The Annual Heavenly Cocktail Party
It was ‘The Annual Heavenly Cocktail Party’ and with Jesus as the host, the margaritas multiplied with terrific speed, and kept coming. Josh had died not so long ago in a rather embarrassing skiing accident and was finally coming to terms with the rules and customs of Heaven.
At this particular moment, Josh finds himself between a 19th century Irish woman and a 17th century French nobleman. With the conversation at a standstill, and aware of the fun being had all around, Mrs. O’Farrell breaks the awkward silence.
“So Josh”, Molly fumbles, “do tell us how you came to pass?”
This was the most common ice-breaker when meeting someone new in the hereafter, but Josh had learnt to tactfully divert the conversation(and understandably so as his death was in fact really, really funny).
“Never mind that, it really is rather boring, but I will privy you to an even better story, about the first time I met J.C., our most holy ‘Host’ for tonight’s grand occasion.”
“You met ze son of God!” Pierre spat rudely. “ I can ‘ardly believe a word of ‘eet.”
“Do you think everyone can just go around telling lies in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
“Good point”, the Frenchman conceded, allowing Josh to carry on with the tale he had recited countless times before.
In a corner of the Grand Ballroom, before Molly and Pierre both, and amidst the glitter and bliss; The following account was revealed, only to be lost amongst the drunken, swirling masses:
“I had just died, and seeing as I was still going through orientation, Heaven was full of new, crazy experiences and surprises at every corner. One day, I found myself wandering about, and not knowing who was who, or what was where, I inadvertently stepped in to a room, whose unmarked door was also unlocked.
“Who goes there?” a voice bellowed a small ways into the room. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but when they did, I’ll be damned if Jesus was not three meters in front of me, standing over a poker table seating five or six figures.
“Oh my…Oh my you…” I stuttered, looking down for fear of gazing straight into the face of God.
“Hellooo? What is wrong with you?” he asked.
“Nothing, sir. My name is Joshua, and well I just passed away. I’m so sorry I disturbed you, please have mercy on me.”
“Relax, I once had a good friend named Joshua. Look at his reverence fellas, sometimes I just love this job”.
A small chuckle broke from the table and with all eyes seemingly on me, I froze, wanting so badly to quietly slip out the way I came in.
“Do you play cards?”
“Excuse me?”
“No, no of course you don’t”. He seemed to pause for a second in thought. “Come Josh, take a seat next to me, and meet the guys”.
The gentleness of his voice allowed me to overcome my initial trepidation, but he was also right about me not knowing cards all that well. It’s funny though, because I remember exactly what I thought of in that moment. I’m dead. What have I to lose?
And so I took a seat with Jesus to my left, and to my astonishment, an Elvis Presley look alike slumped in a chair to my right.
“How do ya do, fella?” Elvis mumbled.
“Are you sure your dead?” I swear I couldn’t help myself, and well, he did look like he was in the prime of his life.
“ ‘Fraid so, I’m the real deal, kid”. He slumped down further in a manner that suggested he would rather be somewhere else.
“Can vee get on vit ze game now!?” It was a small, unkempt, and passionate looking man sitting directly across from me. I recognized his face, but could not put a name to it. From the tone of his voice you could tell he was upset about being disturbed.
“One moment Karl, our new friend here doesn’t have any chips to play with, now does he?” This voice came from the man sandwiched between Jesus and Marx. Now this chap I recognized from a ten-pound note. Charles Darwin, the naturalist who went to those islands and discovered all those funny animals? Well now I’m sure you’ve heard of him. When it clicked, I almost choked in disbelief; Charles Darwin was sitting next to Karl Marx. As if that wasn’t odd enough, Leonardo DaVinci was sitting in the last seat, jotting fervently, and completely unaware of my intrusion into the game.
“Calm down, Karl, the kid seems to have an honest face. Tell you what, I’ll spot him for the time being, any objections?” It was Jesus, covering for me yet again.
“Dat is fine, now Charles, Hurry up and deal!”
As if by magic, when I looked down, a large stack of chips had materialized. I looked up to see J.C., (as he later told me to call him), flash me a wink, and with that the game was on.
Now, this may boil down to Jesus just being a really nice guy, but let me tell you, he is one crappy card player. What I thought most odd however, was the way in which Karl Marx, of all people, was taking such advantage of this fact.
Now, I’m an amateur myself, and had decided all along to lay low and just take in the conversation, but I couldn’t help but laugh when Marx took a giant pot off of J.C. and burst into a fit of laughter.
