I’ve always hated waiting rooms. They have this air of nervous apprehension. This one was filled with a tense silence, save for the occasional call of a name.

I sat alone in a corner, thinking about the events that had led to my being here. Looking around the room, I wondered the same of others. Some were obvious, you could tell just by looking at them how they got here. Others were harder to place. Curiosity would’ve had me leaning against the closed doors to find out more about the people behind them but that was undeniably inappropriate.

I waited and listened to the names called out around me.

‘Jason Riley’ hobbled into one of the rooms slowly, taking care to step gingerly on the nonfunctional leg.

‘Kelly Maguire’ seemed no worse for wear on the outside and strode into her room with an air of confidence.

‘Sam Evans’ looked barely ten years old. He walked into his room with one of the staff members as no parents had arrived with him.

Finally I heard my name, ‘Harry Waterston’. I followed the man who had called into the room and sat in a small plastic chair provided for me. The man sat across from me in a comfortable leather armchair. We sat in silence as he flicked through my notes.

“Hmm it says here that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest?”

“Yes sir.” I answered, pulling down my T-shirt to show where the bullet had entered my body, piercing my heart upon impact.

“Nice clean shot by the looks of it! Anyway we’ll get that sorted out for you.” With a wave of his hand, the bullet hole in my chest disappeared. “There’ll be no room for pain where you’re going.” He said smiling at me.

I hoped this was a good sign. The nervousness began eating away at me again as I waited for his next words. He shuffled through my notes again and then looked up at me. “Yes, yes, Harry. This all looks good. From what I can see, you’ve lived a good life. For that reason I can sign your papers and get you through into Heaven in no time at all.” He smile since more and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Of course, I shouldn’t have been worried, but all the same, I was glad I could finally move on to peace.