Chapter 13
Heaven
Bruce felt the feeling of movement, but could only see the bright, blinding light around him. He could no longer see Pneumono, as the light was too bright for Bruce to see a person who was standing close enough for Bruce to touch.
Bruce reached over to where he thought Pneumono was for reassurance, but he soon found that his ability to move had been restricted by a strong force. Normally, Bruce would be stressing out about his lack of control, as anxiety was one of Bruce's many disabilities, but the light felt warm and comfortable. It made Bruce feel welcome and happy, he didn't really want to leave the light, but knew he would have to when he and Pneumono finished their journey to heaven.
A couple of minutes later, the light that encompassed Bruce, began to fade. He was now able to see Pneumono, who was standing close to him, so they could both fit in the teleporter. Bruce started to wriggle his fingers, then was soon able to move his entire body. When the light fully dissipated, Bruce looked over at Pneumono and Pneumono looked at Bruce. They were in heaven.
Bruce looked around the place that so many people would talk about. Heaven, so far, was just the teleporter that Bruce and Pneumono stood on, and the vast wasteland of clouds. Bruce used the tip of his right toe to check if the clouds were stable enough to stand on. As soon as his foot touched the fluffy-looking water vapour, it hit hard ground, like concrete, but it looked like fairy floss. When Bruce had both of his feet stable on the ground, he and Pneumono noticed a strange gate situated off in the distance. "Why is there a gate up here?" Pneumono asked. "Maybe it is the gates of heaven, the one that is guarded by St Peter," Bruce responded.
"Never heard of it" Pneumono concluded as the two of them walked over to the protruding structure in the distance.
When they arrived at the gates, there was an old man sitting on a chair, taking a nap. Pneumono walked over to the man and tried to wake him up.
While Pneumono was doing that, Bruce inspected the gates that were in the middle of nowhere. "They aren't even protecting anything as I can just walk around them," Bruce said to himself quietly. The gates were white and embroidered with small pearls and small details made of gold. Small lines for aesthetics crept through the design of the gates. Bruce looked through a gap in between the white bars, he could see an entire city made of pearls and gold. But when Bruce went around the gates there was nothing.
Pneumono had less luck trying to wake the man up, so they helped Bruce to try and open the gates after Bruce had explained his observations. As soon as they touched the gates, the man woke up with a scream, so deafening in fact, that it forced Bruce and Pneumono to the floor with their hands over their ears. The man looked at them and stopped screaming, "Oh sorry, I thought you were Lucifer, he is always trying to get into heaven… So, who are you, and how did you die?" The man asked with a kind, yet raspy voice. "I am Bruce, and this is Pneumono. We didn't die, we just used that teleporter over there." Bruce replied.
"Oh, living mortals aren't allowed in heaven. So please leave." The man ordered.
"We have to get in there, or else the world will end." Bruce continued, ignoring the man's request for them to leave.
"The world? I left that place ages ago, now I just protect heaven from people like you who accidentally find the teleporter and try and get into the realm of the gods. I also judge people's lives to see if I must send them to hell, but that doesn't matter." The man responded.
"If the world ends, there will be no mortals left to die, so all you will be doing is protecting heaven from Lucifer, and that will get boring… wait, are you Saint Peter?" Bruce asked in the middle of his explanation.
"Who else protects the gates of heaven?" St Peter rhetorically answered.
"Then we don't need to trouble you," Bruce concluded, scared of the fact that he had been arguing with such a famous saint. "We can't afford to leave now, we finally know where the god is," Pneumono said, grabbing Bruce by the arm to stop him from heading back to the teleporter. "What if we ask St Peter to send a request to bring the god out" Bruce quarried, mentally patting himself on the back for having such a good idea. "Yeah, okay. Let's do that." Pneumono agreed as Bruce reapproached St Peter. "What do you want now?" St Peter grumpily reacted as Bruce walked back to him, "Can you ask if the god of onions and bananas can come out for a bit?" Bruce said nervously. The saint thought for a moment. "Okay," St Peter stated as he turned around and pressed some buttons on a control pad. "He will be here soon."