“Haha! Haha! Look at de vay I crush you in dees game! I am so good, I win everything and you are left vith nothing but de cheeps I don’t vant!”
Little did he know however, that Jesus himself, was secretly multiplying his own stack of chips when no one was looking. Or rather when he thought nobody was looking, but I guess he wasn’t used to having a scrawny fellow like me sitting right next to him, In any case it all made for a rather funny scene.
I was keeping rather quiet, and feeling so humbled by my company, focused mainly on keeping the attention off of myself. As hard as I tried however, Darwin and Jesus both persisted in asking me questions, to satisfy their curiosity.
“So why did you seem scared of me?” That one was Jesus.
“What did you do with your life?” Darwin.
“What are they telling you about me down there anyway?”
“Did you discover any new species?”
Luckily, Leonardo seemed to be completely absorbed in his notebook and Elvis was far too busy eating a ham sandwich to bother about the game, or my affairs for that matter.
“What’s the deal with him?” I asked Jesus, motioning to Da inci, who didn’t bother looking up. “Doesn’t say much, does he?”
“Oh, he’s not so bad to have around. Leo got into Heaven through a clause in the Constitution. Basically, he’s here because he made me look compassionate to humanity, yet strong enough to kick some ass if I wanted to. He gave me the face you imagined and see right now. He did a pretty good job if I say so myself, and on a side note my hair is incredibly smooth and silky.”
“And Elvis?”
“Ever heard of the song ‘A Big Hunk O’ Love’? Well its awesome…Oh don’t give me that look, like you don’t have any skeletons in your closet.”
To my right, a deep, yet clear voice, crooned:
“Baby, I ain't askin' much of you
Just a big-a big-a hunk o' love will do”
“Not bad”, I admitted.
“Why thank you, thank you very much”.
The game went on and on for I don’t know how long, until this incredible hand came up to which I will never for the rest of my life…err, well I will never forget it”.
Darwin was dealing, and by this point the game appeared to be in its final stages, with Elvis slumped back and nearly asleep in his chair. If I remember correctly I was up a little by this point, but if I did not mention it before, the big winner on the night had definitely been Karl Marx, who had just about cleaned out the rest of the table.
“I vill take it all vith my skills!” quipped Marx tossing a rather large raise into the middle of the table. Da Vinci and Elvis both passed, which had become custom when faced with a big bet, and so the action was on me. I looked down only to see a pair of Queens looking straight back at me.
“Well, I suppose I will call. How much was that Karl?”
“More den you can afford by de time dis is over”.
I knew the guy liked poker, and apparently winning, but now he was just getting on my nerves, so I counted out my chips and matched his bet.
With the action on J.C. he looked down analysing his cards for two seconds before tossing them into the middle.
“Too rich for my blood”.
Charles Darwin, who was dealing and last to act, seemed to have the same idea and by the time he folded his cards I had unexpectedly gotten myself into a large pot with the aggressive German.
I wish I knew if he had the cards, or was just being a bully, but right from the start he tried to push me out of the hand.
“I raise! I vood get out now if I vas you…” I really could not tell if he had it or was just bluffing.
I decided that my hand was good enough to continue, so I once again matched his bet.
“Just to keep you honest” I said to Karl, which evoked a small laugh from the guys at the table who were still awake.
And that is when it happened and my heart froze in place, if only a moment.
Darwin dealt the last card and it just so happened to be a beautiful third queen.
With my head pounding, and figuring out how I should go about playing the hand, my concentration was snapped, once again, from the seat across from me.
“Get avay from dis vone… I am telling you it is nooo good for you”
The moment that Karl saw the effect his words had on me, he pounced like a predator going for the kill.
“I go ALL-IN! I push it all. Vat do you think of dat, Mr. Joshua?” And believe it or not the bastard actually smiled at me.
I froze. I thought of the fact that I was already stuck deeper than I had wanted to be, and on top of that I was playing on Jesus’ credit. My queens were no longer looking invincible. As I pondered the call, while gazing blankly at Marx’s stacks upon towers of chips, it occurred to me that there was no chance I had enough to cover his bet.
“Time!” I called and turned to my left, as if asking Jesus for guidance.
“Sure, sure. It’s always the same with you people. Whenever you’re stuck gambling you always come a runnin’ but when there’s a church bake sale? Nowhere to be seen.”
He was joking of course, but I was too wound up to laugh at that moment.
“I cannot cover his bet, and I am playing with your bounty.” I said. “ I feel that this is not fully my decision to make.”
