Chapter Two--Preview

I was in Heaven. The Heaven. The one I’d been learning about for years in Sunday school and Bible camp. It was beyond my wildest imagination. I was standing barefoot, on an endless landscape of dazzlingly clouds.

Excitement pulsed through my blood! There was only one reason for me to be in Heaven. God was granting me the chance to answer all of my questions about my parent's marriage problems personally.

The clouds cushioned my feet as I jogged towards the Pearly Gates towering in the distance. I stopped twenty yards from the entrance as the gate swung open. In the distance, an infinitesimal black speck tarnished the horizon.

I stood frozen in place, squinting at the mysterious figure approaching. “Could it be?” I thought. “Was it actually Him?” My palms started to sweat. I stood paralyzed with joyful expectation. It was God; I knew it.

As the figure drew closer, I noticed the Lord’s peculiar gate. He toddled towards me, swaying from the left and right. I watched in curiosity and thought, “He certainly isn’t as tall as I thought He’d be.”

At a hundred feet away my mouth dropped and eyes goggled as the creature continued to waddle towards me. It stood in front of me with a vacant expression in its beady eyes.

I stared at it.
It stared at me.
It was not God. It happened to be a penguin.

“What is a bird doing in Heaven?” I thought. “I need to talk to God.”

The penguin craned his neck and met my bewildered gaze.

“What the—”

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!” The penguin squawked, flapping its wings rhythmically to match its piercing cry.

I covered my ears, attempting to block out the sound. It was useless. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!” it continued impassive to my growing irritation.

Searching the empty expanse of Heaven for help, I screamed, “Will someone get that penguin!?”

“Shudioff,” my brother slurred through a tangle of blankets and sheets.

“Whuh?” I replied hazily, blinking my eyes.

“Shut the alarm off!”

Emerging in my darkened bedroom and fumbling with my chirping alarm clock I realized I was no longer, knock-knock-knockin’ on Heaven’s door. I was groping for the snooze button on the blasted alarm clock.

The memories of the previous night came rushing back. My stomach sank. I sighed and begrudgingly got out of bed. I stumbled towards the bathroom, bumping into the doorframe before stepping into the hallway. My parents’ bedroom door was open, and the room was empty. My dad had already left for work, without waking me up and saying, “good morning.”

My pajamas hit the linoleum floor of the bathroom as I stepped under the nozzle of the shower. The water gurgled and unleashed an icy torrent of water.

“What am I going to do?” I asked, letting steam swirl around me in undulating clouds, before stepping under the water. The envelope of mist allowed me to see my thoughts in perfect clarity. I resumed my prayer from the night before. “God, please help my parents. I don’t want them to fight anymore. Please.” My prayers amounted to nothing, as they usually did during that time.