to pick you up. I’m looking forward to talking to you once I’ve dropped her off.’ ‘Thank you. – What’s your name?’ Malcolm replied ‘Gabriel.’ the driver replied.
Gabriel led the girl away just as she got to the door Malcolm sprang up off his chair and over the bustle and noise shouted to the girl. ‘Have Fun!’ the girl looked in his direction and smiled. she then mouthed back to him, the words ‘Will Do.’ once she had gone Malcolm sat back down, and muttered to himself ‘And good luck.’