He looked straight into my eyes. It felt as if he was looking beyond that though, and he could have been. He may have been looking straight into my soul, but the tenderness and sympathy that went along with it, put me at ease and cleared my head.
“Do you think you have him?” Jesus asked me as straightforward as possible.
“Vat is dis!? No helping at all, I vill not stand for it.”
“Give me one second, Karl.” And at Jesus’ command, Marx fell silent at once.
“Do you think you have him?” he repeated to me.
I tried to go over all of the possibilities, good and bad, before I went with my gut instinct.
“I believe I do” I answered flatly.
So Jesus stands, knocking back the table a little bit and rousing Elvis, who had been drifting into another cat nap.
“Well then, let’s make this a bit more interesting, shall we?”
At this comment I could have sworn I saw Marx’s eyebrow jump up a bit in curiosity.
“Vat do you have in mind?” he enquired.
“Well, we seem to have a problem seeing as you raised well more than our new friend Joshua can cover. I propose, as long as nobody opposes, that the winner of this hand shall remain in thy kingdom of heaven, while the loser must depart, and relinquish their soul to the fiery depths of hell”.
At the way in which he pronounced these final words, my heart skipped a beat. The table fell into an abrupt silence that was broken by Jesus now mocking tone:
“Unless of course, Karl, you are no longer as confident in your hand, and wish to reconsider your wager?”
As if being challenged, Marx spat back “ Of course not! I accept if he has de nerve”.
I looked to Jesus with a lump in my throat and the eyes of a deer in headlights.
“Trust yourself Joshua, you have had faith all along. Why pick right now to throw it all out the window?”
So without a word, and without moving my eyes from his, I simply nodded my consent while pushing the remainder of my chips into the middle of the table.
“I call. I have three Queens”. There followed the longest three seconds of my entire afterlife.
Karl Marx looked down at his cards once, then at the centre of the table, then with a look of disgust, up into my face.
“They are good” he spat, and tossed his cards into the muck, hiding to this day what his losing hand was.
The game was over, and I couldn’t help but feel terribly guilty when Karl shook my hand and muttered something inaudible, which I hope was “good game” or “ nice play”. With the five of us solemnly watching he walked to a separate door, which I had not noticed earlier, and with one last look back, opened it and stepped inside. I can’t be sure, but I could have sworn I saw the shadows of dancing flames in the time it took for him to open, step through, and shut the door behind him.
“That cat looked all shook up”. It was Elvis. He wasn’t smiling but had also obviously had enough and was preparing to take off.
I was still shaken up a bit but the next thing I remember was when the room had cleared out save for myself and J.C. In the confusion of what had just occurred, I could not stop myself from asking him why.
“Can you just gamble with people’s souls like that? It cannot be that simple. Tell me it’s not all that meaningless…”
“Gambling! Ha! Oh Josh, I would hardly call it gambling. What happened, happened for a rather simple reason I suppose, but I would not for a moment call it meaningless. I am Omnipotent Josh. I always knew who would win. It’s funny, because we pull that same trick on old Karl every week and as smart as he is, he has not figured it out yet. Every week, ALL IN! and bam, someone sends him packing through that ‘other’ door. You had faith all along, you believed me when I told you to sit and join us, you accepted my advice, and did not waver when I proposed that wager on your behalf. Karl spent his life refusing to accept me, and the bastard still has the tenacity to question me in the afterlife!
I have faith that one day he will come around, but do know that I do not gamble with souls, I merely have some fun in picking the good from the bad”.
The looks of disbelief and amazement on the faces of Pierre and Molly were two of the best reactions Josh had ever received in response to his tale.
“Zat bastard German! Ze gall not to even show you ees ‘and!”
“Oh what a fantastic story Josh! I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the sincerity of your voice. I never have heard of this Elvis character, or ‘head..lights’ for that matter but yes, a truly lovely story indeed”.
Downing the last bit of his drink, and picking up a daiquiri, Pierre looked up at Josh.
“So dees Jesus, eez a nice guy in person, eh?”
“You wouldn’t believe. It’s surprising, as much as he claims to not know what’s going on down there, he seems pretty down to earth”.
And the three once more looked down into their drinks and around them, people continued asking each other, “ How did you die?” or “ How many grandchildren did you have?”
Pierre and Molly each thought respectively, that this year’s ‘Annual Heavenly Cocktail Party’ was quite similar to last years, and that it had been a long, long while since they had heard such an entertaining story.
