It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. Father was reading a newspaper, sitting on a rocking
chair. Mother, Julie and Aliza were in the kitchen, gossiping and laughing while cooking
breakfast. The children were playing hide and seek in the garden. Arthur is riding a horse out in
the yard. Horse riding has always been one of his hobbies. Two servants were mopping the
floors of the villa. Another servant was feeding the sheeps.
Albert was on the roof, basking in the lukewarm sun rays of the morning. Blowing cold breeze
sent shivers down his spine. The fresh chill air of the morning flowing through his nostrils fills
him up with new spirits. Although he had a newspaper on his hands, he wasn't exactly reading
it. He had no worries about the outside world for as long as he had this piece of sanctuary he
had built.
The kids had decided to enlarge the area of hiding since it was too easy to catch in the garden.
Besides, there wasn't much place to hide in the garden to begin with. They decided to include
the house as well. First it was Kevin's turn as the seeker while Sharon, Anny and Sonia hid.
Sonia decided to hide on the roof. She hid in a corner, Albert was still on the roof. He walked up
to her, bent his knees sitting in front of her. "Are you having fun?" he asked. "Yes, we are playing
hide & seek, but I have not won a single time yet!" "Humm, don't worry I'll tell them you are not
here when they come" replied Albert. "But mamma says lying is bad" said Sonia. "Don't you
want to win?" replied Albert. "but..." Sonia nodded but was stopped mid sentence by Albert "You
like sweets, Sonia?" She nodded. "Bitterness of medicine?" Sonia shook her head.
"Now would you like to take the medicine raw or if we mix it with sweets so you don't taste the
bitterness?"
"Umm...sweets"
"So wouldn't you like the sweet lies more than the bitter truth?" Albert picked her up in his arms
while saying.
"Well you don't need to answer now; think about it when you grow up"
Sonia had noticed that uncle Albert was the only person who had warmth other than her. It's not
like she never noticed any warm person before, no, her parents were warm before they decided
to come here. It was that one night she had listened to her sister screaming for instance. She
was curious what had happened but her body didn't want to get out of bed so she fell asleep
soon again. It was after that night that they had decided to come here, and since then no one
she met was warm except for uncle Albert. So she decided to ask curiously "Uncle why only you
and I are warm?"
Albert paused for a second and thought, then he replied "Some people are radiant, like the sun.
The purpose of their life is to bring warmth to those around them."
"Are you happy here?" asked Albert but before she could respond the other kids had entered
the roof and Kevin shouted "Found you!".
Albert put Sonia down and announced "We are leaving for the church and after prayer, Father, I
and Arthur are leaving for a hunt. I promise you we will have a feast tonight! Is there anything
you want from the market?"
"Yogurt" said Anne.
"Frozen deserts" said Sonia and Sharon.
"Candies!" shouted Kevin.
After returning from the hunt, they had brought back a wild boar, a deer, two rabbits and a bird.
Mother, Julie and Aliza were all busy cooking all evening, although they had servants, still they
cooked the meal as Albert and Arthur won't eat the maid's cooking. The servants still provided
help otherwise it wasn't possible to prepare this much food in this short period of time.
At late night, the food was finally ready on the dinner table. The whole family sat together. Albert
stood up with the wine in his hand, "I can't express in words how happy I am at this moment. If I
begin to explain all the words ever spoken by all humans across history would fall short!"
He took a look at everyone at the table. Mother was sitting with the deer's tender meat, she was
on his left. On his right sat Julie, she had the rabbit. Besides mother sat all the kids, Kevin was
playing with his food, Sharon still choosing. Anne waited for his speech to end, Sonia was still
choosing as well. And besides Julie sat Aliza, they had the same dish. Beside Aliza sat Arthur,
he had the boar. And the opposite of him sat father, having the wine in his hand as well.
"Thank you all for being in my life, if I could be born again I would choose to be born here again.
Thank you all there in my peak and my low. This house I've built here might be the closest thing
to heaven, we may reunite in the Lord's kingdom again."
Tears had welled up in his eyes. "Praise the Lord." Saying this he took a sip from his wine and
everybody started their dinner. Albert just stared at the sight. This was his heaven on earth.
THE END
[Author's note: The last chapter may beg the question: how much free will the reanimated has?
And the answer is as much as Albert wants.]