Josh, already a bit drunk, thought of how incredibly bored he had become, and wondered how many more times he could tell that goddamn story to people who had never heard of Elvis.
At this particular moment, Josh finds himself between a 19th century Irish woman and a 17th century French nobleman. With the conversation at a standstill, and aware of the fun being had all around, Mrs. O’Farrell breaks the awkward silence.
“So Josh”, Molly fumbles, “do tell us how you came to pass?”
This was the most common ice-breaker when meeting someone new in the hereafter, but Josh had learnt to tactfully divert the conversation(and understandably so as his death was in fact really, really funny).
“Never mind that, it really is rather boring, but I will privy you to an even better story, about the first time I met J.C., our most holy ‘Host’ for tonight’s grand occasion.”
“You met ze son of God!” Pierre spat rudely. “ I can ‘ardly believe a word of ‘eet.”
“Do you think everyone can just go around telling lies in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
“Good point”, the Frenchman conceded, allowing Josh to carry on with the tale he had recited countless times before.
In a corner of the Grand Ballroom, before Molly and Pierre both, and amidst the glitter and bliss; The following account was revealed, only to be lost amongst the drunken, swirling masses:
“I had just died, and seeing as I was still going through orientation, Heaven was full of new, crazy experiences and surprises at every corner. One day, I found myself wandering about, and not knowing who was who, or what was where, I inadvertently stepped in to a room, whose unmarked door was also unlocked.
“Who goes there?” a voice bellowed a small ways into the room. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but when they did, I’ll be damned if Jesus was not three meters in front of me, standing over a poker table seating five or six figures.
“Oh my…Oh my you…” I stuttered, looking down for fear of gazing straight into the face of God.
“Hellooo? What is wrong with you?” he asked.
“Nothing, sir. My name is Joshua, and well I just passed away. I’m so sorry I disturbed you, please have mercy on me.”
“Relax, I once had a good friend named Joshua. Look at his reverence fellas, sometimes I just love this job”.
A small chuckle broke from the table and with all eyes seemingly on me, I froze, wanting so badly to quietly slip out the way I came in.
“Do you play cards?”
“Excuse me?”
“No, no of course you don’t”. He seemed to pause for a second in thought. “Come Josh, take a seat next to me, and meet the guys”.
The gentleness of his voice allowed me to overcome my initial trepidation, but he was also right about me not knowing cards all that well. It’s funny though, because I remember exactly what I thought of in that moment. I’m dead. What have I to lose?
And so I took a seat with Jesus to my left, and to my astonishment, an Elvis Presley look alike slumped in a chair to my right.
“How do ya do, fella?” Elvis mumbled.
“Are you sure your dead?” I swear I couldn’t help myself, and well, he did look like he was in the prime of his life.
“ ‘Fraid so, I’m the real deal, kid”. He slumped down further in a manner that suggested he would rather be somewhere else.
“Can vee get on vit ze game now!?” It was a small, unkempt, and passionate looking man sitting directly across from me. I recognized his face, but could not put a name to it. From the tone of his voice you could tell he was upset about being disturbed.
“One moment Karl, our new friend here doesn’t have any chips to play with, now does he?” This voice came from the man sandwiched between Jesus and Marx. Now this chap I recognized from a ten-pound note. Charles Darwin, the naturalist who went to those islands and discovered all those funny animals? Well now I’m sure you’ve heard of him. When it clicked, I almost choked in disbelief; Charles Darwin was sitting next to Karl Marx. As if that wasn’t odd enough, Leonardo DaVinci was sitting in the last seat, jotting fervently, and completely unaware of my intrusion into the game.
“Calm down, Karl, the kid seems to have an honest face. Tell you what, I’ll spot him for the time being, any objections?” It was Jesus, covering for me yet again.
“Dat is fine, now Charles, Hurry up and deal!”
As if by magic, when I looked down, a large stack of chips had materialized. I looked up to see J.C., (as he later told me to call him), flash me a wink, and with that the game was on.
Now, this may boil down to Jesus just being a really nice guy, but let me tell you, he is one crappy card player. What I thought most odd however, was the way in which Karl Marx, of all people, was taking such advantage of this fact.
Now, I’m an amateur myself, and had decided all along to lay low and just take in the conversation, but I couldn’t help but laugh when Marx took a giant pot off of J.C. and burst into a fit of laughter.
“Haha! Haha! Look at de vay I crush you in dees game! I am so good, I win everything and you are left vith nothing but de cheeps I don’t vant!”
Little did he know however, that Jesus himself, was secretly multiplying his own stack of chips when no one was looking. Or rather when he thought nobody was looking, but I guess he wasn’t used to having a scrawny fellow like me sitting right next to him, In any case it all made for a rather funny scene.
I was keeping rather quiet, and feeling so humbled by my company, focused mainly on keeping the attention off of myself. As hard as I tried however, Darwin and Jesus both persisted in asking me questions, to satisfy their curiosity.
“So why did you seem scared of me?” That one was Jesus.
“What did you do with your life?” Darwin.
“What are they telling you about me down there anyway?”
“Did you discover any new species?”
Luckily, Leonardo seemed to be completely absorbed in his notebook and Elvis was far too busy eating a ham sandwich to bother about the game, or my affairs for that matter.
“What’s the deal with him?” I asked Jesus, motioning to Da inci, who didn’t bother looking up. “Doesn’t say much, does he?”
“Oh, he’s not so bad to have around. Leo got into Heaven through a clause in the Constitution. Basically, he’s here because he made me look compassionate to humanity, yet strong enough to kick some ass if I wanted to. He gave me the face you imagined and see right now. He did a pretty good job if I say so myself, and on a side note my hair is incredibly smooth and silky.”
“And Elvis?”
“Ever heard of the song ‘A Big Hunk O’ Love’? Well its awesome…Oh don’t give me that look, like you don’t have any skeletons in your closet.”
To my right, a deep, yet clear voice, crooned:
“Baby, I ain't askin' much of you
Just a big-a big-a hunk o' love will do”
“Not bad”, I admitted.
“Why thank you, thank you very much”.
The game went on and on for I don’t know how long, until this incredible hand came up to which I will never for the rest of my life…err, well I will never forget it”.
Darwin was dealing, and by this point the game appeared to be in its final stages, with Elvis slumped back and nearly asleep in his chair. If I remember correctly I was up a little by this point, but if I did not mention it before, the big winner on the night had definitely been Karl Marx, who had just about cleaned out the rest of the table.
“I vill take it all vith my skills!” quipped Marx tossing a rather large raise into the middle of the table. Da Vinci and Elvis both passed, which had become custom when faced with a big bet, and so the action was on me. I looked down only to see a pair of Queens looking straight back at me.
“Well, I suppose I will call. How much was that Karl?”
“More den you can afford by de time dis is over”.
I knew the guy liked poker, and apparently winning, but now he was just getting on my nerves, so I counted out my chips and matched his bet.
With the action on J.C. he looked down analysing his cards for two seconds before tossing them into the middle.
“Too rich for my blood”.
Charles Darwin, who was dealing and last to act, seemed to have the same idea and by the time he folded his cards I had unexpectedly gotten myself into a large pot with the aggressive German.
I wish I knew if he had the cards, or was just being a bully, but right from the start he tried to push me out of the hand.
“I raise! I vood get out now if I vas you…” I really could not tell if he had it or was just bluffing.
I decided that my hand was good enough to continue, so I once again matched his bet.
“Just to keep you honest” I said to Karl, which evoked a small laugh from the guys at the table who were still awake.
And that is when it happened and my heart froze in place, if only a moment.
Darwin dealt the last card and it just so happened to be a beautiful third queen.
With my head pounding, and figuring out how I should go about playing the hand, my concentration was snapped, once again, from the seat across from me.
“Get avay from dis vone… I am telling you it is nooo good for you”
The moment that Karl saw the effect his words had on me, he pounced like a predator going for the kill.
“I go ALL-IN! I push it all. Vat do you think of dat, Mr. Joshua?” And believe it or not the bastard actually smiled at me.
I froze. I thought of the fact that I was already stuck deeper than I had wanted to be, and on top of that I was playing on Jesus’ credit. My queens were no longer looking invincible. As I pondered the call, while gazing blankly at Marx’s stacks upon towers of chips, it occurred to me that there was no chance I had enough to cover his bet.
“Time!” I called and turned to my left, as if asking Jesus for guidance.
“Sure, sure. It’s always the same with you people. Whenever you’re stuck gambling you always come a runnin’ but when there’s a church bake sale? Nowhere to be seen.”
He was joking of course, but I was too wound up to laugh at that moment.
“I cannot cover his bet, and I am playing with your bounty.” I said. “ I feel that this is not fully my decision to make.”
He looked straight into my eyes. It felt as if he was looking beyond that though, and he could have been. He may have been looking straight into my soul, but the tenderness and sympathy that went along with it, put me at ease and cleared my head.
“Do you think you have him?” Jesus asked me as straightforward as possible.
“Vat is dis!? No helping at all, I vill not stand for it.”
“Give me one second, Karl.” And at Jesus’ command, Marx fell silent at once.
“Do you think you have him?” he repeated to me.
I tried to go over all of the possibilities, good and bad, before I went with my gut instinct.
“I believe I do” I answered flatly.
So Jesus stands, knocking back the table a little bit and rousing Elvis, who had been drifting into another cat nap.
“Well then, let’s make this a bit more interesting, shall we?”
At this comment I could have sworn I saw Marx’s eyebrow jump up a bit in curiosity.
“Vat do you have in mind?” he enquired.
“Well, we seem to have a problem seeing as you raised well more than our new friend Joshua can cover. I propose, as long as nobody opposes, that the winner of this hand shall remain in thy kingdom of heaven, while the loser must depart, and relinquish their soul to the fiery depths of hell”.
At the way in which he pronounced these final words, my heart skipped a beat. The table fell into an abrupt silence that was broken by Jesus now mocking tone:
“Unless of course, Karl, you are no longer as confident in your hand, and wish to reconsider your wager?”
As if being challenged, Marx spat back “ Of course not! I accept if he has de nerve”.
I looked to Jesus with a lump in my throat and the eyes of a deer in headlights.
“Trust yourself Joshua, you have had faith all along. Why pick right now to throw it all out the window?”
So without a word, and without moving my eyes from his, I simply nodded my consent while pushing the remainder of my chips into the middle of the table.
“I call. I have three Queens”. There followed the longest three seconds of my entire afterlife.
Karl Marx looked down at his cards once, then at the centre of the table, then with a look of disgust, up into my face.
“They are good” he spat, and tossed his cards into the muck, hiding to this day what his losing hand was.
The game was over, and I couldn’t help but feel terribly guilty when Karl shook my hand and muttered something inaudible, which I hope was “good game” or “ nice play”. With the five of us solemnly watching he walked to a separate door, which I had not noticed earlier, and with one last look back, opened it and stepped inside. I can’t be sure, but I could have sworn I saw the shadows of dancing flames in the time it took for him to open, step through, and shut the door behind him.
“That cat looked all shook up”. It was Elvis. He wasn’t smiling but had also obviously had enough and was preparing to take off.
I was still shaken up a bit but the next thing I remember was when the room had cleared out save for myself and J.C. In the confusion of what had just occurred, I could not stop myself from asking him why.
“Can you just gamble with people’s souls like that? It cannot be that simple. Tell me it’s not all that meaningless…”
“Gambling! Ha! Oh Josh, I would hardly call it gambling. What happened, happened for a rather simple reason I suppose, but I would not for a moment call it meaningless. I am Omnipotent Josh. I always knew who would win. It’s funny, because we pull that same trick on old Karl every week and as smart as he is, he has not figured it out yet. Every week, ALL IN! and bam, someone sends him packing through that ‘other’ door. You had faith all along, you believed me when I told you to sit and join us, you accepted my advice, and did not waver when I proposed that wager on your behalf. Karl spent his life refusing to accept me, and the bastard still has the tenacity to question me in the afterlife!
I have faith that one day he will come around, but do know that I do not gamble with souls, I merely have some fun in picking the good from the bad”.
The looks of disbelief and amazement on the faces of Pierre and Molly were two of the best reactions Josh had ever received in response to his tale.
“Zat bastard German! Ze gall not to even show you ees ‘and!”
“Oh what a fantastic story Josh! I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the sincerity of your voice. I never have heard of this Elvis character, or ‘head..lights’ for that matter but yes, a truly lovely story indeed”.
Downing the last bit of his drink, and picking up a daiquiri, Pierre looked up at Josh.
“So dees Jesus, eez a nice guy in person, eh?”
“You wouldn’t believe. It’s surprising, as much as he claims to not know what’s going on down there, he seems pretty down to earth”.
And the three once more looked down into their drinks and around them, people continued asking each other, “ How did you die?” or “ How many grandchildren did you have?”
Pierre and Molly each thought respectively, that this year’s ‘Annual Heavenly Cocktail Party’ was quite similar to last years, and that it had been a long, long while since they had heard such an entertaining story.
Josh, already a bit drunk, thought of how incredibly bored he had become, and wondered how many more times he could tell that goddamn story to people who had never heard of Elvis.